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Friday, April 10, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Well the Halls Head Classic started in a nice strong easterly 20-25 knots and we were in our element. Unfortunately the breeze tapered from there on dropping to next to nothing and creating a bit of a lottery as to where to go or which shift to pick until the sea breeze could kick in. We rounded just in fornt of farrago at horse shoe reef only to be 30 minutes in front of them to peelhurst, and then they actually beat us over the line getting the benefit of the sea breeze before us. Over all it seemed that everyone sailed their own race in their own breeze. We had breeze from every direction of the compasss over the day. We sailed pretty much as well as we could in the conditions we faced and were pretty happy that we had done all we could but unfortunately others had a better selection suited to their boats.
Saturday night was a great night with one of those balmy evenings greeting all the yachts from perth into mandurah. Joe Cammilleri playing on the shore in the background , the crab fest was on with loads of people in town and the fireworks display at 9 pm a rather special one.
Sunday started again with a good easterly only to fade to nothing so the play of the day was to start the motor and empty the fridge instead while taking the boat back to Mandurah. After that it apparently gets a bit blurry so I cannot expand.
So this almost brings to a close one magnificent journey on a yacht that continues to impress its crew with the flexibility abilities that continues to win accolades of many sorts. It's now time for the crew to step up a level to the new boat and on a sad note leave This Way Up to a new enthusiastic owner yet to be identified.
This will also bring to a close this blog site with future postings on Charlottes Web ----> follow link.
http://charlotteswebmarten49.blogspot.com/
THIS WAY UP for sale advert soon to grace these pages
Saturday night was a great night with one of those balmy evenings greeting all the yachts from perth into mandurah. Joe Cammilleri playing on the shore in the background , the crab fest was on with loads of people in town and the fireworks display at 9 pm a rather special one.
Sunday started again with a good easterly only to fade to nothing so the play of the day was to start the motor and empty the fridge instead while taking the boat back to Mandurah. After that it apparently gets a bit blurry so I cannot expand.
So this almost brings to a close one magnificent journey on a yacht that continues to impress its crew with the flexibility abilities that continues to win accolades of many sorts. It's now time for the crew to step up a level to the new boat and on a sad note leave This Way Up to a new enthusiastic owner yet to be identified.
This will also bring to a close this blog site with future postings on Charlottes Web ----> follow link.
http://charlotteswebmarten49.blogspot.com/
THIS WAY UP for sale advert soon to grace these pages
Monday, March 2, 2009
Well another Port Geographe Bay Race Week has come and gone, what a week of competition and teamwork.
TWU has continued to surprise us on her all round ability from playing out in the ocean with the big boys to around the cans with the performance river racers, is there nothing this girl cannot do?
Hats off to Liesl, Crews Control, By & Large and Archimedes who were not going to let us walk away with the trophies without a good battle on the water their positive sailing attitudes both on and off the water were a credit to them.
It was hard to imagine the week being any better with the format of racing chosen, some would say like ourselves more passage racing and less short courses but overall the thumbs go up.
Next year should see us campaigning Charlotte in the Port Geographe Bay Race Week with our adventures on TWU rapidly drawing to a close. Just the Avalon Sail Co Halls Head and Point Robert Return Ocean Races to go next week.
TWU has continued to surprise us on her all round ability from playing out in the ocean with the big boys to around the cans with the performance river racers, is there nothing this girl cannot do?
Hats off to Liesl, Crews Control, By & Large and Archimedes who were not going to let us walk away with the trophies without a good battle on the water their positive sailing attitudes both on and off the water were a credit to them.
It was hard to imagine the week being any better with the format of racing chosen, some would say like ourselves more passage racing and less short courses but overall the thumbs go up.
Next year should see us campaigning Charlotte in the Port Geographe Bay Race Week with our adventures on TWU rapidly drawing to a close. Just the Avalon Sail Co Halls Head and Point Robert Return Ocean Races to go next week.
Friday, February 27, 2009
1st geograph race week 2009
Looks like tonight could be very messy! Yesterday we had a 1st and a third which pretty much said all we had to do today was start to take it out. We did better with what looks like a second over the line and another win on handicap. The stuff of legends. When one considers the other boats were stacked with rock stars flown in for the event to crew, this is awesome and were are somewhat happy with our performance.
