That's no dolphin!!! Sailing an 18 foot skiff around Lake Macquarie

by Greg Patterson on 30 Jul 2010 SkiffSail, one of two 18 foot skiffs sailing in the 2009 Heaven Can Wait race, competing in the One Lap Dash, certainly had an eventful time of it.

The team finally got back to racing on the October long weekend for the annual HCW event on Lake Macquarie.

And what a day to get back into skiff racing! To sum it up in one word: massive massive massive!!!

Yeah, big call that one I know, but that's the best way to describe our weekend.

With forecast weather of rain and winds from 14-25 knots from the south, it was difficult to just choose the right rig, let alone getting the chase boat in the perfect position and keeping pace with us for over three hours of race time.

Our final race time was 3 hours 12 minutes - some 7 minutes behind Two Tribes and about 4 minutes behind Brett VanMunster's 18 footer from the League, Kinder Caring.

But with Brett being a local from the Lake Macquarie area, I was quite happy to follow him around the Lake course, as our main aim for the day was to just finish in one piece.

With forecast winds of anything from 14-24 knots from the southwest, the boys really didn't know which rig would be the best option to take, so we went a little conservative and chose our No 2 rig.

In the end we got it right for about half the race, which meant we could get some rest in the lighter stuff and in the fresher breeze we could push the boat hard without fear of any major breakages.

Considering we had made a lot of untested changes during winter, the boat and my young crew Sam and Benny performed flawlessly -- particularly having had no small rig training over the past eight months.

With an 11am start time the team had plenty to sort out just to make the start on time... something which most skiff sailors (or maybe just me) struggle to do at best.

So with an early rise in the cold and rain we rushed around like crazy to get the chase boat fuelled and in the water and loaded with plenty of food and water -- but most important was a huge bacon and egg breakfast to keep us going for the long day ahead.

The two-ways were charged and ready, GPS and video cam sorted along with any other safety and wet weather gear... most of which I'd been planning to do Friday night, but couldn't due to some rather ugly weather...

With less than 5 minutes until start time, we finally hit the water -- not knowing we actually had to sail past the start boat to officially sign on 10 minutes before start time.

As we slowly floated out to greet the start we noticed the Kinder Caring sailing to the line --they were late too!!!.

But they had gone with their No 1 rig, so we thought maybe this was gonna be a rather long day with our baby rig -- but not to worry it was just a cruise day...

So we started late behind the crowded fleet just ahead of Kinder Caring -- but in about 10 knots of breeze their big sails quickly ran thru the fleet as we bobbed about trying to find some upwind pressure.

On the first long starboard tack we headed low to get away from the fleet and into some clear air, Kinder Caring headed up and around and soon were off in the distance.

We know this was really going to be a slow day... in the rain with the wrong rig.

Slowly we got some more pressure in the middle of the lake, then more, then more, and soon enough we had the hammer down in a nice 20 knot breeze and closing in on Kinder Caring, their huge square top main just flagging around in the fresh stuff.

They had grabbed a big lead of a few minutes from the start, but now at the first mark at Wangi the gap was down to about 200 m.

The big cat Two Tribes still held a big lead.

Then a great two sail down around Wangi Point, and we had Kinder Caring very close ahead -- but as we tacked our way back around the lee side of the point and through the gap at Pulbah Island, the breeze went soft and Kinder Caring bolted .

Just about past Pulbah, near the shallow sandy bottom Point Wollstonecraft, we thought wow ... how nice, a dolphin swimming around slowly under the kite pole...

FAARK! Guys, that's no dolphin... it's a shark...

I actually had to steer hard to avoid running the damn thing over; it was so close we could've reached out and touched its fin...

The last thing we needed was an upset shark under our feet. That's when we decided this would be a 100% NO swim day

Around past Sunshine, the breeze freshened again and we tried to gain some lost distance on Two Tribes and Kinder Caring; visibility was getting worse with some big rain squalls.

