MG Report – 18 November
Ok so I know you are all used to a very professional and highly technical race report but unfortunately we won, so here it is…..
The Start! What can I say?
We were well behind the fleet so we had to start racing with 30 secs left on the countdown clock. I was out on the wire and heading straight for the line when all I could see from my horizontal vantage point was the starter boat transom heading straight for my head and Lloyd telling us to “push it up!”. I thought I was either going to be decapitated or end up watching the rest of the race from the deck of the starter boat! Anyway we crossed the line successfully in last place. All we could hope for from here was to do a “Bradbury” with the rest of the field sinking.
First Windward leg…
Everyone was ahead of us and it was hard to see who was leading from my rear vantage point, but I believe it was Tempest first around the top mark, followed closely by Pegasus, Ella and Blues Brothers….and then the rest of us…
A panicked rounding of the top mark and anything but pretty Spinnaker set saw us on our way! With a wild and (from my inexperienced crew viewpoint), somewhat “uncontrolled” spinnaker ride, we successfully (i.e. without a swim) rounded the bottom mark – Go the Bradbury!
With visions of Ella overturned up ahead of us, there was a glimmer of hope! Could we possibly beat The Master??? Short answer…..No. By the time we reached the spot where Ella had overturned they had already lapped up twice, well not literally but it may as well have been they were so far ahead!
So on to the rest of the race….
Again, it was hard to see from where we were, but I believe it was Tempest all the way, followed by Pegasus and Blues Brothers, skippered by Shannon who had an amazing race.
We came in 5th (oh at least WE didn’t have a swim, unlike some others who swam 3 times), but we still got thrashed by Ella who came in well ahead of us in 4th place – so much for the Bradbury!
6th place went to Balistic, closely followed by High Calibre and Phoenix
After adjusting for Handicap the podium went to Fly By, High Calibre and Blues Brothers. Full credit for our win today goes to Stewart for his master sailing and boat set up knowledge and of course to our skipper for his mandatory 2 beers before every race!
A great day sailing was had by the novice and unco-ordinated crew!
See you all on the water again soon!
Ganell Williams (Fly By Crew)