Todays race started in a light breeze and we were able to use our white kite, come JT, come code zero and simply sailed away. Our two closest competitiors both with rock stars finished around 15 minutes behind us on a shortened course after refusing to gybe when we did. Now comfortably sat back at the accomodation we are drinking margiritas as a precurser to the presentation tonight.....I wonder what time we will leave tomorrow. Looking forward to our rock stars due in this evening to help with the delivery back to mandurah.
Meanwhile back on the road news is that Charlotte in in WA somewhere on the nullabour.
Todays race started in a light breeze and we were able to use our white kite, come JT, come code zero and simply sailed away. Our two closest competitiors both with rock stars finished around 15 minutes behind us on a shortened course after refusing to gybe when we did. Now comfortably sat back at the accomodation we are drinking margiritas as a precurser to the presentation tonight.....I wonder what time we will leave tomorrow. Looking forward to our rock stars due in this evening to help with the delivery back to mandurah.
Meanwhile back on the road news is that Charlotte in in WA somewhere on the nullabour.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Race week
Well halfway through race week and its all happening. We had a cracking start to the week with 3 first places and a second. Taking out the long passage race and the night race. Three windward leewards yesterday and we were pretty much a target for the other boats resulting in some very average starts and mediocre results. Probably had something to do with the fact that many of the crew did not get to bed until 4 am! At close of business last night we were still sitting in first but not by far. Todays racing and tomorrows racing will be the decider. The racing is very close and exciting. One mistake and its all over. some positions on corrected time differ by only one second .
Todays racing was better than yesterday but still waiting on results. We are happy with our day and believe we are still sitting in first. Two windward leewards tomorrow and another passage race to go.
The question is should we go on the pub crawl tonight? hmmn........
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Silos race
The theme for the next day was that you could not crew in your normal position. Bugs on the bow, captain blowhard on the helm, naviguessor on the main, mattman on the strings, oh dear this is going to be interesting! The weather forecast was changing by the minute so anything could happen and did. With forecasts of a SW strengthening during the day we had a kite start in a 4knot southeasterly. Most boats parked on the line but for 3 boats. One look at bugs and it was pretty obvious that the only three boats moving had Avalon Sails kites and mains. A happy little chappy this weekend was bugs.
We carried the kite to the first mark with Fairy tern rounding first and the wind followed us round through the east to become a 10-15 north westerly and carried us all the way to bussellton in true champagne sailing. Awesome sail, a couple of unhappy crew when we had to wake them to put some weight up when we were carrying the kite at 59 degrees apparent for a brief period when the wind hit 300 degrees, before returning to 320. Result 1st on IRC and some drunken sailors for the bus trip home. Thanks to Phil for being the bus driver.
We carried the kite to the first mark with Fairy tern rounding first and the wind followed us round through the east to become a 10-15 north westerly and carried us all the way to bussellton in true champagne sailing. Awesome sail, a couple of unhappy crew when we had to wake them to put some weight up when we were carrying the kite at 59 degrees apparent for a brief period when the wind hit 300 degrees, before returning to 320. Result 1st on IRC and some drunken sailors for the bus trip home. Thanks to Phil for being the bus driver.
Bunbury Classic
A strong Southerly with a bit of east greeted us as predicted on Friday night providing plenty of action at the 6pm start for the long haul south. We opted for the pin end and were looking okay until Walk on the Wildside decided to shove us off the edge of the course. We rounded the day bouy in a respectable position but probably further back than we would have liked.
Everyone was heading well up of windmills mark and doubt was cast on the navigator as he gave the correct course (you doubters). We hoisted a kite and headed in the correct direction with only one other boat flying a kite but eventually others followed . We rounded the mark with windows absolutely trucking and almost out of sight as we began to bash through the confused and lumpy seas south. Thankfully there was some east in the breeze that meant it was straight to bouvard.
Windows was out of sight when news on the radio came through that they dropped their mast after a fitting let go. A pity as the race record would surely have been on the cards.
From here it was just business as usual with bums on the rail and a little uncomfortable with several members of the crew vanishing from the rail to do their evening prayers….at least I think that’s what they were doing on their hands and knees! Much entertainment was provided during the night when it was decided that a sail change was in order after “o damn” couldn’t get the boat going. Matt provided much needed motivation and the tactician completely lost it in fits of laughter for at least ten minutes when Captain blowhard decided to impersonate a blowfish or perhaps was providing a safety demonstration of how the inflatable life vests work, meanwhile the naviguessor lost power to the laptop with bouvard reefs all around us. Somewhat chaotic but quite entertaining.
