Compass Yacht Group
Regatta Report 2010
What a great weekend! In spite of the weather the Regatta went ahead, it was wet but we all had a great time.
There were about 30 at the BBQ, about half of what we might have expected on a good night but we filled the tables on the balcony and by and large the rain held off. There were many new members there, Tess and crew of Born Free C29, Peter of Steady Daze C29, Marcus and Ellenor of Aurora C29. Don Lees (Mr Compass) flew in from Brisbane and Shaun and Ali flew in from Melbourne to crew on Maeling.
To add to the interest we had 5 Lucky door prizes. Colin Green is running a company called Captain Coffee and offered two prizes of 3 month's supply of coffee beans or ground coffee WEB Site http://captaincoffee.com.au.
Marcus Gillezeau of Firelight Productions offered 3 of his DVDs LITTLE DOVE BIG VOYAGE (2002), SCORCHED (2008), STORM SURFERS: DANGEROUS BANKS (2008) as prizes WEB Site http://www.firelight.com.au/buy-dvds/. They were well received. I would like to thank these sponsors and ask you support them. Here I must also mention Keith Brown Sails at Mortlake who had offered a sailcover, which for various reasons I didn't offer this year.
Meat and fish were BBQ'd and salads put out and we had a wonderful meal together. Met new friends, caught up with old ones and discussed with Wayne Reflections C28, the possibility of an event on Lake Macquarie.
Over night it poured and with serious effort I bailed the dinghy. At least it wasn't raining –quite. Ashore Doug laid on a breakfast BBQ for friends and a few Compass'. It was delicious and warm.
Then it was time to get serious about sailing; the wind was west of south at around 20 knots, so Doug chose Course 2 around Shark and Clark Islands to Obelisk and Lady Bay. Warming up around the Start Line the Compass 28s and 29s jousted for position. Doug had laid a wide reaching line, it was a bit of a shame, the Dons Hellangone, lost track of time and were late across. Maeling too misjudged and didn't accelerate quickly enough, crossing the line in the middle of the fleet just behind the leading C29 Sammie. The fleet was tightly bunched for most of the race. Moerlina C28 and Anna N28 duelled for the lead to Shark as did Sammie and Maeling.
Anna's fate was sealed at the buoy off Shark when Moerlina called her on starboard. Sammie unrolled her genoa on the reach to Clark while Maeling shook out the reef in her main but continued with #3 rather than have another wet sail aboard. Missy VI and Hellangone nipped at the leaders heels and the other C28s wrestled with the C29s while Reverie brought up the rear.
Rounding Clark there was a tacking duel where Moerlina kept Anna covered during the run to Obelisk. Fortunately they had enough lead that the other C28s didn't get past. It was still a tight race, approaching Obelisk Bay buoy, Maeling tucked her reef back it and was well balanced and powered for the reach to Lady Bay. Anna, well heeled chased close behind Moelina and Maeling again closed Sammie.
At Lady Bay it seemed that 4 boats in the middle of the fleet all rounded within a minute for the hard work to finish. With four tacks to the finish, Moerlina managed to keep Anna covered and open a one minute lead. Anna herself was now threatened for second place by Missy VI 2 second behind and Hellangone less than a minute later.
Sammie got First over the line for the 29s with Maeling a minute behind. The time between the first and last boats was 12 minutes. It was a hard fought Regatta!
We met at VYC after it was all over for a drink and lunch and to compare notes and plain , relax. Doug had not been able to participate with Saltair C28 as he was committed on the Farrs out of Sydney Amateurs so it was left to Geoff and Shaun to work out the Corrected Times.
The table shows the results. Well done all, it wasn't the best day for sailing but we are all weather boats.
We cleared the Club about 3pm and 3 Compass' plus ex- Pumkin C28's Jim and Tish followed with their new Delphia 37 for a 4.30 Spit Bridge. Rafting up in Sugarloaf Bay went easily Maeling stern-on to the shore and tied to a tree. Hellangone next, to port and Reverie to starboard. Tish and Jim's Delphinia was a different problem, we laid her anchor, then backed up to Hellangone.
We readily accepted Tish's invitation to bring our dinners and wine across to their boat out of the rain. Aren't ex-members with bigger boats wonderful? Jim wasn't well but enjoyed our company and companionship.
Still the weekend wasn't quite over. Maeling slipped away for an 08:30 Spit Bridge in the drizzle. It took about an hour to prepare for a rough passage to Port Hacking into 20 knot South by West.
Sailing straight out from the Heads for an hour, I tacked back to the coast, not quite laying Bondi. On went the motor for a 3 hour tack to the south-east looking for the southerly set. This was followed by a 2 hour tack back to Cronulla from the horizon.
Sailing fast, I had made little ground to windward. Six hours is what I would expect with a foul bottom. Another hour up-river with no problems saw us home and Maeling back on the mooring after six weeks away.
It was sad that this was Jim's last Regatta. Just 3 weeks later he slipped his mooring and began his final voyage - Farewell old friend.
Geoff Raebel