Nemesis - Sydney Harbour Racing

13 July 2013 | The Taylor pad, Surry Hills
07 July 2013 | Sydney Harbor
30 June 2013 | Sydney Harbor
23 June 2013 | Sydney Harbor
16 June 2013 | Sydney Harbor
02 June 2013 | Sydney Harbor
26 May 2013 | Sydney Harbor
23 May 2013 | CYCA Board Room
19 May 2013 | Sydney Harbor
08 July 2012 | Sydney Harbor
02 July 2012 | Sydney Harbor
24 June 2012 | Sydney Harbor
17 June 2012 | Sydney Harbor
03 June 2012 | Sydney Harbor
27 May 2012 | Sydney Harbor
20 May 2012 | Sydney Harbor
13 May 2012 | Sydney Harbour
06 May 2012 | Sydney Harbour

Race 5 of the Audi Winter Series

27 May 2012 | Sydney Harbor
jT - sunny and moderate winds
Crew: (Doug, Chris, Luke, Yvette, Manuel , Jeff )

(Guillermo have a great trip to Spain and see you on your return!)

We all staggered on board to a sunny winters day. Brisk temperature with consistent southerly winds from the south, due to be building over the afternoon. The crew prepped the boat while I fussed around with the course in the GPS. Last week the course was trying to start mid-course, so some gentle coaxing and a few choice words later all was fixed.

We motor over past the start line, with course “A” being declared. This is the most common course of the winter series, so we know it quite well. The tide was due to be high around an hour after our start so we shouldn’t see too many tidal effects until late in the race.

Hoisting the main and #2 jib in Rose Bay, we heel over in the 18 knot breeze. Full main and #2 is a good balance. The #2 jib is one of the oldest on the boat, and it had to be re-cut quite high in the foot (in a Yankee sail style to get rid of some sun damage from a previous owner rolling it the wrong way with the sun protection furled INSIDE the sail). Our sail maker is rubbing his hands together in glee as we will be replacing this #2 next!

We jockey for position and get the time set within a second of the start boat’s display. Off to a good start we chase after L’eau Co. and HubcapII that are off just three minutes in front of us. We get close on the first mark, just past Clark Island, but just can’t reel them in on the reach back to Bradley Head. I time the leading boat, L’eau Co., as she rounds the mark and we are still 00:03:20 behind her so on the first two legs she has gained twenty seconds on us. By the first leg of our downwind run, poled out and wing-on-wing on a Starboard tack we quickly eat up the distance to EC2. So much so that we take all that time back from L’eau and beat her to the mark. Sights set on the next few boats in sight we beat back up to Shark Island. We trade tacks with Star Ferry and she is just slightly faster and able to point much higher on this tack (we are missing the weight of Dan, Ollie and Guillermo up on the rail!)

Passing the start boat, with the first lap completed in just under an hour, L’eau and Star Ferry are hot on our heels. We fight the entire leg to hold off L’eau, but just can’t with her taking us just before the Garden Island turning mark (L’eau took the mark so close we thought she hit it). Hubcap passes around the mark before us, and the crew hiking on the side are making obscene gestures as the pass us. Pretty rich from a boat and crew we don’t even know, but good sportsmanship obviously doesn’t click with every crew on the harbor, I personally think a boat’s crew tend to mirror the skipper’s attitude. Dashed we pursue her for the rest of the race. A few of our tacks were sloppy and too slow, so we change over crew positions and try to squeak the most speed out of Nemmy as we can.

At the Nielsen Point mark we see HubcapII has rounded and is charging down the line on port tack. L’eau is closing and I’m baffled to see Hubcap not give way or tack? She is trying to hold as high to the wind as she can, but L’eau must have called Starboard on her! I watch as L’eau violently swerves and barely missing being ran down by Hubcap, who I don’t even see change course! Expecting Hubcap to take her penalty turn, she glides by us with the crew grinning and snickering. Very poor form.

We continue to chase L’eau around the course and end up just seconds behind L’eau and Star Ferry. As we near the finish, I put on our little red protest flag as does L’eau. Pulling up after the finish line we have a quick chat with L’eau and let them know we will support their protest.

After clearing the fleet that was returning to Rushcutter’s Bay, we did a few practice tacks to help everyone with the things Doug and I noticed during the race. We also poled out the headie a few times to let everyone get a hand at running the strings for the topping lift and downhaul. We’ll do a few more practice items before next week’s race as well.

Analyzing the race results, we ended up in sixth place, not even a minute behind L’eau and a minute and a half behind Star Ferry. In looking at elapsed time for the entire race, us and Hubcap completed it in 01:38 with us just six seconds slower than him. The top three boats in our division’s cumulative results all finished within three minutes of each other, with the winner nine minutes faster than us. All in all the handicapping is pretty good, with wind patterns and local conditions making for the differences in finishes. Still hard to know our Nemesis, L’eau, was passed by us but we couldn’t hold them behind us. ARRGH! Later in the bar I joked with L’eau’s owner, Grant Pollock, that he must have emptied his water tanks as we just couldn’t match his speed today. Till next week!
Comments
Vessel Name: Nemesis
Vessel Make/Model: C&C 41
Hailing Port: K&J: Sydney, Australia - Nemesis: Chico, California
Crew: Jeff & Kirsty
About:
We now have the South Pacific trip behind us. What a glorious year and a half. We averaged 5.5 knots on our ~12,000 mile voyage. We made landfall into Australia at Bundaberg. [...]
Extra:
Kirsty and I got engaged in March and were married in November... Bought a house in Surry Hills AND prepping for the 2010 Sydney Hobart race! Trust me, never take on these three things in the same year! This year racing will be quite different, now we aren't living on the boat and can actually [...]
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