The first four races in the GFS Spring Twilight series have produced some interesting results, conditions and sights.

Interesting Results
Races 1 and 2 were pretty good results in conditions that suit us, race 3 was bit of a shocker for reasons that I am unable to decipher, but probably related to a less than perfect start and then a few bad tactical decisions on the way (Also leaving the optimum sail for the conditions in the garage at home!). Race 4 started with another poor start but a great run around the course that had us surprising a lot of the fleet by passing them in the lea of Cockatoo island, our 5th on scratch may at first glance be a bit disappointing but 1 second from 4th and 14 seconds from 3rd was a good result, our relative speeds would have made up that 14 seconds if the finish line was maybe 50 meters further along the Lane Cove river. Se la vie!

Interesting Conditions
The spring weather in Sydney normally produces balmy evenings with little wind, race 3 was held in unusually brisk wind reaching at times over 20 knots, while the strong winds, rain and even thunderstorms forecast in race 4 never eventuated and we enjoyed a beautiful evening on the water in conditions that really suit us, we were a little “undercrewed” so I decided on a conservative start, given the results I should have had more confidence in the crew attacked the start line and produced a better result Se la vie 2.0.

Interesting sights
Many people are rubbing their eyes, not too sure what they were seeing, on first sight it appears to be bit of a contradiction given the 40 maximum rule foot rule that we have at GFS. The Beck Family fleet has grown with a mini me Infotrack, a MC38 in the familiar Infotrack livery.

Not to be confused with

Thanks to Jeff Lewis (Aurora) for the following photos.

The 2020 – 2021 official sailing season opened last night with the first of the Autumn twilight races. It all seemed a bit strange in these brave new COVID times, while we can race with (for most boats) full crews, there is no post race function and no pre or post race socialising, There was an eerie silence about the place, especially later in the evening when the sounds of around 200 partying souls can normally be heard up and down the Lane Cove river, all that could be heard last night was the lapping of the water. We decided to go straight back to the mooring after finishing and have some nibbles and drinks on board before taking the crew back to the Club pontoon for disembarkation and departure. All very nice and convivial but no replacement for aforementioned 200 partying souls.

The race itself was a painful affair with light to non existent winds and when there was any pressure the shifts were huge and very hard to pick, at one stage we needed to tack to avoid a couple  of starboard tackers only to have at the very same time a shift of over 90 degrees that enable us to change course without tacking or trimming. This one piece of good fortune gave us a huge advantage over the fleet and make up the deficit we were carrying because of a very poor start. Speaking of the start we were probably the last boat in the entire fleet to leave Humbug, I thought we were in a great position but fell into a hole and sat there watching the rest of the fleet go by. I’ve been caught by this particular wind shadow before and you would think that I would learn!

As it transpired we were able to catch and  pass a number in our fleet and beat all but one boat in Green division, the division that sails the same course but starts 10 minutes ahead of us. The work that has just been completed on the keel seems to have paid of, she is really sliding through the water nicely.

We had one embarrassing moment when we trying to pinch along the western shore of Humbug with very little speed, we tacked out and not only fell into irons but also became a speed bump for Martin Kluckow on “Rex”, Martin quite rightly called “Starboard” to which I had to reply “No Steerage”, Martin thoughtfully and in good humour responded with “We’ll tack”. Thank you Martin and congratulations on winning your division.

It’s great to be back sailing twilights but without the social side happening it’s a bit like a healthy body but somehow some of the soul is missing, hopefully it will return soon.

Thanks to Jeff Lewis for posting the photos to face book.

Our Summer series was not our most successful, however we did win the last race, the Autumn series has been a lot more successful, There are a few reasons for this turnaround in performance. A change in the hull cleaning procedure, with the driver spending more time on the rust blooms on the cast iron section of the keep. The next time G-whizz  is out of the water the keel will be subject to some major remedial  freatment. The second reason for turnaround is the absence of the Elan 37 “KoKo” with the skipper out of action after an orthopedic operation and the North shore 38 “Aetos” off the race course waiting on a new mast to arrive. These two boats are generally faster than us, our result are boosted by their absence.

