Sail Port Stephens is divided into two 3 race series. On the first three days the Commodore’s Cup takes place. As mentioned in another post G-whizz and her crew were able to finish the Commodore’s Cup in third place.

The Performance Cruising series consisted of the next three races in the Regatta, this series has races that include island passage races outside of Port Stephens, for this reason a number of the Commodore’s Cup cruising boats decide not to compete, while some other boats that did not compete in the Commodores Cup compete in this series.

Race 1 started in the usual position just outside of D’Albora Marina and took a course through the Heads and around the three Islands east of Port Stephens (Cabbage tree, Little and Boondelbah Islands), with a second lap of Cabbage tree. G-whizz being fairly beamy and less than 33 feet long is not a fan of waves or swell, while larger boats tend to cut through the seas G-whizz wants to climb over the top, most of the time the crashing through seas slows her significantly. I am not all that experienced at driving her in these conditions but was lucky to have both David Leslie and John Anderson on board who are both experience ocean racers, they coached me on using the swell to the boats advantage and driving a bit lower to windward to keep her speed up.

All of the coaching and the great work by the rest of the crew meant that we were able to achieve the 5th fastest time and 3rd on handicap, of interest (to me) was that three of the first five boats were Elans, two of 37s and us. How often has that happened in Australia?

Race 2 again took us outside of the Heads with a rounding of Cabbage Tree Island, then a laid mark just off the Hawks Nest shore, north west of Cabbage Tree and then back inside for a finish again outside of D’Albora marina. Somehow I forgot all of the good lessons learned the day before and drove G-whizz as if she was in flat water, compounding my crap decision making, I also underlaid Cabbage Tree Island, we had to pinch up for about 500 meters to stay of the rocks, the crew were kind enough just to politely remind that we were going slow, and avoided the temptation to tell me the truth. Maybe they were all too preoccupied watching the drone filming us working along the Cabbage Tree Island rocks.

Adding to my poor choices in this race, while we were able to get very close to our friends in Agrovation a Jeanneau 379 on the spinnaker run from Cabbage tree island to the laid mark, rounding the mark right behind them I could not believe it when I thought that Mick (the owner/driver of Agrovation) left a hole between him and the mark. Of course I went for it, only to quickly realise that it was shutting, a quick movement to starboard to avoid hitting the mark brought some exclamations from Danni on the foredeck and then from Mick on Agrovation. Apparently our bow sprit missed the stern of Agrovation by inches. Not something you should do, especially to a good friend. we were fortunate that the crew of Mascap a Jeanneau Sunfast 37 who were outside of us rounding the mark, were a little more aware of the situation and gave us some room. An 11th fastest and a 16th on handicap was probably the best I could have hoped for.

Over dinner on the night before the third race, I apologised to the crew for my choices in race 2 and said that all I hoped for was flat water and mild breezes for race 3, conditions that can show G-whizz off at her best.

Race 3 day turned out just as I hoped, a course inside the port – flat water – and wind around 10 – 12 knots, as the race was timed to start when the tide was mid ebb we went out a bit earlier to check out the tidal flows in the channel that runs in front of Nelson Bay.

A great but unconventional port tack start set us up beautifully, to take full advantage of the tidal current which we were able to use right up to the first mark, the windward runs were superlative, with perdect gybes that meant we could stay in the shollowest water that we dared while maitaing a good constant boat speed and keeping out of the worst of the tidal flow.

On the work back to complete the first lap and start the second, I decided to follow the same course as a boat skippered by a very experienced Port Stephens racer, one of my better decisions. A great crew, good use of the tidal flows and plagiarising the course of another gave us the 5th quickest time and a first on handicap.

At last some silverware – well at least some glassware.

Some more pictures here, photos/sail port stephens 2017

Sail Port Stephens is a regatta in two halves, the first three days are taken up with the Commodore’s Cup, a three race series, one passage race per day. We were in Division 2 with 35 other boats 31 of which were bigger than us.

We were fortunate to have some very experienced crew on board; Davis Leslie, John Anderson and Danni Birchall all off Umzimkulu 2 and Chris Lowe, Ann and myself from our own team.

