stuart midgley

The Audi Winter Series run out of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia has begun. The first race was the 3rd of May, and this last Sunday was the second.

Race 1 proved a less than auspicious start. Tigger sailed very well, placing second out of about 16 boats. A great achievement, sullied only by the 3-boat collision that we were part of about half-way through.

Tigger was hit on the starboard quarter by another boat, which impact spun us around and forced our bow into the port quarter of another boat. The first contact caused little damage but unfortunately our bowsprit punched a hole clean through the side of the other boat in the second impact.

Protest flags all around, a hearing that went late into the night on Thursday, witnesses from other boats and a reserved decision while the protest committee worked through all the details with their decision not made until 5pm the following day. Tigger - disqualified. You don’t have to like the protest committee, you just have to accept their decision.

Last weekend was the Sydney Audi Regatta for 2009 - two days of hardcore racing, with several hundred yachts racing across 15 different divisions and courses. Fun!

Tigger was entered into the general sports boat division (our skipper is having an argument with the Flying Tiger 10m class association and declined to enter the special Flying Tiger one-design division) so were up 18 other hot sports boats with experienced crews.

Saturday was sunny with moderate breezes and we made a series of dreadful errors that saw us consistently in the last few boats across the line. It was a shocker - stuffed up spinnaker drops, slow on sail trim, steering issues. We stank. The less said the better really.

And then, come Sunday, everything seemed to miraculously come together! Sunday was much windier, dark rain clouds threatened all morning, the wind was heading towards 20 knots.

Our first race we sailed smooth, we reacted like lightning to tack calls, the downwind spinnaker runs went smooth as silk and we placed 3rd!

The second race, into a freshening breeze, was going fairly well too until, on out last downwind run to the finish line, the spinnaker failed to properly gybe across - on the very last gybe, of course - and the halyard ended up wrapped out the fore-stay - no way to drop the damned thing down, with a rocky lee shore advancing very quickly! Happily, team work came out, the kite was quickly gathered into a sausage on the foredeck, tied up, and then the unwinding was worked out before it could be dropped. We went from placing in the top 5 boats in the race to finishing stone cold last, under mainsail only (not the recommended sail configuration for racing), but finish we did, and the starting vessel was very complimentary to us for making the effort to get across the line!

Final race went pretty smoothly too - our fatigue was really kicking in now. Muscles tired, everyone that little bit slower to get off the rail for each tack call. To top it off, the rain kicked in and wet weather gear made an appearance. However, the race was done, the spinnakers hoisted and no major problems occurred.

Well, except for nearly losing our fore-deck hand overboard… we copped a gust just coming out of gybe under spinnaker, the boat rounded up and over she went - deck angle 70 degrees! Craig, who was standing one moment in the middle of the cockpit, next was pitching through the life-lines on the low side of the boat, which were themselves already three inches under water. With all credit, he wrapped his feet and arms around the lifelines and held on, much like a money on a trapeze, one the outside(!) of the lines as the boat dragged through the water! After sticking his head up to breathe a few times we managed to drag him back on board, just as the boat righted herself.

What was really encouraging was how well we reacted as a crew. We calmly rode out the round-up, Craig hung on, two crew members managed to pull him back on as we righted and the other trimmer & I were already filling the spinnaker and getting us back in the race as he came back on board. No time lost, no crew lost and no panic! That’s a nice feeling.

The intensity of the regatta was far above a normal Saturday’s racing, and led to a great deal of crew improvement - and it was great fun! Now, Sail Port Stephens is only a month or two…

Finally, after weeks of trying, we achieved a placing in our Saturday race!

The Super 30 Series is one of the most competitive series on Sydney Harbour, managed by the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club but drawing 30 foot yachts from most clubs on the harbour.

After a string of average results we all turned up early last Saturday for a two hour practice before the race start. After a number of rapid-fire start drills, mark roundings and spinnaker sets, gybes and drops, we had to draw deep to do as much work again in the actual race… but it paid off!