There have been some suprise results with an extremely competitive race in winds in the 20 knots area,  finishing ahead of all the bigger boats, and the performance of Saoirse a Dehler 38  running away from the fleet in light air, we would generally expect to be most competitive in light air while the heavier boats generally handle the heavier air better.

This series we have had some terrific battles with Chris Stannard and his Jeanneau 39i “Worlds Apart”  on many occasions spending a lot of the race only a few meters apart and finishing with seconds of each other.

The picture above is us drifting out of Humbug in the company of Words Apart and French Connection, it also reminds us that we should concentrate a bit more on trimming the headsail. The photo to the right shows the same three boats chasing Saoirse, who just insisted on sailing into the distance.

Sometime last year Blues Point Yacht Club and Sydney Amateurs  Sailing Club got together and established an inter Club challenge series called the “Sheep Station Series”. There may be some readers that do not understand the irony of the series name. I’ll try to explain – when a player or racer in any competition in Australia (and I suspect New Zealand) takes themselves too seriously they are politely told “Come on mate we’re not racing (playing) for sheep stations!”

The series is structured around a minimum of three boats and a maximum of five that will compete in each of four races, the top three from each club will score to theirrespective clubs. Individual boats performance will also be recognised.

The winning Club will have the honour of displaying the Sheep Station Trophy in their Club House for the ensuing year. (The trophy is a model of Sheep Station buildings). Our results in this series are here (2020 series).

For a better explanation of the Australian slang I defer to Wikipedia. “The phrase is a traditional Australian English term. It is used to describe the terms of a game, sport or competition, often a game of chance. A sheep station is a large sheep farm in Australia or New Zealand, hence denoting something important, large or valuable.

The phrase “playing for sheep stations” has both a literal and ironic usage. In the negative, it is used to encourage participants to play in a friendly and not too competitive manner. Playing sport or cards or a game of some sort, but not for prizes, one might say “take it easy, we’re not playing for sheep stations”. It could be used starting a game of cards or pool for example, to check whether the game would be played for money, beer, or just pride, asking “so, are we playing for sheep stations or what?”

In typical Australian fashion, it can also be used to mean the exact opposite, because a sheep station is such an expensive item that nobody would bet it on a game, the phrase “we’re playing for sheep stations” can also be used to mean that the game is purely for sport, and there is no bet or prize involved.”

As usual the 2019 Balmain Regatta was a great event, this year we sailed under the Blues Point Yacht Club burgee but were also one of three Greenwich Flying Squadron yachts racing, coincidentally all in the non spinnaker division.

The wind for the day was forecast to be a  10-12 knot westerly dropping to almost nothing as it backed south then picking up again to sub teens as it backed to the east. The forecast was accurate which meant that the start was in very soft winds as the wind went through its slow shift to the east. We had a new crew member on board who we had neglected to instruct on our headsail deployment process, its simple, it works well but it is very unusual, Alec was given the job and was completely un-prepared for what was required. (our Number 1 racing sails are cut a bit shorter in the luff to be able to be stored on the furler, after a race they are “un-tacked” from the deck and lifted to the furler drum, furled then covered with a sock, deployment is the reverse unless a sail change is required – its a system that works very well for us). While all this was being sorted we found ourselves some distance from the start line.

The Balmain regatta is a handicap start event as as it happened we were the last boat to start in the regatta giving twenty one minutes to the scratch boats in our division. After getting the headsail sorted about 15 minutes from our start time we were already racing in that we had to get to the line, we made it with about 45 seconds to spare and needed to kill a bit of time, however a big power boat motoring through the line made it impossible for us to do a 360 and set up for a reasonable angle, we had to be content to luff up leaving us with a square run to the first mark at Schnapper Island.

