State Championships and Interclub Races 2008-09
Brisbane Waters Championship - 15th February 2009
We were all looking forward to a 3rd rig southerly on the drive up to Saratoga however after the second sausage-roll on the club deck some people were mumbling about big rig. In the end most of the fleet went with big rigs and for the first 2 1/2 laps of the race it was the right decision.
Gemmell Sails and Andrew Short Marine took off from the start and had a comfy 2-3 minute lead over the pack. The 5-10 knot SE'er was fairly shifty so their was always a chance to make gains. Yabba Dabba, Thistle Hill, Dipolar & Foxy Lady exchanged places throughout the first half of the race but could never make any ground on the leaders.
As the fleet rounded the top mark on the third lap, a squall from the south swept in at 15-18 knots, its probably safe to say that no crew was relishing the thought of wrestling their big rigs through a beam reach to the wing mark, a gybe and a broad reach to the bottom mark.
It was getting pretty hairy, the rain cut down visibility until Gemmell Sails were no longer visible (or perhaps each crew had more immediate problems to focus on). Andrew Short Marine may have been the first skiff to go mining, whatever happened they appeared again at the wing mark behind the pack. Yabba Dabba & Foxy Lady were the next to test exactly how deep you can push a 1st rig pole under Brisbane Water. Thistle Hill & Dipolar (the later of whom put the kite up for a moment and then thought better of it) survived the reach and gybe and pointed their skiffs in a general downwind direction hoping to make the bottom mark.
Thistle Hill almost made it to the bottom mark, however they stopped for a bit of a look around after performing a perfect cartwheel to sew up the miners. To everyones approval, the race comittee elected to shorten the course at the bottom mark, so Gemmell Sails had won the race followed by Dipolar and then Yabba Dabba.
The work back to the club was a hard, flogging affair. Gemmell Sails developed a new tacking technique which involved sailing into the shore, jumping out, turing the boat around and then sailing off on the other tack. The jury's out on whether this will be considered "fast".
There were luckily only two DNF's. Sirromet had the misfortune of breaking a mast tip & At Call Powered by Bainbridge International had a minor breakage. Yabba Dabba broke a whisker which hadn't been engineered sufficiently to survive the full impact of Brad Yabsley being flung into it during a nosedive.
Once everyone was warm and mainly dry again, their were plenty of smiles brought on by the excellent hospitality of the Saratoga Club. They put on the best sausage & steak sandwiches anyone had tasted and the beer was cold.
Skiff |
Scratch |
Handicap |
| Gemmell Sails | 1 |
3 |
| Dipolar Software | 2 |
1 |
| Yabba Dabba | 3 |
5 |
| Andrew Short Marine | 4 |
6 |
| Thistle Hill Wines | 5 |
4 |
| Foxy Lady | 6 |
2 |
| At Call powered by Bainbridge International | DNF |
DNF |
| Sirromet Wines | DNF |
DNF |
Photo's thanks to Saratoga Sailing Club.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |