VIC Etchells – Time for starting practice

by John Curnow on 9 Mar 2015 No one really knew, but clearly the crews were after some repetition methodology when the 1100hrs start arrived for today’s races at the 2015 Etchells Victorian State Championship. Too keen, as it would turn out, for the result was a General Recall, with a good number over before the gun. Time for the Committee to also get yet more practice as they reset the start to be able to go again, but this time it would be under the Code Flag ‘U’. Mercifully, it is not as final as it’s all black sibling, which excludes you there and then. So whilst ‘U’ essentially means you’re unable to go racing on this next start, it does allow you to rejoin once more should that one end up being a General Recall, as well.

So ‘U’ was hoisted and its message of etiquette was broadcast over the radio as well. Clear and precise you would think. Alas, two craft were so determined to have their starting practice, that deep inside the last minute of the starting sequence they were announced as UFD. Exit stage left for them. It is not that uncommon, but what was irregular was the names of the actors no longer taking part in the play. They were overnight leaders Triad and Fifteen+. Ooh. Ahh. Indeed! What appears as a small infraction carries a bigger price than missing a turn. Fifteen+ would end up in third place overall, whereas Triad would go back to fifth.

What it meant was that some crew or crews were going to be to assert their presence on Corio Bay without two of the leading characters for the first race. Yesterday, Magpie had gone from being a poor starter itself, to showing terrific speed as the day grew old. Today, Magpie saw this chance and grabbed it with both hands, scoring two bullets (wins) from two guns (starts). More than nice, and in this sort of company it’s actually an achievement par excellence. Well done to Michael Coxon, James Mayo and Richie Allanson.

As if that was not good enough news. It also means that at the end of the second day and now that four races are complete, so a drop is allowed, the overall leader is Magpie. Mayo said of his experiences at the regatta, 'Sailing with Michael and Richie was something I was always excited to do. It is a privilege to sail with wonderful talent like these two. When I’m the third wheel, I always try to just fit in and listen, because they know how to sail with each other already. Next is seeing where I can add value.'

'Today we just had a good balance on the boat. Yesterday we had those early starts and we came back from that, especially in the last race, where we finished fourth. The boat was flowing and we knew we had it in us. We have been gelling together well and I was confident this morning that we could indeed have a good day. It was enjoyable and I have not had two bullets in the one day for a very long time', said Mayo.

'The biggest thing is to learn when to say something, so you don’t upset the flow of the way things work and have been established for number of years. In terms of the results, well we had a strategy to stick to and it involved not pushing things too far and looking up track a lot. Richie and I had a good balance together and Michael was helming well, so it came down to clicking together well and having nice flow amongst us. It was very good fun!'

So if the winners were having fun, and the crews had been getting in loads of starting practice, then in between the two races of the day it must have become Race Management’s turn. The following information is intended to highlight their efforts, but as you read it, remember that it may involve moving of up to three boats, the laying and hauling of marks and almost certainly the gathering of real-time wind observations.

At 1229hrs, Race Four was looking like being on an axis of 275° and out to a range of 1.4nm, but up at the top yet it was showing 320° regularly. 1233hrs and the 10 minutes was sounded with the removal of the Answering Pennant. 8-10kts was on offer at 1338hrs and now into the five-minute sequence, Course #2 displayed for two laps on an axis of 300° to a range of 1.4nm. 4-8kts was the order of the day and as soon as you said four it was eight and vice versa.

Going deep into the last minute they were all jammed up at the pin end for a change, when the two hoots followed the raising of the AP once more. The reset was for 290° and the accordant re-squaring of the start line. Now at 1253hrs and the breeze was from 240° with the sun out, too. So that is pretty left indeed. 1257hrs saw 220° at 7-8kts and a cooler breeze at that.

1305hrs - On the move now to the North with observations showing 210° and 10kts. 1314hrs and over on the other side of the Shipping Channel, directly North of Channel Marker #9 on the inner harbour of Corio Bay. At 1324hrs it was from 250°, yet they were seeing anywhere from 240-320 at the top. The course boat had been told that 240° to 1.2nm was likely, and at 1335hrs the AP came down, but the breeze thought 280 and even 300° sounded better, so at 1339hrs, the AP went back up. 1345hrs and an axis of 250° to a range of 1.2nm was floated and at 1346 the AP came down and it is kind of a funny time when even the PRO is wishing the competitors luck! Then at 1347hrs the five-minute warning signal was sounded and alas, shortly thereafter we were finally away.

Now after all that, you may have thought that the crews had seen enough starts to be comfortable and au fait with the process. Not quite so for Land Rat who went in hard and had to come back around for another crossing of the line as the only Individual Recall. All was not lost and they climbed back to get a tenth place and be in sixth overall, 14 points astern of the leader.

