Queenscliff to Geelong

[zebedee]

The Boat
The boat was great, the boat was tough, and it just kept plugging into the conditions. Some of the systems were not. The jib sheets were not long enough and needed attachments that could be undone and done up again without tools.

I use a single long (endless) jib sheet, attached to the clew at each end with sister clips.



The tack is also fastened to the modified Ronstan dinghy roller furler with sister clips, so that the sheets can be attached to the furler when derigging.

The endless jib sheet is threaded through a plastic ring and a plastic hook on the end of the mainsheet attaches to the ring for single handed sailing so that I never end up on the gunwhale in a gust, unable to reach the jib sheet.

[geoffr]

Peter:

Congrats on a great effort sailing under yesterday's conditions. The weather turned out to be far rougher and winder and colder and wetter than the BoM predicted!

I was crewing on a boat almost double your size, and I was worried! So you and your partner did a wonderful job just to sail as you did, despite your apparent frustrations. I'm heartened also to hear that the boat seemed to perform so well!

Thankyou so much too for making the effort to drive four hours down from Yarrawonga; that in itself was a triumph.

I would welcome your feedback on ensuring next year's event is even better (though we can't control the weather). For example, we're toying with the idea of staging it in late November, so that it's likely to be warmer on the water. Also, we're thinking of a Saturday race from Geelong to Queenscliff, then a social event overnight down there (perhaps at the local yacht club), then a more leisurely cruise back to Geelong on the Sunday for those with the time; otherwise tow home from Queenscliff.

Anyway, let us know your thoughts please. Who knows: if we got enough Investigators on the water by then we might even have our own scratch event?

BTW: I'm posting a longer race report and some pics/video over on the TSP site, so check that out too.

Cheers,

[Dr. Peter]

Geoff,
I wonder whether we need to be quite so precious about the start in such conditions. It was actually a bit of a mess on the day. If you guys just said we'll start the clock at 10:15am and everyone must pass close enough to the start boat to have their sail number recorded; that might have worked.

A weather report as part of a pre-race briefing might have been good. I was surprised there was not a pre-race briefing. Perhaps this could have happened on the previous evening where we could have met some of you locals. I would have liked a look at my chart with the assistance of a local. I don't have a GPS but it seemed to me that people sailed near the waypoints but pretty much ignored the tracks on the provided chart.

Generally though I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and feel I have grown as a sailor because of it.

Peter