The weather conditions were quite similar for the three races, winds averaging around 16 knots, but with some 20+ gusts and some holes down around 5 knots, rain on all three days, and a massive rain squall in Race 3 that announced itself with 25 knot winds followed by torrential rain for about ten minutes. Sail selection was bit of an issue, leaving the headsail choice until minutes before our start, on all occasions I went for the heavy number 1,  this sail gave us a bit too much power in the heavyish conditions and on some of the long works we were about 25 degrees off our target wind angles. In hind sight we should have changed sail, but after making a decision the conditions changed, only to return later. In the Performance cruising races we will be a bit quicker in pulling the trigger on a change.

The handicap system was bit of a lottery (with respect to the organisers, what else can it be in a 3 race series) with some massive changes from one race to the next. Our handicap results of an 8th and a 13th in the first two races kept us below the radar and gave us the opportunity the get a 4th in the third race, and a third overall. On scratch we finished 21st, 21st and 20th. Proving consistency does pay off.

The wind forecast for the last GFS Twilight race of the season was for wind speeds in the low teens with an increasing trend. Mid afternoon I took G-whizz around to Birkenhead Point Marina where they have an excellent fuel facility for a fill up prior to leaving for Port Stephens. Returning to the GFS pontoon for a water fill the wind east of Cockatoo Island was blowing at around 14 knots, my thoughts were that this is what we’ll have this evening. We had taken most of the sails off G-whizz to clear a cabin for crew on the trip to Port Stephens, the only sails on board were our light weight number 1 which is not really suited for 14 knots (Known on board as “Wes”) and our Dacron number 2 Roller Furling Genoa (Known as “Tom”) a great sail for cruising but lacking the pointing ability of the deck tacked laminate sails , I was in bit of a quandary as to what sail to use, We were in with a chance for a series win, so the selection was fairly important, I decided on the All Purpose Number 1 (Known as “Reg”) which is a bit smaller than Wes, cut a bit flatter and is a bit heavier, this sail is good up to 15 knots but still is quite effective in light air. This decision necessitated a trip back to the mooring, a row back to the mud flats appearing at low tide in Woodford Bay and a wade through that mud to get Reg out of my car.

Michael Groves from Agrovation joined us on the evening, Agrovation is currently out of the water having its annual bottom service. Michael is a great sailor and is well known around certain dinghy circles as one of the guys to beat. Ann refers to him as the wind whisperer, with some justification. It occurred to me later that he may have been influenced a bit by an ulterior motive in his decision to join us for the evening, Agrovation was running second in the scratch results series, for him to win Ross Springer’s Izzi would have to finish 3rd or worse, if he could coach, cajole, harass G-whizz to a good result and finish ahead of Izzi, something we have only done on a couple of occasions, he could stand a good chance of winning the scratch series.

Michael made it clear that we had to be hovering on the line with 2 minutes to go, with about 3 minutes to go we were moving nicely in about 5 knots of breeze, in easy reach of the line when, the wind dropped out, almost completely , there we were drifting in company with Faarst Company, French Connection and Sirocco, I received a not unwarranted berating from Michael about not being closer to the line during the prestart stage. about 15 minutes later we celebrated when we actually crossed the line, a long way behind the fleet ahead. Michael went forward to the bow and proceeded to call the wind, which most of the time was below 4 knots, I was ruing my decision to go with Reg and not Wes.

With Michael calling the wind shifts and the crew concentrating on sail trim we were able to get mid fleet by Long Nose Point where we had a Port/Starboard altercation, with the obligatory congenial discussion between boats, adding some spice to the evening. Michael then became obsessed with Izzi’s position, at this point his ulterior motive became apparent. Some great wind calls and super tacking enabled us to hit the lead by the Goat Island port lateral mark, we able to keep up a reasonable speed with the Headsail poled out to get back to Greenwich point with bit of a buffer on the field, the drift through Humbug was bit of a lottery but we maintained our lead to the finish, in doing so we actually passed some of the bigger Black division boats. Saorise finished just a minute behind, a Dehler 38 she performed surprisingly well in the light conditions, Chis Stannard’s Jeanneau 39i Worlds Apart was a further minute behind and putting the icing on Michael’s cake was Izzi who came in fourth 3 minutes behind us.