So at the clubhouse of the Royal Geelong Yacht Club (RGYC) tonight, in second place is a craft simply called, The Boat. She is skippered by Jake Gunther, with John Collingwood and Stuart Skeggs as crew. Gunther’s crew have applied a good hot iron to their results and their consistency is what has them well and truly on the leader board. Four points astern of the leaders, but two points clear of third place, Fifteen+, is a very handy piece of work and shows that in this class race wins might be nice, but are not mandatory!

Gunther commented, 'Just chipping away and trying to keep consistent… Playing some very simple sailboat racing games by making it all about consolidation and not about striking out and look for big wins. The plan calls for top fives and top tens and it appears to be paying some dividends right now. It’s certainly not a bad place to be and when you look around the fleet it is pretty easy to think to yourself that here is better than there, but we just want to make sure we do our work and the outcome will take care of itself.'

'Last time we won this regatta in 2010, we basically could not sail the last day, so who knows what’s coming tomorrow. You just have to take it as it comes and hopefully that has you somewhere near the top. It has been a fabulous racetrack and it is incredibly good sailing out there. Well done to Magpie for an impressive Master Class today. They did a beautiful job of being at the right place for the gusts and hats off to them.'

In terms of whether the body or the mind is more tired, Gunther said, 'I am very fortunate that a lot of the thinking is being done by the magician, Stuart Skeggs and dearest friend, John Collingwood, so we are sharing the load, as it were. It means there is a bit of debating going on, but it is going well for us. We tend to wait for a real opportunity and not go off chasing imaginary ones. There are no pots of gold out there to be found. Well done to Ross (Wilson) and the team for a great job and they plugged away with the reward being two really good races today. He has such an even temperament and just keeps his cool. The Etchells Class is extremely privileged to be able to attract such high calibre people to help out with these events.'

With that kind of segue on offer, you just have go to the PRO, Ross Wilson, and his team of volunteers who had a very busy day. Wilson said afterwards, 'That was one of the longest and hardest days I have had on the water for quite some many years. At times I had, Free Advice (AUS 1335), come past and I certainly was asking for just that. You just keep your fingers crossed and hope that the breeze will stay in, especially when it is showing 270° then immediately after that 300° and moving 50 to 60°.'

'Nearly got Race Four away when a huge shift arrived on the line and we thought a sea breeze was going to kick in. That meant we would have to move over to somewhere different, so we go there and then it moves to 300° once more. The bottom line is that was a challenging day for all, a super-challenging one for the Race Management team, but we did our best and the competitors appear to have had a good one on the water.'

'I am expecting to hold two races tomorrow. It is always great to finish a regatta with two and make the full six of the series. It is out of the South right now and maybe we’ll even get a bit of East into it, so even if it is light it will remove the flukiness we’ve been experiencing over the last two days. That’ll help to get them away on time and easily, we then get two races done and look to finish near the club for the last one. We’ll aim to make the first one good and the second one better, if you can', said the irrepressible Wilson.

They’re quiet, very friendly and yet there are thing whirring away busily. Just like the swan, upstairs it is all grace and poetry, downstairs it is action stations and that is the way to describe Tango, which is Chris Hampton, Ian ‘Barney’ Walker and Ben ‘MJ’ Morrison-Jack. In the final race today they had their best result of the regatta so far, and now sit in seventh place overall. They were first to the top mark and finished in fourth place for Race Four. 'We always come good towards the end of a regatta, so it is encouraging to have a top five placing today', said Hampton. 'Certainly it serves as great motivation and we were thrilled with the first work to the windward mark in that final race. We started at the boat end feeling that there was better pressure on the right hand side and from there played the middle of the track. Barney and MJ really saw the pressure lines and off to work we went.'

'We chose the bear away set for the spinnaker, where as both Magpie and The Boat behind us opted for the gybe set, which was the one that paid. By the bottom, Magpie were through us and The Boat was very close. Magpie rounded the bottom mark and then tacked straight away and by the time we came back he had set up a terrific margin. When we set after rounding the top once more, we again opted for the bear away, given that we had a huge left hand puff come on to us right there. Our angle had us almost at the bottom gate and we liked being in our space doing our own thing, with our own clean air. The puffs seemed to be denser down that side, too, but it was the shifts for the others that advantaged them, especially at the bottom. Adolescence went around the left mark of the gate and played the right pretty hard, which paid off for them on the final work and there we were in fourth.'

So that was the day that was and thank you to the sponsors, Rigid Scaffolding, Wilsons Real Estate, Jam Architects, Daronmont Technologies and Striproll Roofing Products. Nothing happens without them or the myriad of volunteers that a regatta needs. Also well done and thanks to RGYC, the team of chefs cooking up sausages and hamburgers for hungry sailors, and to Rod Hagebols for driving Eclipse, on which the media team soaked up the whole experience. Tomorrow is the last day, so there will plenty occurring, both on and off the water. It all starts from 1100hrs local (AEDT). Now the sailors are all set for more and you can be a part of the 2015 VIC Etchells State Championship by starting your review at www.etchells.org.au