200620

(nzl12 Karl takes only 20 to 30 hours to put together this quick, very strongly built hull)

Auckland Champs Day One Sailors Report

Friday night I loaded the truck with the boats and bedding.

An early Saturday alarm clock, batteries off the chargers

and hit the road for Auckland again.

A dark, wet trip over the Kaimai and breakfast at my favorite Matamata Bakery. The weather started to clear as the sun came up at Morrisonville and the trip went smoothly.

At wattle lake was glass with only 0.05 knot of breeze.

Just enough to set sails and test gear before racing...

People started arriving and soon the car park was bustling with sailors. I checked my hull weights and got my Nitro ready for the 2 days of racing ahead.

Roy G gave us a detailed briefing. Most of us have not sailed on his SHRS heat sailing system, so in brief, 1.5 days of seeding races. Then the last 1/2 a day of really racing.

example.Three people get 1st in there heat, so three people get 1 point in any one race. example two. Three people get 12th in there heat, so three people get 12 point in any one race

The next heat position determined by your previous race heat position eg1st place, your in A heat in next race

2nd place, your in B heat in next race

3rd place, your in C heat in next race

4th place, your in A heat in next race, ect

This is the first time I have raced under this system.

The system is reasonable easy to understand but you have to

check, double check and triple check where things are up to....

I supposedly sailed a race I did not need to (Along with many others...) you had to keep checking that TV screen the whole time....

Roy has purpose built a big trailer with a TV screen. laptop, tablet, generator and course board which would have cost many dollars. This trailer was moved to the staging area of the course

as all sailors need to try and work out what race they are in next

so checking the TV screen was vital. eg you could

Race 1, heat 3, race

then Race 2, heat 1, race

then Race 2, heat 2, observer

then Race 3, heat 3, have a break

then Race 4, heat 1, race

You had to keep checking...

So now we all now supposedly knew the system, this trailer was wheeled down the lake to the middle jetty.

Two "all in" practice fleet races where started while Roy tried to set a course.in the light shifty wind conditions,

Eventually we got a couple of heat races underway,

but the wind did not play ball and Lunch was called.

Over the lunch break I had a good training session with a few other sailors in a good easterly breeze.

Everyone got back down the lake after lunch but the wind soon shifted to a south direction as forecast.

We had to pack up and move back to the car park.

All the cars needed to be moved forward to give a walking room and the staging trailer was moved back up next to the jetty.

The race course was then shifted and at 3.30pm i got my 3rd light shifty race away for the day.

The wind was light and patchy, you basically went hard left, or hard right and just hoped the puff would come in on your side.

We pushed late into the evening for the fourth race before it got cold, dark and the wind too light for racing.

4th, 4th, 12th, 4th. (13th overall)

Too many high points for me on day one of a race contest,

Some of these are going to be keepers,

Looks like it will just be a practice day for me tomorrow..

Fish, Chips and bread for tea, then off to sleep around the corner :)