Sea conditions forecast for Sunday indicate we are in for some lee gunnel down Classic Racing.
The attachments have the Race 3 assigned handicaps for all entrants plus the associated Race 3 Sailing Instructions. Note that Item 8, time limit, is the same as Race 2. The recorded time of the first finisher will be announced when the race results are published.
Although our corrected times for previous races are tight across a range of sea conditions, small changes have been made to reflect the Race 2 results.
I’ll attempt to have the Race 3 results available asap after the race. Sometimes HBYC are a bit iffy in this area. Scott McDonald will post the provisionals on our web site asap.
Till 10:30 am on Sunday when we live again. Remember no rush of blood to the head barging at the start.
Those sylphs of Port Phillip provided another lesson why our Tumlare’s still have a strong and dedicated following. Light or heavy weather, smooth or rough seas, Port Phillip is continually told, it doesn’t matter what you throw at us, we will prevail. 3 out of the first four Race 2 placings, our Tum fleet had a great day out. By half a minute on corrected time, that great man Roger Dundas bought the heritage listed Bill Gash Red Tumlare ‘Avian’ home ahead the hard working team on George Fisscher and Michael Rhodes, ‘Boambille’.
While continual windshifts played they part in Race 2, as they do in all our race’s, watching team ‘Boambille’ over take ‘Mercedes III’ as fleet leader was an eye rubbing event. The battle between ‘Boambillee’ and ‘Mercedes III’ saw the lead change 4 times with ‘Boambille’ twice passing on spinnaker runs and ‘Mercedes III’ taking back the lead each time at the leeward mark for an eventual line honours take out over team ‘Boambille’ by 3 minutes and 8 seconds.
Back to the Tums.
Kate Solly bought ‘Ettrick’ home to take third on corrected time placing by 40 seconds over Charlie Salter who did a single handed in the manner of Dave Allen and bought home ‘Ellida’ fourth on corrected time.
Looking over the corrected times of the all finishers after the first four it indicates any mistakes on the water will show in the results. 30 seconds between ‘Mercedes III’, ‘Martini’ and ‘Pastime II’. 30 seconds between ‘Dingo’ and ‘Sayonara’ and 45 seconds between ‘Fairwinds II’, ‘Tina of Melbourne’ and ‘Loama’ tell the story how tight our racing is.
Now to the start.
’Fairwinds’ led the charge to the start line but was battling the water flow and was forced to tack on to port along with many others. The port end of the line was the place to start and most of the fleet headed towards it on starboard tack. Although ‘Mercedes III’ was closer to the line Martin Ryan read the river outflow to the nth degree and squeaked ever so close but cleanly past the pin end marker to continue on starboard and lead to the first mark.
Moment of the race.
Perhaps the moment of the race was the rules compliant take out of the fleet by ‘Bungoona’ under the helm of Cameron Dorrough, at 19A, the first turning mark. To squeeze through ‘Zephyr’ then tack under the bow of ‘Acrospire’ and hold off ‘Sayonara’ was an example of confident and not give an inch Classic Yacht racing.
Classic Yacht Racing Action
Although light winds prevailed throughout the race, close Classic Yacht racing was still happening across the fleet. ‘Windward II’ had some brief opportunities to show off her power racing capability. Earlier in the race ‘Avalon’ was also given some wind to put her two headsails to work and make up good ground on the back markers. ‘Pastime II’ worked hard to fill their big spinnaker while ‘Tina of Melbourne’ saw the need to double the Mark 20 gate and then hold off Acrospire III in the run to the finish line. Although out of the money, time wise, Andy Indrans still completed the course to give ‘Corio Vertue’ an honest race.
Handicapper action, aka sharpening the pencil.
Included in the Race 2 results tabulations are two additional columns. The numbers in these columns are part of the process used to assign a handicap for Race 3. CHC is the changed handicap calculation that weights the assigned handicap for each finisher of Race 2 against their back calculated handicap, 2/3rd to 1/3rd is the mix. The back calculated handicap yard stick for Race 2 was ‘Sayonara’. The average of the last 5 back calculated handicaps, as indicated in the second additional column, is also part of the Classic formula. In combination with these two instruments, your handicapper, who you all know and love, will then apply his guillotine, to what he deems to be high and low end performance exceptions in Race 2 and assign a handicap to each Race 3 entrant.