After a couple more sail changes and dawn broke as the swell settled and it was smooth sailing from here into a more southerly breeze. By now the big boats had finished and thsourtherly just put some distance between us making it hard to get a good result.
We finished with a 4th on IRC at 8:15 am after Next factor, Knee deep (race record), and optimus prime.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Preparations for the Bunbury Cup
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The boat is out of the water with a working Bee scheduled for saturday 7th.. Preparations are underway for the Bunbury Classic in just over a week. B has gone to Sydney for a holiday on her own for some modifications and upgrades to overcome the lack of motivation she shows during races. But for those keen followers of this site, there is a major change of plan ....................check this site for the gossip........ http://charlotteswebmarten49.blogspot.com/But what does this mean for TWU? Stay tuned for more up to date news.....
Monday, January 26, 2009
Pot of Gold - The weekend that was.
Well the two days of racing have wound up and the weekend ended with a mixed bag of results.
Saturday saw us race around Rottnest in an anticlockwise direction out to Sorrento up to scarborough back to centaur reef and then to the finish at Hillarys.
A pretty good start and out to the day buoy a shy kite run around to the top of Rotto where we made some good gains but then that was it. Pretty much a soldiers course from there with the wind right up our rear at around 13-17 knots most of the day. Not good for our isometric kite set up so all we could do was minimize the threat from others making large gains on us with symmetrical kites. We ended up with a 5th on IRC. We probably could have made up another 30sec to a minute with things that we tried and didn’t work, and jybing earlier on the last run but it would have no impact on the final result with us still 2 minutes behind 4th.
Sunday saw 3 Windward leeward courses for the IRC championship.
The first saw us break the start….well according to the start boat calling over the radio anyway, and much to our amazement. We all are pretty much in agreement on board that we were well behind the line, not to mention a stunned simon, but you can’t argue with the start boat, even Simon with his red firemans hat! After returning to the start , with V on the rib wondering why we were going back … we then ended up stuck behind crews control doing an excellent cover job on us, they sailed well most of the weekend. We ended up with a fourth, behind crews control.
Race 2 and a better start good crew work and close racing saw us in a reasonable finish sequence and our marvelous display of a goosewinged kite! We placed 2nd behind bad habits.
Race 3 knee deep and next factor both broke the start. Great crew work in a strengthening sea breeze, better winds allowed us to make better use of the assys and we had a good finish. In the bag with first place. Two money bags full of Gold.
Overall we took out second with 7 points behind Bad Habits with 4, congrats to them , even sailing with some serious damage on their transom compliments of Total Recall before the start.
The delivery back to Freo with oh damn, mattman, and naviguessor was straight into a 17-20knot SW sea breeze but it was excellent with a reef and the new no4 doing speeds of 7 knots. A bit less swell perhaps could have been more comfortable on our already broken bodies though.
TWU was tucked safety at home in the new pen at Freo by 6pm and was frolicking amongst the strawberry fields with her new friend Maritimo when we left.
Nav out.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Winners are grinners!
A happy bunch of punters after scooping the trophies at RFBYC in Perth, oh and a wonderful evening it was. The BBQ's with the best view in Perth overlooking the swan river.
I thought last year was the year of trophies but the winning streak continues..........
The Farrawa series perpetual cup
1st Div 1 IRC
1st Div 1 YAH
Monday, January 12, 2009
Bunbury return race
With the Bunbury and Return the first longer race (169 nm) following on from the Geraldton Effort which was not so succesful a few of the crew were wanting to do well in this race. The forecast going into the race was not looking good for a small boat with a dying breeze on the Sunday going to make it difficult we knew that we had to be as close to the 40 footers as possible to have any chance with this race and the Farrawa cup.
