JJ Giltinan Trophy - Kiwis praying for anything but a light easterly

by Richard Gladwell Sail-World.com on 19 Feb 2016 A tricky easterly breeze asked plenty of questions of the New Zealand crews in Race 5 of the JJ Giltinan Trophy, and a few of the locals as well.

In the end, the results had little impact on the overall standings, although it did open up the points table somewhat, adding a bit of separation and making the task of winning the series that much harder for some of the crews just off the podium.

For all the top boats they cannot afford another poor place, as most already have a significant discard in their nett points score.

After getting clean starts in the last two races, the NZ champion, Yamaha was in the front row at the start but got swamped by a bunch of port-tackers who came off the pin quite well.

'We didn't get the usual jump at the start, but came back into it quite well,' skipper David McDiarmid told Sail-World. 'But we got back into it on the first work and got into the top six or so at the halfway point. We then started going backwards at the rate of knots and rounded the top mark in 15th.'

'We went even worse on the run and round the bottom mark on second to last position.

'We did a whole lap in that position, and then up the final work we got back into it and climbed back into tenth or so, but just ran out of runway to go higher up the fleet.'

McDiarmid put the fluctuating form down to poor rig setup and 'not sailing smart'.

He says' the wind comes from Bondi, up and overall the hills and houses, and then lands back on the course. '

McDiarmid believes that in the easterly breeze there is a lot of wind sheer and they need to sail with a lot more twist in the top of the sails.

'We didn't figure that out until the end of the second beat, so we changed a few things downwind and just took off on the final leg to the finish. We went from being one of the slowest boats to being probably the fastest up that leg. Although we finished 11th, we were very close to the fifth placed boat,' he added. 'There was a big bunch of boats that we couldn't get through.'

The place is Yamaha's discard. 'We are only five points away from third, but it does take away our chances of winning the regatta.'

'We needed to get another place in the top three, and we would have really been knocking on the door', he added. ' It was a very frustrating day.'

McDiarmid explained that the easterly course in Sydney Harbour is very difficult for international crews, as they have nothing similar in their home waters.

'You can't look up the course and see the shifts other boats are enjoying and then get across there. By the time you have got there, the shift has gone. The wind shifts are like a mirage.'

'You have to sail your own race 100% of the time and keep your boat moving, which is a lot different from what we have at home. '

'We are using a lot different set up from what we have ever used before - in New Zealand or the USA. It is just the bump and sheer in the breeze.'

'We were still the top Kiwi boat even though we were not in the top ten. That easterly is just something we are not used to. '

The vagaries of the breeze were well demonstrated early in the race by Triple M which tacked into what looked to be a favourable shift, only to have the wind swing back some 50degrees in mid tack, stopping the boat dead and forcing one crew member out onto the leeward rack in a desperate attempt to keep the boat upright, before they returned to their original course.

On Saturday strong winds from a NE direction of 20-25 kts are expected and then the breeze will lighten for the final race on Sunday.

'If that happens, I only hope it isn't from the east again. I have done that course a few times and only ever had one good result!'

Back in the boat park, there wasn't too much analysis of the frustrating race and conditions.

'We just had two beers and a pie and called it a day.'

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