Heaven Can Wait 2009- Forever Young and the battle of the Young 88s

by Adrian Williams on 30 Aug 2010 As a committee member on the Heaven Can Wait organising committee, the lead up to the regatta was very time consuming. On average about 5-6 emails a day for about a month before the event and two Skype Conferences lasting in excess of an hour.

Then there was coordination of the handicaps which was a major job with over sixty entries, some whose background was unknown. Steve Prince, the YA NSW Performance Handicapper, was a great help in resolving some of the unknowns and removing some of my misconceptions about the relative merits of some yachts' performances.

Then there was the race: The Battle of the Young 88s

From my own perception as a new owner of a Young 88, how were we going to perform against the other two Y88s in the field? We had sailed well against two other Y88s on the lake but this was going to be a major test for us.

We started well and led Pistol Dawn and Young N Old up to Coal Point. Our selection of a No 3 headsail worked well against the No 2 headsails carried by the other two.

But in the bigger waves beyond Coal Point, we started to lose boatspeed and Pistol Dawn pulled ahead. We followed her to Wangi Point where Young n Old gained on us in the sheltered lee of the Point and the eventually passed us approaching Sunken Rock.

The photo adjacent shows Young n Old closely ahead of Forever Young and Taking Back Sunday.

(This was to be the Y88 order at the finish.)

At this stage the crew were starting to get cold and very wet and some started looking for extra jumpers. Most participants would agree the conditions were quite unpleasant.

Looking around we were surprised to see one of our clubmates Emmenar ahead of us and another Gregarious close behind.

As part of the handicap team, I was aware that this should not be the case and hoped that once we rounded Mannering Park buoy, our off-wind speed would rectify the situation.

My observation at this time was that this HCW race would have to be one of the longest windward and return races around. Eventually we rounded the mark, raised our spinnaker and headed for home.

At Point Wollstonecroft, we had to drop the kite for a short time to reach across to Crangan Bay. We heard a radio call from Taking Back Sunday, which was alongside, drawing attention to an Elliot 7 lying on its side towards Pulbah Island.

The call was not acknowledged so we called Coastal Patrol Lake Macquarie, whose rescue boat was back towards the Mannering Park mark. This call was acknowledged. (We later learnt the capsize was intentional to retrieve a spinnaker halyard.)

After Crangan Bay, the kite was up again and we were able to serve hot coffee(from a thermos) and cut lunches were the order of the day.

We seemed to gain on our Y88 rivals down wind but were amazed to see the Elliot 7s which were close to us upwind speed away from us. (Looking at a rerun of the race afterwards on Kattack, I was astounded by the speed differences off wind -- for example, see Stealthy vs Wallop.)

We dropped our kite at Belmont for a short period and witnessed the start of an Etchell race with 43 entries; it was quite a sight.

Approaching Warners Bay we decided a headsail change was needed and we changed to a No 1 genoa. This worked well until we reached Croudace Bay where we had got to within 100 metres of our closest rival. Unfortunately the breeze strengthened again, and we were very much overpowered and again lost ground.

The finish came up quickly, Pistol Dawn finished with an elapsed time of 4h55m28s, Young n Old with 5h02m07s and Forever Young with 5h04m05s. Overall, it was a very challenging and interesting race.