Our first place on scratch and handicap was somewhat of a surprise, as I was considering giving up before we had crossed the start line. The result also gave us a win in the Autumn series. As Michael said, “Never Ever give up”.

Not surprisingly our best results are achieved in light airs, G-whizz is getting a reputation as bit of a light air specialist (According Elan she was designed to be a good light air performer), what is surprising that some of those light air results have come, like last night when the water and fuel tanks are full, adding some 300kg of unmoveable ballast.

Special thanks to our regular Wednesday crew of Graham Dicker, Chris Lowe for supporting Ann and myself in racing G-whizz in the twilight all season. Now to get G-whizz up to Port Stephens for the Regatta starting next Monday, Let’s hope the forecasts are correct and we will be able to leave Sydney tomorrow afternoon by which time the current strong winds will have passed.

As an aside I do enjoy sailing with really good sailors and I consider Michael Groves to be a really good sailor, inevitably I learn something new each time. The benefit of being up on the line with 2 minutes to go is something I doubt I will ever forget. The other impressive ability that Michael has is his ability to read the wind, Most of us can see pressure variances on the water but with Michael it is at a whole different level, as an example at one point last evening I could see two bands of pressure ahead of us, Michael could see the same pressure pattern but could read a whole lot more from them,he  called that we’d be hit with a short knock then a good lift, he told me to steer up, ignore the knock and wait for the lift. Exactly what happened, our momentum took us through the knock then benefited from the acceleration in the lift, maybe Michael’s ability is the normal level and I’m sub normal, I think not; Michael is the wind whisperer.

The GFS Twilight race on the first of March was one of those evenings when just about everything went right.

First G-whizz came off the slips that morning after her annual bottom strip and paint at Michael Bartley Shipwrights, as well as the inevitable rust blooms on the cast iron part of the keel were removed and treated. So she was as slippery as she will be for the next 12 months.

Second the winds were forecast to be less that 10 knots all evening, and that is the way they panned out, the highest I saw all night was 8 knots of true. This is right in our sweet spot.

Third we were a crew of only 3, actually plenty in the conditions, but we were able to pick up another Club member who’s normal ride was not racing that evening, Chris is a very experienced keel boat racer and having a 4th set of eyes looking for the wind was an absolute bonus.

Our start was not the best after misjudging the time it would take to get to the western end of the line, we got ourselves caught clearing what seemed to be the whole fleet on starboard tack. But we were able to get past most of the fleet Greenwich point, assisted by some of the most localised wind I have ever seen. We were doing around 1.5 knots passing Chris Stannard’s Jeanneau 39i which was dead calm in mirror water, they were only 5 to 6 meters to our starboard beam. Chris commented that he wanted us to be swabbed for a drug test. Behind us were 6 yachts that in any other circumstance would have appeared to be rafted up doing about a knot, I now wish that I did not tell the crew to not move around the boat in the light conditions, allowing one of them to get a camera to record the incredible sight.

As the race went on we were able to move ahead of the fleet with only Izzi, a Northshore 380 ahead of us, whom we were able to pass after picking the right side of the river on the work down to Goat Island. I was worried about Izzi and Agrovation catching us on the track around Cockatoo Island, we were trying to pick our way through a number of boats from other divisions, Izzi and Agrovation were coming up quick in clean air. In the channel between Cockatoo Island and Clarkes point Agrovation had nearly caught us, for a while I tried to cover them by getting above them but thought it a lost cause and decided to keep as much boat speed and settle on a handicap win. Some how we were again able to find our own patch of localised wind and sail away from them. Michael on Agrovation later said that they watched helpless in no wind while we sailed off with both sails drawing.

The last 100 meters to the finish was literally under tidal power, we had no boat speed, no steering and drifted across the line at about .5 knots SOG, fortunately on our own, never have I been so happy to get over the line and start a motor.

In the original marketing blurb for the Elan 340 they talk about it’s design brief to be a great light air sailing boat, I’m sure that they did not have conditions like those in this twilight race in mind, but G-whizz really did show her light air abilities on this evening.

