Racing Day 2 – B14 National Championships – Perth Dinghy Sailing Club – 3/01/2011

Sailors left the beach in a strong and gusty South East breeze and the start boat was up the far north west corner of the bay. The fleet had mostly managed to repair what wounds it could before preparing to tackle the races ahead. Before the racing got underway the fleet waited a while whilst the wind settled in place for the PRO and I14 legend Stewart “Jock” Ross to set the course. Whilst the wind settled it eased down to a moderate to strong and gusty South Easterly.

After the start gun for race three of the series the smart sailors including OMFTB hit the left early and annihilated the remainder of the fleet that didn’t follow suit. Octopussy took a short dig to the right to get a clear lane before coming back to join the front runners. Many of the fleet headed out substantially to the right and suffered by their lack of local knowledge.

Rounding the top mark first was OMFTB followed by Siren and Octopussy. Next was Blown Seal in 4^th followed by Clean Skin and Hunt Leather in 5^th and 6^th and Strait4devils not far off their tails. On the downwind Strait4devils managed to get through Clean Skin, but hit the mark avoiding Hunt Leather on their unorthodox kite drop.

Back at the front of the fleet on their second and last lap not much had changed; OMFTB was strengthening their lead and covering their main rival Siren closely, Octopussy had also held on well to their 3^rd position, fending off the approaching Hunt leather and Siren who had managed to pass Blown Seal. The Nude managed to play the shifts well up the second work and snuck through Strait4devils to get into 7^th position.

Overall Race 3 the top six were: OMFTB 1^st, Siren 2^nd, Octopussy 3^rd, Hunt Leather 4^th, Siren 5^th, Blown Seal 6^th

Race 4 got underway in a strengthening but still gusty South East breeze. Keeping smart again, Siren and OMFTB were at the pin end of the line trying to make the most out of the left hand bias of the course. Just before the gun Strait4devils nearly got taken out at the boat end by a Killer Whale who will remain nameless, but those in Class will know who was responsible.

After the first work the top end of the fleet was again of a similar flavour with Siren rounding first from OMFTB and Hunt Leather in 3^rd position, Blown Seal was next closely followed by Octopussy who managed to break a tiller extension (Something that about half of the fleet has managed in the last two days) and round in 4^th and 5^th. By the bottom mark Blown Seal and Octopussy had managed to disappear after capsizes and gear issues. Hunt leather had hit too far left and had to drop their kite early allowing Strait4devils to close the gap significantly who now rounded in 4^th position.

The second of three laps saw Siren just hold into their lead from OMFTB and Hunt Leather from Strait4devils, but by the third and final lap things were about to change. With a great drop and a smashing rounding Strait4devils headed out on a winner and got knocked at the right time to tack and stay on a winner and passed Hunt Leather to get into 3^rd position. OMFTB managed to also sneak past Siren on the last lap to get into the lead and held them out to take the win. Siren came through in 30 seconds later in 2^nd with Strait4devils coming through 1 minute behind in 3rd. Rounding out the top 6 were: Hunt Leather 4^th, The Nude 5^th and B Sting 6^th.

Overall standings have OMFTB in the lead on 6 points with the next closest boat, Strait4devils on 16 points in 2^nd. Siren, Octopussy and Hunt Leather are all on 23 points apiece and are in 3^rd, 4^th and 5^th. The Nude is on 28 points in 6^th and Phantom on 28 points in 7^th. With a drop things will start to get interesting, but those who are keen to see what that looks like they can check out the results @ 

Full Results