The start was in a 10 - 12 know southerly which we did well with rounding just behind Next Factor and in front of High Anxiety next was one of those silly two sail reach thing out to windmills where we rounded behind the 40 footers but a couple of minutes in front of the boats around our size. The plan was head out to sea until the breeze swang around and then tack and head south for the next 80 odd nauticle miles. After about an hour and a half the swing was showing signs so we said we either tack when the breeze hits 200 TWD (True Wind Direction), it got to 12.30pm or The Next Factor tack. The Next Factor tacked about 5 min later so we did and at the same time the breeze went to 200 TWD. With the forecast showing it should go around to about 220 TWD as the sea breeze kicked in we were hoping to lay Cape Bouvard but only just. We soon changed to the medium (or number 1 medium / heavy as some like to call it) and an hour or so later we went to the number 3 headsail. It soon became apparent what each boat's plan was with Wild Side, Wild One and our selves going the coastal route and inside bouvard reefs Knee Deep, The Next Factor and High Anxiety taking the offshore route. Our decision was based on Navigator Adam thinking that if we knock into the beach later on near bunbury we will have a better angle to come out to sea on then what the boats that headed out to sea early did.
The Plan nearly went picture perfect except for the 9 minute tack we had to put in as we could not quite get past cape bouvard. At the 0620 sched we knew we were looking ok as the Next Factor were only 2nm south of us and 3nm out to sea and High Anxitey as south as we were but again 3nm out to sea. The flat water inside bouvards had as sitting on 7 knots with good height. Simon and Andrew however not fairing the best and were having a competiting on who could throw up the most of which I am still not sure who won. About 15nm out of Bunbury the breeze started knocking us and lightening off and Simon came back to help with the headsail changes back to the medium and then the light whilst we were tacking up the beach and at some points could quite clearly see the trees even though it was dark. We went aroung Bunbury about 11.30pm with a big cheer for the people on the rounding boat about 4.5nm behind next factor and 2nm behind High Anxiety so we were looking good. We set the big white kite and soon everyone started disappearing and Simon who was wide awake after his long sleep stearing and Adam trimming Kite and Main sailing back up the coast in flat water and excellent conditions making the trip worth it. At about 2.50pm we had caught High Anxiety up with 2 on deck and soon other awakened. I went to sleep for half an hour then did the next sched were again we were lookin good but wildside were 32nm in front and had the race in the bag. When I came up on deck and had a look I noticed we were a bit close to the reef and so the fun began with Simon on the helm, Andrew & Bugs trimming Kite and John on the main and myself on the tablet we started playing games with the reefs and went a bit close for my liking at times but got through and carried the kite at 45 degrees apparant at one point at the last reef we had people on the bow ready for the headsail to go up so that is how close we were. We finally put a headsail up about half an hour later and played the shore and changing between the blue kite and headsail a number of times until we were up at the top of Garden Island where the breeze shut out. The Next Factor parked up just past windmills so we were not out of it yet. We floated around and put the big kite up to hope for the best when the seabreeze was sighted on the horizon. we gybed towards it and finally carried it in to the finish line.
We knew wildside had it in the bag on IRC and YAH but new we did well as were not far behind next factor. and we think we ended up placing 2nd on IRC and 4th on YAH (It is not really fair that a 40 footer only has to give us 34minutes in a 27 hour race). This has now got us heading towards presentations on Thursay looking at winning three out three trohpies for the Farrawa Cup series a great result.
Also special mention to Eileen Moore for cooking the Lasagne which tasted great at Midnight coming home even though it was cold.
Adam
The start was in a 10 - 12 know southerly which we did well with rounding just behind Next Factor and in front of High Anxiety next was one of those silly two sail reach thing out to windmills where we rounded behind the 40 footers but a couple of minutes in front of the boats around our size. The plan was head out to sea until the breeze swang around and then tack and head south for the next 80 odd nauticle miles. After about an hour and a half the swing was showing signs so we said we either tack when the breeze hits 200 TWD (True Wind Direction), it got to 12.30pm or The Next Factor tack. The Next Factor tacked about 5 min later so we did and at the same time the breeze went to 200 TWD. With the forecast showing it should go around to about 220 TWD as the sea breeze kicked in we were hoping to lay Cape Bouvard but only just. We soon changed to the medium (or number 1 medium / heavy as some like to call it) and an hour or so later we went to the number 3 headsail. It soon became apparent what each boat's plan was with Wild Side, Wild One and our selves going the coastal route and inside bouvard reefs Knee Deep, The Next Factor and High Anxiety taking the offshore route. Our decision was based on Navigator Adam thinking that if we knock into the beach later on near bunbury we will have a better angle to come out to sea on then what the boats that headed out to sea early did.