I guess by now we had been sailing for well over 60 minutes and we hadn't really been thinking how long this race would take, so we signalled to my niece on the chase boat for some drinks...

That didn't go too well, as we had also forgotten the two-ways in the early morning rush to get ready and rigged, so the guys got close and tossed the drinks to us -- and missed, so we parked for a minute to have a quick rest while the guys rescued our lost drinks.

Lucky we didn't tell them about the shark...

By this stage I really didn't know where we were on the lake -- then the very familiar three chimney stacks from the Vales Point power station came into view through the mist...

My Nan had a holiday house at Mannering Park and my family basically spent most holidays and weekends there when I was a kid growing up. I think my first sail was on this very water... ah, the memories

So around the Vales Point mark, and finally we could set the kite for the first time...

'Thank god,' said Sam, as he had been working pretty hard on the mainsheet until now...

Two Tribes and Kinder Caring were still well in front and we three leading boats had cleared away from the main fleet.

Pushing hard down the lake we were back at Sunshine in no time at all and heading fast towards Pulbah Island and catching Kinder Caring.

I think the KC guys had to back off a little with the big sails, and we had them very close. Kite down and two-sailing into Nords Wharf, the breeze went soft and once again KC bolted.

Around the mark, kite up again and running fast towards Swansea, we noticed the channel markers at Pelican and got a little lost and confused...with Two Tribes and Kinder Caring nowhere in sight and not wanting to run aground at max speed, we threw in a few quick gybes to stay well clear.

Hammer down, we entered Belmont Bay and into some solid pressure in the wide open bay; as we gybed back onto starboard and heading towards Belmont, we crossed the big Etchell fleet in well over 20 knots of wind...

We must have confused some of the Etchell guys as they frantically tried to wave us out of their way, while they were heading straight towards us -- on port tack!!!

Somehow we stayed upright and didn't crash, but we had badly overlayed the Belmont mark, so it was kite down and an out-of-control two-sail back across to the mark.

Approaching the mark, we were happy to be greeted by the sight of Kinder Caring in the tide...

These guys had sailed extremely well to keep hold of the big rig in some pretty fresh stuff and for a couple of seconds we thought we would join them in the piss.

But they were up and sailing off by the time we gybed around for the two-sail across Green Point.

Then kites up again in some nice fresh gusts and super flat water, we both screamed down into Warners Bay ... but Kinder Caring could run a little deeper than us with the big kite and stayed ahead as we had to complete a few extra gybes to get back to the mark, with the big cat Two Tribes a further 200 m ahead.

By now I was completely shagged and just praying for the finish.

Luckily, for me anyway, the breeze was fairly light and I could rest my tiller-locked hands as we headed around Bolten Point, past the last mark then across the finish line...

The leaders had gained a few minutes by now, but we really didn't care too much... just very happy to finish, and in one piece...

Yeehar: third overall and about 12th on corrected time.

The boys and the boat had done brilliantly... no swims, some awesome flat water rides and nothing broken -- apart from Sams hands (his gloves were on the endless list of stuff we forgot!)

And I was happy just to see the beach, and the much needed hot shower, followed of course with more bacon and eggs

The race really didn't feel like three hours plus - I guess the super quick kite run all the way down the lake had blurred our vision of time...

So me, Benny and Sam felt pretty damn happy with our great result... and the wonderful Lake Maquarie had lived up to its reputation as one of the best sailing venues in Oz...

Oh the joy of flat water: no ferries or jet boats or container ships or hundreds of day cruisers -- just good fun sailing.

Big thanks to all the HCW organisers and fellow racers, and special thanks to Shaun Lewicki for a truly unique skiff experience, one I'm sure me and the guys will never forget.

Also huge thankyou to my neice Roz for doing the massive job of chase boat driver, also thanks to my girl Leslie for keeping everyone happy with food and drinks and to Casey and Anna for the 300 odd sailing pics we have to choose from.