Autumn 5 Clubs and Pata Negra - Campomanes
11 December 2017
CN Campomanes ran the last of the 2017 5 Clubs events and merged it into their own three day Pata Negra Regatta.
Always popular, not least because Campomanes has such a classy club, we went out with the primary aim of securing enough points in the 5 Clubs race to ensure we would become Division B Champions for the 2017 9 race series.
Pleased to let you know we achieved our goal, and can now look forward to picking up a Series Champion trophy for 2017 when next years series commences in January at Moraira.
Friday's race started in light fluky winds. We got away well, seven up, and slid upwind from Campomanes towards the Altea fish farm, our first rounding. Did OK upwind, arriving even before some of the 46 footers, only then to hear that they'd abandoned the race. Lucky for those we had left behind, but not for us!
Saturday saw moderate winds and a similar course, and it turned into a competitive Division B race with four of our quickest yachts frequently swopping positions as we worked out to a windward mark before then reaching off across the bay. That lengthy tight reach saw our Code 0 gain us the lead until the leeward mark, when a furling issue allowed Dale Andar to get back in front. Level pegging then on a broader reach back across the bay looked good despite having Aurora and Paguelin on our tail, but when the winds backed and strengthened, our genoa proved to be our undoing.
We found ourselves just a tad over-canvassed as we beat upwind into 25+ knot winds but made the final rounding mark and after Eric had executed a simply perfect kiwi hoist in strong winds, we screamed off downhill for the finish. Dale Andar with her symmetrical kite still got in a couple of minutes ahead, just enough to give her a first spot. Aurora, a new to the circuit but well sailed Farr 36.7 crossed maybe a minute behind us, enough with her better rating to give her the second. And Jumbuck got a third. Our old running mates Paguelin got a forth.
So with low points already picked up over the previous 8 X 5 Clubs events, that 3rd place result was enough to cement the 5 Clubs 2017 series for us.
Job done. 😎. Well done everybody!
Sunday saw the fresh winds set in, so we went out mob handed having traded down from Genoa to the heavy small AP for what was supposed to be two short windward leeward courses.
The first race saw gusts close to 30 knots and whilst we stormed to windward with our 8 on the rail and handled the first off wind leg well, we lost our single kite halliard bashing up the second beat......
Didn't think we would hold off our rivals down the last run as we had no option but to sail real deep under white sails only for the three miles to the finish. Fortunately the winds were still 25+ so we weren't going slow, and as gusts came through we had both Aurora and Paguelin broaching wildly behind us. Suspect with our small asymmetric we would have handled that leg ok under kite, but we managed to keep our spot and lead the Division B boats over the finish.
For his penance, we then hoisted Nigel up a wildly swaying rig to get his halliard back!
But with at least four other yachts having damaged multiple kites on that first race it wasn't a surprise when they abandoned the planned second race and sent us all back in to join a dockside party. In the sheltered marina the sun continued to beat down - great way to spend a December Sunday......
The results for the three day Pata Negra series is calculated across all boats, with trophies for 1st to 6th. Eventually they got it all worked out, with the strong conditions Sunday giving the bigger boats most of the prizes. Aurora secured a 3rd overall. We just managed to squeak the 6th, so look forward to collecting that additional trophy at next Saturday's prizegiving party.
All in all, great long weekend on the water, and TWO trophies, and again we learnt lots! Every day in every way, we get a little better!
Our crew of Edo, Kevin, Sue, Eric, Rob, Chris Debour, guests Chris Engles and Nigel Robinson were exceptional. It's been great this year seeing our mob develop into an almost faultless race crew, especially as they are pretty good at the parties too.
And for sure having reconsidered the smaller APs in action and having sailed for the first time with a full 600 kg on the rail, weve learnt for future events to definately swop down at exactly 15 knots - and go out mob handed more often. All invaluable stuff for continued improvement.
Thanks once more to our honed pensionista team (!) we can all look forward to our Jumbuck Xmas bash, next weeks two day Trofeo Navidad at Altea, and then next year - all with anticipation.
On. On.