The Plan nearly went picture perfect except for the 9 minute tack we had to put in as we could not quite get past cape bouvard. At the 0620 sched we knew we were looking ok as the Next Factor were only 2nm south of us and 3nm out to sea and High Anxitey as south as we were but again 3nm out to sea. The flat water inside bouvards had as sitting on 7 knots with good height. Simon and Andrew however not fairing the best and were having a competiting on who could throw up the most of which I am still not sure who won. About 15nm out of Bunbury the breeze started knocking us and lightening off and Simon came back to help with the headsail changes back to the medium and then the light whilst we were tacking up the beach and at some points could quite clearly see the trees even though it was dark. We went aroung Bunbury about 11.30pm with a big cheer for the people on the rounding boat about 4.5nm behind next factor and 2nm behind High Anxiety so we were looking good. We set the big white kite and soon everyone started disappearing and Simon who was wide awake after his long sleep stearing and Adam trimming Kite and Main sailing back up the coast in flat water and excellent conditions making the trip worth it. At about 2.50pm we had caught High Anxiety up with 2 on deck and soon other awakened. I went to sleep for half an hour then did the next sched were again we were lookin good but wildside were 32nm in front and had the race in the bag. When I came up on deck and had a look I noticed we were a bit close to the reef and so the fun began with Simon on the helm, Andrew & Bugs trimming Kite and John on the main and myself on the tablet we started playing games with the reefs and went a bit close for my liking at times but got through and carried the kite at 45 degrees apparant at one point at the last reef we had people on the bow ready for the headsail to go up so that is how close we were. We finally put a headsail up about half an hour later and played the shore and changing between the blue kite and headsail a number of times until we were up at the top of Garden Island where the breeze shut out. The Next Factor parked up just past windmills so we were not out of it yet. We floated around and put the big kite up to hope for the best when the seabreeze was sighted on the horizon. we gybed towards it and finally carried it in to the finish line.
We knew wildside had it in the bag on IRC and YAH but new we did well as were not far behind next factor. and we think we ended up placing 2nd on IRC and 4th on YAH (It is not really fair that a 40 footer only has to give us 34minutes in a 27 hour race). This has now got us heading towards presentations on Thursay looking at winning three out three trohpies for the Farrawa Cup series a great result.
Also special mention to Eileen Moore for cooking the Lasagne which tasted great at Midnight coming home even though it was cold.
Adam
Friday, January 9, 2009
Delivery record
Well a new competition has started. Delivery times between Mandurah and Perth.
2 weeks ago John and Matt had a great sail from Perth to Mandurah arriving before the galley in Mandurah opened and looked to be holding the record.
Last night we managed a new record of 3 hours and 52 minutes from Mandurah to Perth in a nice 22 knot southerly. This includes a short period of uodwind work for a photo shoot of the new number 4 oH and some upwind work with the kite up by Matt that we wont mention (much). A nice looking sail at that, well done boys in the loft.
Adam achieved the unwritten with a beer in one hand GPS in the other and somehow still managed to steer the yacht with the kite up. Remember the rule is only one toy in the playpen!
Meanwhile Matt breaking this rule achieived the best speed of 11.8 knots but this was shortlived when he decided to crash and burn while Andrew was on the head. But we should mention the fact that he did not spill his beer. Once again one toy in the playpen boys!
A nice sail and the crew is all looking forward to the Bunbury Classic on the weekend...... stay tuned for updates........
2 weeks ago John and Matt had a great sail from Perth to Mandurah arriving before the galley in Mandurah opened and looked to be holding the record.
Last night we managed a new record of 3 hours and 52 minutes from Mandurah to Perth in a nice 22 knot southerly. This includes a short period of uodwind work for a photo shoot of the new number 4 oH and some upwind work with the kite up by Matt that we wont mention (much). A nice looking sail at that, well done boys in the loft.
Adam achieved the unwritten with a beer in one hand GPS in the other and somehow still managed to steer the yacht with the kite up. Remember the rule is only one toy in the playpen!
Meanwhile Matt breaking this rule achieived the best speed of 11.8 knots but this was shortlived when he decided to crash and burn while Andrew was on the head. But we should mention the fact that he did not spill his beer. Once again one toy in the playpen boys!
A nice sail and the crew is all looking forward to the Bunbury Classic on the weekend...... stay tuned for updates........
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