Saturday’s down harbour race was held in very hot conditions, fortunately the predicted winds did not eventuate, once again I decided against using a spinnaker. After a reasonable start in the Lane Cove river we were able to stay ahead of, or catch and pass our target boats, to have a sudstantial lead over them at the Nielson Park mark.
After gybing around the mark I said to the crew that I did not want to get caught in the wind shadow just east of Bradleys Head, everyone listened….. Except me, we sat in that wind shadow for so long the crew could have considered getting a water taxi and have a look at Toronga Park Zoo, rejoining later that evening when G-whizz may have broken free. It is so frustrating to sit in zero wind and watch your competitors sail past at speed only about 50 meters away!
Sufface to say one of our worst result,
Thanks to Ann, Robert and Colin for not being too critical, I am unsure that I could have been as gracious if the roles were reversed.
Once again the bonhomme on the deck of knowledge after the race reminded us, once again, why we sail out of GFS.

Today’s GFS Saturday point score started well enough, only three of us on board, Ann and Colin on head trim with both sharing main trim with me, not too much of a problem as the winds were predicted to be in our favour and that’s the way it turned out.

After a good start just off Clarkes Point, we quickly consolodated our lead and headed to the first mark just off Goat Island, where we almost arrived quite a distance ahead of the field, my timing of our last tack to lay the mark was a tad premature, no probs I thought, good boat speed a reasonable wind, I’ll just shoot the mark. Great idea except that the wind quickly left us and the boat speed went looking for it. Needless to say we were quickly in irons drifting with the non helpful tidal current watching half the fleet round the mark without too many issues.

We eventually extradited ourselves and were off on a run, on a chase, this was never going to go well, with only three of us spinnakers were out of the question and we were chasing some well sailed boats flying colourful bits.

Through some fortunate picking of shifts we could still  see the leading boats as they were passing Spectacle Is. We were able to pass all but “Velocity”, (you give Brian, Velocity’s skipper one inch and he promply takes a full nautical mile) on the work around Schnapper Island and back to the Goat buoy. Our second rounding of the Goat buoy was a little more seamanship like, our last challenge then was as to keep a fast (spinnaker clad) approaching “Hasta la Vista” behind. The fickle winds of Humbug were on our side and we were able to finish nearly a minute ahead of Hasta la Vista, but about three minutes behind “Velocity”.

Well done to “Paca” for their handicap win and John for his second on handicap on “Hasta la Vista”. Due to the vagaries of our handicap system Brian an “Velocity” finished an undeservered handicap seventh. Results here.

Moral of this story is that if you are going to shoot a mark, make sure the gun is loaded.

Last evening was the first race of the Autumn Twilight Series at Greenwich Flying Squadron, the forecast was for light winds and they were spot on! The fleet started in about a 5 knot southerly (about the strongest all race), from our vantage point it appeared that all 10 boats hit the line together, prompting the starters to announce on the radio “Blue fleet clear start – JUST!”.

We were third out of Humbug behind “Passion” and “Agrovation” and that’s the way it stayed until the finish. As usual “Passion” was able to pick the shifts and catch what ever wind was available, they slowly pulled away from “Agrovation” who in turn were slowly pulling away from us. These two boats have crew that are champion dinghy sailors, and they do show it in their skills. I get a sense of satisfaction when I can keep these guys in sight.

I thought that we may be able to catch the boats in front when they were becalmed in the vicinity of Goat Island, only to experience the same fate ourselves. They got first use of a building easterly, to about 3 knots, and pulled away again.

On the run back to the finish we had about 15 minutes of time left, we were half way between Birchgrove and Greenwich points, we had around 1 knot of breeze and still had to get through Humbug. The boat speed was showing 0.00 but there was the faint hint of movement off the stern. Then it started to rain, unusually the rain brought about 4 knots of wind and we able to finish with about six minutes to spare before the time limit, four and half minutes behind “Passion” and about a minute behind “Agrovation” the three of us being the only Blue division boats to finish within the time limit. A first place due to a generous handicap put another excellent bottle of Back Vintage into our wine rack. Results here.

Thanks to Graham on the main, Ann and Adrian (a mate of Chris’s from New York) on head trim and Chris taking care of most other matters.