Below is the you tube address for a 2 minute video of our fleet working hard during the evolutions of Race 2. Thanks to Scott McDonald. Great images and another story for the international stage our Classic Yacht fleet races on.
Next Race June 3
Below is the track around yesterday’s course by ‘Acrospire III’. A lesson on how to turn 5.8 NM’s into 10.1 NM’s.
The handicapper was an on board scrutineer of ‘Acrospire III’s’ performance for Race 2. The eraser on the handicapper’s pencil will be give a work out prior to Race 3.
To give our Classic Yacht fleet a great show of Classic Yachting at its best, her skipper, Jim Woods is looking for additional hands to run and trim her multiple head sails in the way they’re meant to be, slowly and evenly with their max chord in the right place. Being a Royals course we expect lots of short tacks on Sunday. An additional hand to help gybe and trim the main won’t hurt either. ‘Windward II’ looks for a tight and fast sets on the main sheet to put her into that go fast lee gunnel down slot on the windward beat that will have her ready for the next tack.
Boom goes the dynamite. Who’s ready for an on water and tight Classic Yacht racing experience on one of Australia’s most significant and historic Classic Yachts, ‘Windward II’.
Attached are the entries, handicaps and Sailing Instructions for Race 2 of our 2013 Winter Series. Race 2 will be conducted by RYCV under the control of Race director, David LeRoy.
Race 2 Sailing Instructions Amendment.
After a discussion with the RYCV Race Director an amendment to the item 8 wording in the Sailing Instructions, Race Duration time, has been made. This change is on trial as a measure to help all our Classic Yacht fleet complete the race over the assigned course.
While there’s no change to the time limit for the first boat to finish, still 120 minutes, the race director will set a course that should bring the first boat home after approximately 90 minutes of racing. This means that in light conditions the race director will shorten the course earlier and give the remainder of the starting fleet 110 minutes to finish in lieu of previous 80 minutes. Analysing the Associations race results from the last 3 series of races shows 90 minutes is not far from first on elapsed time of these previous race results. Race duration of 90 minutes is also used in the group start formula for our pursuit races.
Item 8 has also been reworded to formalize the procedure that a DNF boat will be awarded points equal to the number of starters + 1. The normal rules quote DNF’s to be awarded points based on the number of entrants plus +1. This process of awarding started number points instead of series entry number points, is the process used by the Association to acknowledge the effort made by Classic Yachts to prepare for and start the race, but for whatever reason cannot complete the assigned course.
Handicaps
Looking over the handicaps, most yachts have small or no adjustments made for Race 2. These Race 2 allocated handicaps were run against the elapsed times for Race 1. Only a tightening up of the already tight corrected times occurred with no corrected time placing changes.
Assigned handicaps for our Classic Yacht racing are based on the Yachting Victoria system. This YV process uses a calculated handicap, based on the last race performance, using 2/3rds of the last race allocated handicap and 1/3 of the last race back calculated handicap. It’s at the discretion of the handicapper to use this calculated handicap for the following race. The handicapper is also required to maintain and is allowed to use the average back calculated handicap of each Classic Yacht based on the last five races that has entered in the series. This allows the handicapper to not have to assign to a yacht, that puts shocker of a lower end performance, a lower handicap for the next race. Never mind yachts that put in an out of character upper end performance. They get it in the neck.
2014 Geelong Wooden Boat Festival
There’s also a low resolution attachment from the 2014 Geelong Wooden Boat Festival organisers. Has information about what is going to happen. The information sheet will also be attached to our web site. A Classic Yacht Association dialog has been started with the organisers on the subject of permitting Association members with open cockpit yachts, i.e. Tum’s and Couta’s, to enter the Festivals Portarlington to Geelong race.
Fife Regatta on Clyde, Scotland.
For members interested in Fife designed Classic Yachts, our Website has a link to a Fife only Regatta on the Clyde in Scotland. Your association has been in contact with the Regatta organisers informing them of our Fife family here. Bobby Barr has also alerted the Fife Regatta organisers that ‘Caraid’ is alive and well and ready for racing. A link to this Fife Regatta website will appear on our web site.
