Roland Smith & Gordan Craig Race

After a Glamour delivery trip to Fremantle doing 13.5 knots through Challenger passage with a beer in hand and four on board we had a race from Freo to Rockingham on the Saturday and back again on Sunday.

The Roland Smith Race on Saturday started out in good pressure with a big pin end biased, we had The Next Factor and Steel de Breeze up there we chose to go for clear air hit the line on starboard get to the left side of the coarse and flop over which we did and went around not far behind The Next Factor and with the remainder of the fleet. The breeze then started to swing south and lighten off which is usual on the WA coast. We carried the kite heading south and slowely bent around with it and turned out to be 2nd around this buoy behind The Next Factor who took off in the light stuff but in front of the remaining 40 - 60 footers. we then had a 4.5 mile leg south at a time where the breeze was transitioning from the SE to the SW seabreeze and after crossing tacks with Wild Side (Inglis 58) and Knee Deep (Farr 49) we had to let them go as Water Line Length wins. All the boats making there intentions clear The Next Factor and Ourselves went out as far as we could go until the rocks got in the way hoping for the seabreeze and the remainder of te fleet staying next to the channel trying to stay in the South Easterly. The boats out to sea got it right and came in on a nice board at the Green number 10 Channel Mark doing 6 - 7 knots whilst the boats in closer were still stuck and we actually got back inside Walk on the Wild Side for a bit (It is not often a 36 footer goes past a 60 footer in 1 race). Unfortuanly due to The Next Factor's better power to weight ratio they pulled ahead and got out to about 8 minutes in front on IRC. We had a beat out The lead marker and then we got let back in as Next Factor did not put a kite up till later on down to Jervious Bay and we did the whole way which was an excellent angle. We went arount Jervious Bay in 4 th position still infront of Wild One a 50 footer and Steele de Breeze a 40 footer. We showed some excellent height & pace during the next 6 mile beat and Wild One rounded a minute or so in front and Steele de Breeze still behind us by about a minute. In the next run the big boats powered away however we still managed to hold on to Steel de Breeze coming into the closing stages of the race the final 4 mile beat and lap down rockingham beach we worked hard to stay with them after making a slight gain up hill on Steel de Breeze we wanted nothing else but to knock them off over the line. Unfortunatly this did not happen however the got 2nd on IRC by 4 minutes and 48 seconds and won on YAH. It should be noted that the next boat on IRC was over 20 minutes behind us.

Sunday arose for the Gordan Craig and so did a few hangover's (Ben, coming on as guest Bowmen and Adam) we had a relaxing morning and eventually motored out to the start line with Ben's head over the side of the boat with the Hangover. After a delayed start we had an excellent start at the pin end however eventually The Next Factor started gassing over so we flopped over and so did they. So back we went again and showed excellent pace rounding with the big boats again (oh, how fun it is to play with boats up to 20 foot bigger than you) we then had a kite ride in building pressure to the other side of rockingham and stayed with these boats through this sailing an excellent angle and all the other boats sailing to high early. We then had a sail the beach crossing tacks with Wild Side and by the time we got to the last mak on the beach we were in great position. With a 4 mile kite ride up Cockburn Sound and then 3 mile back toward rockingham we tried to hang on for as long as we could and then up to Jervoise Bay it was then up the Cockburn Channel the boat was being sailed well with John doing exceptionally well making a guest appearance up on mast. Once out at the Channel we new we were in with a chance on IRC. it was a lovely angle for this 5 mile ride with top speed about 12 knots. Adam (Odam) was sitting there on B looking at the angle as his calculations were showing the leg with the red kite was going to be an awesome angle with maybe a little bit on. The other boats were dropping kites which I could not understand however eventually Bad Habbits went around from Div 2 (They sailed a shorter course) with there big kite) This finalised the decision that we gybe the red kite we had up. Well what a choice that was we the last run into the finish line we were sitting consistantly above 11.5 knots and a Top Speed of 13.5 knots to the instruments went into there funny mood. Bugs had his lucky red hat on, Ben was being his usual self although it was funny when he was having a leak off the back whilst we were doing 13 knots and yells out how fast we are doing. This was a fantastic way to end the day and we are in the money for a good result.