Cameron Thorpe reports of the first race of the Simrad

by Cameron Thorpe on 10 Jul 2007
Cameron Thorpe reports of the first race of the Simrad SSANZ Shorthanded Series sailed on the Saturday:

This years report takes a different view in that this time I’m not a competitor (ie thrown away the rose tinted glasses and one eyed viewpoint !).

This year I got the job of driving a RIB and conducting Safety Inspections, dropping and picking up the start/finish mark, checking exactly who did start the race as well as countless other jobs. As a competitor I never realized how much the race committee actually does and its not just a relaxing day on the water eating scones and drinking tea (or Rum and Cokes…as the case may be). This served as a reminder of just how reliant our sport is on volunteers and how rarely we truly appreciate them. Thanks Guys (and girls).

Anyway… about the race. First issue was organizing Trinidad as the start boat now that Orakei Wharf Tower is inaccessible (please voice your thoughts to the appropriate people to get the tower back in action) Trinidad made a magnificent start boat which together with the new SSANZ B&G SIMRAD buoy used as a inner distance mark gave us a longer and much fairer startline than in the past. We were lucky with the weather in that the torrential rain from Friday had disappeared…but unfortunately so had the wind. The much lighter than expected wind together with incoming tide meant most of the boats were quite late to start. Wired and Jive Talkin’ made the best of the Longhaul fleet start gaining a sizable jump.

After checking off everyone who started and snapping a few pic’s it was back to the marina for a break. After just stepping ashore we got our first retirement PE suffering from new boat syndrome. Hopefully they can be all sorted for Race 2 as it’s a very interesting looking little boat. Not long after X Factor retired with a blown mainsail. The fleet was certainly seeing a lot more wind on the other side of Rangi ! This also shortened up our break. The boats were going too fast ! We had to race back to be on station for the finish, only just making it in time !

Rattle n Rum was the first to cross the finish line completing the Smallboat course in 4 hours 13 minutes and 5 seconds. However this year Mercenary was close behind. Has the mighty Rattle slipped a notch or are the other SR’s catching up ? The other standout performances in the Smallboat fleet were Die Fledermaus who took the line and handicap double in Smallboat Division 1 and Triumph who smoked the Pied Piper fleet to win by over 7 minutes !

Sundreamer came home first for both the Longhaul course and the Multihulls with McMoggy also sneaking in before Wired and Upshot, the first Longhaul monohulls. (I think the Multihull boys were a bit upset last year when a monohull was quicker round the track when the three races of the series were added up !) Jive Talkin’ finished in a very credible position amongst much bigger boats to win on handicap.

L’Avanti, picked up where Hard Labour left off (they will be back !) to win Shorthaul 1 on line with another slightly smaller Farr design Communique taking handicap honours. Thirsty Work narrowly took line honours over Grunty Chicken in Shorthaul 2 while First Class the the quickest Young 88 on the day.

Unfortunately Andar passed a little too close to Bean Rock on the way home and needed assistance from the Coastguard. Fortunately they were pulled clear but the race was over for them. Once again the Coastguard did a great job with the radio skeds helping account for everyone.

Everyone was finished by 6:30 so it was time to pack up and have a well deserved rum ! Most of the competitors seemed to be smiling so it was a great day for all.

Cameron

For full results see: www.ssanz.co.nz