Fleetwood Vane 36R Woods Trophy
by Tony Wilson 8 Apr 2018 15:13 AEST
7 April 2018
Fleetwood Vane 36R Woods Trophy © Tony Wilson
Light winds from the East or is it from the North? Two conflicting forecasts kept us on our toes as it was going to be challenging, but not too strenuous, for the Woods Trophy in the Vane 36R class. Five local skippers made the effort for the dreary day along with a handful of willing helpers.
John had his new to him boat that he had upgraded to from Martin Pritchard at the close of last year's season, enabling him to lend his old Taxachun boat to Tony. Peter J. had brought along his wrong Vane so a delayed start while a bit of swapping and engineering was going on to get all boats ready to go.
From the start the wind was from the clubhouse, so John was trying out a first run to get into the swing of things and do some fine tuning. Eddie and Tony put their boats to water and decided to just go for it as it was getting late. Was Tony ahead? No Eddie was now in front, then Tony again, for Eddie to finally snatch the first win. The return leg had a touching collision about half way back to call for a rerun. Thinking Tony's boat wasn't pointing enough, we went from 40 degrees either side up to about 25 degrees, but just were't getting the desired results. Eddie took the return leg also while Tony was drifting in the middle as if his rudder had dropped off.
John and Peter J. were up next while Peter Whiteside was on a bye, but helping out the newbies with his expertise. John won both legs while Peter's boat seemed to be doing its own thing. We all had a spell of boat non-conforming to command, maybe it was just the swirling wind in the middle. The sand hill side of the lake was the worst and also the start from the far end until you got about midway.
An early lunch arrived at about the time Peter Whiteside was now taking on Eddie for a victory in both directions with John on a bye. We were running a bit slow and might have been struggling to get in just one full round. David Foster arrived over the lunch break to assist along with Bob and Ian and rumour has it that Dave has just acquired a Jones Vane to go along with a boat when he gets one. He just wanted to start at the difficult end and try and get his head around what goes on with these fine works of engineering.
The wind had swung round 90 degrees over lunch moving all the while and now coming from the pump house and even the sand hills. Peter J. had won both his legs over Tony, but now Tony was up against Eddie. The general rule was to hold the mast with leading hand and adjust the Vane thumb towards you with the other. This had Tony and Bob in some confusion as it just wasn't working and exaggerating their problem. Bob insisted to go the other way and he was right, it worked. This gave Tony his first 2 points.
Peter J. was now struggling physically and let Bob and Dave loose at the helm of his boat. Bob zoomed off leaving our stalwart expert Eddie to do a drifting session in the middle of the lake for about half an hour. Eddie had been doing some finer adjustments indoors to his jib while on his bye, but had also dialled everything in too tight to cause his boat to go into irons. The return leg was also taken giving Peter Jackson 10 points so far.
The last group of four had Peter Whiteside against Tony for a very even battle to the wire for the first leg to Peter with both using the guying spring, and John winning over Eddie. The return leg had both Eddie winning and also Tony, leaving John and Peter. W. on equal points of 13 each for a sail-off.
Apart from about 2 hours after lunch, it had drizzled for most of the day. We eventually finished the day at about 4:30pm and the wind had gone fully round by about 180 degrees.
Vane sailing, or free sailing as some call it, must be the truest form of boating and can be stress free, as in no worry over charged batteries, radio issues etc... just leave your boat moored up in its berth at your club house ready to go after attaching its intelligence. But it's not plain sailing and is definitely a skill to acquire from the nobles in your club. Some head scratching when your boat just does its own thing, but it's all fun. A passer-by asked whether they were run on magnets, I couldn't laugh, because I think I probably thought the same thing many years ago.
Woods Trophy Results:
1st John Plant
2nd Peter Whiteside