We had a magnificent race in singularly difficult conditions which also happen to be good for a well crewed Bavaria 37! A longer than usual missive but I felt it necessary to do justice to the result!
Westerlies forecast for the afternoon, around 15 knots gusting up to 20. Conditions on the water strong, shifty and gusty winds in the upper bracket of the forecast, swinging back and forth between WSW - W - WNW - W - WNW - W. Seabreeze recorded winds up to 18 knots with an average over the race of 12 knots. But the gusts were protracted and in the 20 to 25 range. That’s what the weather services said, on the water I was seeing gusts up to 30 knots and, whilst we stood up to it pretty well, several boats were knocked over and rounding up, even Huckleberry, who was probably carrying too much canvass.
It was course 3, set for a westerly, Our start was spot on, crossing the line in company with the majority of the fleet, on a reach for Knot Spit then a run down to Como, the first mark. We arrived at Como in company with the leaders but on the outside, meaning we rounded more towards the back of the pack.
As you can see on the track below we hung towards Point Heathcote, unable to tack out until Rum Runner tacked. Aida and Huckleberry had already gone onto port, we stayed with them once we were able to tack. The majority of the fleet (mostly the Farr’s) continued on the starboard track, this is an important distinction as we took advantage of better lifts towards Foam Spit. Aida tacked and crossed in front of us and a minute or so later so did Huckleberry. We were thinking about a tack when hit by a squall this headed us. As we completed the tack we saw Huckleberry struggling to regain control.
By dint of good tactics/sailing (some cruel and insensitive folks might say blind luck) we found ourselves with a lifting wind which took us straight to Armstrong. By the time we reached the mark we had gone ahead of Huckleberry (let me repeat that ‘we had gone ahead of Huckleberry’) and Aida was too far to the south to make the mark. The rest of the fleet were? not really sure where. We rounded Armstrong ‘IN THE LEAD’. General euphoria (not Eufarria) took hold as we passed the rest of the fleet still trying to get a line to the mark. Its a strange feeling for us and concerns were raised as to where to we go from here! Well to Foam of course, that’s what it says on the course sheet, but terms like 'leading the pack', ‘fleet clear astern’, etc.. are not common phrases on our boat. Were often outpaced on the downwind runs, but not today, Huckleberry was slowly making ground but was still well astern when we reached Foam. Our main difficulty was not getting caught up with the Div 1 boats heading to Como.
So we rounded Foam still in the lead, just as a series of squalls entered the fray. We held well into Waylen Bay, but it could have been anybodies bay! I couldn’t see a thing, including the chart plotter, covered in rain. We could/should have gone a bit further into Waylen Bay but opted to cross to the other side. Thus on port tack we had to duck and weave through the Div 1 fleet, this is obvious on the track (see below).
When we reached the other side we re engaged with Huckleberry, they tacked for the mark, now ahead of us. We followed their track and with one more tack rounded the mark, ‘Dolphin West’, in 2nd spot (not bad really).
The run back to the Day Buoy went according to plan but a quick look astern showed that the Farr’s had made up ground and would be on our stern soon enough. We rounded the Day Buoy still in 2nd place, then began the long beat to Knot Spit. By now the wind was dying and the lighter boats were making up ground. On the first tack Eufarria got past us and as we rounded Knot Spit Toravean also went through. We kept the others at bay until we rounded Poplar, but with a dying breeze it was going to be difficult to hold 4th place. And so it was, as we tacked to make Crawley, the last mark, Farrlap went ahead. We were determined however, that no one else would pass, we crossed the line 5th out of a fleet of 11. Well done.
So this was our best race this season! We landed 1st OHC and 5th OTL, out of 11 yachts. Our average speed over the course was 5.03 knots. Euphoria took line honours, 2m18s minutes ahead of us and a speed of 5.16 knots. Huckleberry finished 1m 34s ahead and Torravean and Farrlap were 56s and 34s ahead respectively.
Well done to a very hardworking crew of Mike, Heather, Alex, Derek and Mark. Mark was on the foredeck and as you can see from the photo we were (he was) lucky to bring him back. That picture also gives you a good idea as to the conditions.
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