We set off on the course that went from in front of the Balmain Sailing Club to a buoy off Schnapper Island to Spectacle Island to Manns Point goat Island over to Hunters Hill the back to Goat Island via Manns point then to the finish. The further we went the more the wind picked up to its forecast 10 knots. We were ticking off our competitors as we passed them, after the second rounding of Goat Island we only had 2 boats to catch, “The Saints”, (Another GFS boat) who we could see in a position half way between Goat island and Birchgrove and “Freedom” that was no where to be seen.

As we passed Birchgrove Point there was only “The Saints” about 300 to 400 meters ahead with clear water ahead of them, giving us some anxiety was Pam Joy (our GFS Commodore) on “Tana” not too far behind. We were able to hold “Tana” off but there was no way we could catch “The Saints”. We heard “The Saints” get the finish gun – well actually a hooter – for being the first boat in our division across the line with us following almost 2 minutes ahead and tan seconds behind us.

Back at GFS we were having the usual debrief and were celebrating the fact that three GFS boats filled the first three positions with Pam and her crew, I was a little dismayed that a Ghost ship”Freedom” was recorded a finish time just 40 seconds ahead of “The Saints”. I am probably wrong it may have been there and our entire crew missed seeing it. However our assumed second suddenly became a third, as I said we probably just did not see them, however I have always wanted to write something about a “Ghost ship”.

All in all a really enjoyable day on the water and we really enjoined our race with Tana, it fascinating that we quickly made up the 2 minute that we gave them on the handicap start but were unable to get away from them, swapping positions in some tacking duels, it was not until Pam caught a bad wind shift that enabled us to get reasonable distance on them, however we could not move further ahead.

Sunday’s Blues Point Yacht Club race was held in beautiful conditions, conditions that were in stark contrast to the preceding week that featured strong winds rain and un-pleasantly cool weather. We will not begrudge the rain as it is needed although it is a little frustrating that it falls along the coast and not west of the Great Dividing Range where our drought stricken farmers could really use it. The conditions on Sunday were almost perfect for us, except that the wind and handicap conspired against us.

BPYC races are pursuit starts, in this race we started off 35 minutes, 3 minutes ahead of a J/109 (“Blue Sky”) and 6 minutes ahead of an IMX 38 (“Martela”) and a whopping 17 minutes behind a Farr 36. The conspiracy between weather and handicap was too much for us, the wind was holding up in the 12 to 15 knot range until we were on our final run down the line when there was wind shift from the south west to the south east accompanied by a speed drop to 5 to 8 knots, the boats that started ahead of us had the benefit of the sou’wester while we together with Blue sky and Martela had to battle the reduced winds from the start.

We finished 5 seconds behind Martela and 36 seconds ahead of Blue Sky although Blue Sky’s missing their start time by about 2 minutes probably made the handicappers efforts look better than it actually was. Our finish was about 23 minute behind the Farr 36.

The race was pretty un eventful being bit of a soldier’s course, although the heart rates did rise a bit as we were approaching the final mark, the Sailing Australia mark just off Shark Island, where we were windward of a fleet of Couta boats heading for the same mark, as they had right of way to the mark as well as having rights around it we decided to give them plenty of room, especially as we did not know where their next mark was and not sure of their manoeuvrability if we got into a tussle. The biggest problem was a large sailing boat (under motor) positioned at the mark with a load of spectators aboard, they were fixated on the couta boats, fortunately one of the spectators was a little moreaware of their surroundings than the helmsman who needed quite a nudge from the alert spectator and respond to our hails and whistles and give us the room to be able to give the couta boats the room they were entitled to.

As it transpired there were 3 finish lines set very close to each other, ours, the couta boats and a dinghy race, all three fleets were hitting the line at the same time ass us, Martela which flew a spinnaker on the short run to the finish, took a very wise decision to douse the kite and finish bare headed to give them more control in the very busy water – a very smart decision. Ann who was on the helm was quickly sedated with a glass of bubbles as soon as possible after the finish, the rest of the crew had a medicinal beer before setting course to the west to return to Greenwich.