The View from Commonwealth Bank–Hawaii 5 0- 505 Nationals Days 2 and 3

by Jordan Spencer on 18 Feb 2009
Jordan Spencer reports from the Living Colour International 505 Australian Championships.

Day 2 of the Living Colour International 505 Australian Championships was a good one for us on Commonwealth Bank – Hawaii 5 0. Conditions were probably tougher than yesterday, with a little bit more wind about and the swell rolling in was pretty sizeable. So again, they sailed us inside the harbour.

There were two races today. Race 1 started in a good 15-20kn, but shifts were mainly in the 5 – 10 degree range, with the occasional 20 degree move. We got out of the gate early, Mal Higgins and Nick Johnson were earlier and looked really, really good. They rolled onto a leftie, we rolled under them. They had a clear lead, we ducked under a few boats, including Quirky and Reffold, and Adrian Finglass and Sam Heritage. This is the order we went around the top mark, with Richie Gallimore and Tom Woods right next to us. From there we went on the attack. We managed to get Aids (Adrian Finglass) and Sam (Heritage) on the run and we managed to get Michael Quirk and Simon Reffold on the last beat, but Mal (Higgins) and Camel (Johnson) had eked out a big gap whilst we were fighting for position. As we rounded onto the last run, another big, big squall came through, the sort that pulls masts straight out of boats. What a ride! We popped the kite and launched.

The acceleration was insane. Big wind and big waves, forget your specially designed flat water speed courses for speed records, just get a 5 oh, a few waves the size of your house and 30 knots up your date and hang on. We were flying down that last run, desperately trying to stop the nose from burying, the kite flogging and the mast collapsing, when Sandy (Higgins) yells, 'my rudder just cavitated, no sudden movements'. So we just powered on until a nervous ten seconds later he said, 'we are back, I can steer again'. It was all good from there, so we finished second to Mal Higgins and Nick Johnson (Camel), with Adrian Finglass and Sam Heritage third.

Race 2 was more of the same. We started early again, rolled over, took Mal (Higgins) and Camel's (Nick Johnson), and Quirk and Reffold's sterns and continued to knock has we headed right. We figured it was going to keep going right for a bit, so took the knock, hit the right corner, rolled over and rounded the top mark with a nice gap. From there we pushed to lengthen our gap. We nailed the next beat. There were big shifts and we got each one spot on. This gave us a large gap which we managed to keep for the rest of the race.

Behind us was carnage! There has been a lot of swimming because of the difficult conditions, but there was also a lot of damage. Mal and Camel managed to pull their mainsheet bridle out of their side tanks, there were broken booms, shredded sails and Richie Gallimore and Tom Wodds came in with a mast in 3 pieces. Very good effort their lads! Second for the race were Torvar Mirsky and Kyle Langford, the young match racing tyro’s from West Oz and third Carter Jackson, with the great Dave Page on the wire.

Hopefully the weather will clear up later in the week and we can get some photo’s out there. A couple more tough days are forecast, before the wind lightens off considerably later in the week.

Day 3 of the Living Colour International 505 Australian Championships started out under grey clouds like every other day. Does it ever stop raining here? The pressure was down a little, but still a bit of swell around, so again we were inside the harbour. Wind direction was still South East, probably around 10-12 knots, with range from 5-18 knots.

In the first race Finglas and Heritage were first out the gate, hooked a leftie and powered over the top of the fleet and rounded the top mark in first. We managed to get into the second spot, just in front of a bunch of boats. From there it was follow the leader, the boys were looking the goods. We were under pressure from Carter Jackson and Dave Page, who had popped out of the bunch behind. At the top mark for the last time, we had closed to 50 metres on Aids (Adrian Finglass) and Sam (Heritage) and had a similar gap to Carter (Jackson) and Dave (Page). The last run saw each of us throw everything at the other. I was exhausted. On the last gybe, we rolled inside Aids and Sam with a quick gybe, they had a problem and we got our nose in front. We managed to hang on to the finish, with Aids and Sam second and Carter and Dave third. Talking to Sam after the race, he described how he was on the point of vomiting, from working so hard, coming into the last gybe. He was devastated we got past them.

The second race was more of the same conditions. We had a good start but were lead by Torvar Mirsky and Kyle Langford at the top mark. They gybed off to the unfavoured side and we hit the bottom mark with a 30 second gap from a large group lead by Kevin Cameron and Matt Bowden. A bunch went right and a bunch went left. We positioned ourselves in the middle, so we could cover each side. Unfortunately the wind knocked hard right, a good 30 degrees and we got hammered. We went onto the reaches back in ninth or tenth. Kev (Cameron) and Matt (Bowden) had hung furtherest right and took a big lead around the top mark from Torvay and Kyle and then a whole bunch of boats. This the order they finished in with Michael Quirk and Simon Reffold climbing out of the bunch for third. We managed to pull back up to fourth.

A tough day. Today it’s all about rain. I have no idea what the wind is doing, but it’s going to be wet.

Results are up at www.int505nationals.com