Classic Yacht Magazine activity.
Roger Dundas is actively taking in articles for the next issue. Articles or photos that feature stories of sailing or saving Classic Yachts of yesteryear or about people associated with notable events of any description are always welcome. Our magazine is treated as a document of record. It’s archived by Government and museum bodies, It’s used as a credible reference source by marine historians. Any story or documents that a member has the opinion that the information is important and needs to be preserved for posterity then our Magazine is the place for that story.
Attached are the results of our 2013 Winter Series Race 1 plus then status of the Series points and the Marie Louise III consistency trophy.
Port Phillip tuned on conditions for another great day for Classic Yacht racing. Sailing amongst a classic fleet of 25 starters preparing for a race start was one of the many highlights of our first race of the 2013 Winter Series. For many of us the break between series is definitely not good for our start timing. Instead of our usual pressure start we had several not too late starters but no barging problems. The fleet soon split with those taking to the river side, to use the outgoing tide, came out top at the first mark. Maybe a gentle reminder is needed for skippers to be aware of the course bounding mark requirements when racing along the shipping channel.
The results show Kingurra taking out the race line honours from Mercedes III by 28 seconds with handicap honours going to a resurgent Mercedes III helmed by Martin Ryan and his soon to be enrolled Boy Scouts crew, for a primer on knot tying skill, rumor has it.. An excellent sail of the day by Roger Dundas and Pip Todd bought our Avian home for second overall and for a first within the Tumlare fleet, the mighty Kingurra took out a deserved third. Other notable sails were the George Fisscher and Michael Rhodes team who bought Boambillee home fourth overall and a closely watched performance, by the handicapper, from the Andy Doolan team to bring Tina of Melbourne home seventh, after her long break from Classic Yacht racing. Our first time starter with the Classics, Leigh Norgate’s Avalon, with noted prestart manoeuvres. Like all first timers for a Classic Yacht Race start, you learn more about your boat in five minutes when racing that in five years of no stress sailing. Leigh can vouch for that. Avalon made the start, in good time, looking a picture of graceful Classic beauty.
Still showing her war wounds from the 2013 Festival of Sails passage race drama, as described in our recent Classic Yacht Magazine, with Michael Williams on the helm and Ross Clark presiding, Martini put in another consistent performance that makes the handicapper want to sharpen his pencil. Dingo with Jim Hutchinson on the helm came in for sixth overall after other notable Tumlare performance. With our two other tums racing yesterday, Kate Solly helmed Ettrick home first across the line for the Tum fleet while Anne and Karen Batson had a strong sail on Zephyr that put her well in the top mix of corrected times.
Looking over the corrected time spread for race 1 shows that any mistake on the course will be punished. No doubt your handicapper, who you all know and love, will be sharpening his pencil after analysing the race results. This doesn’t apply to cutters that don’t fly topsails.
I’m told our classic yacht fleet, headlined with the topsail cutters of Sayonara and Acrospire III along with our Australian Registered Historic vessels in the form of Mercedes III, Avian and Cameron Dorrough’s Bungoona, racing along the Beaconsfield Parade foreshore were once again, people and car stopping images.
So we’ve broken the ice for our Winter Series. All our fleet for race 1 were winners for the cause of our fleet’s world class Classic Yacht racing.
To all Skippers and Crews of the Classics 2013 Winter Series.
The ‘Big Sleep’ is over and we re-start our Classic racing lives with the 2013 Winter Series.
Attached are the Race 1 Entries and their allocated handicaps.
For the first race of the Classics Winter Series of 2013, a fleet of 29 entries will hit the line at 10:30 am this Sunday morning, May 5, under the control of Race Director, Bob Tanner, of Hobsons Bay Yacht Club. Say no more, but what a Classic event this will be. Serious Classic racing at its best.
Some big features of the fleet for this series is the addition of Avalon, a beautiful Williams Aitkins ‘Little Dipper’ design under the helm of Leigh Norgate from Royals and the most welcome return of Andy Doolan’s Tina of Melbourne and Akala with David McNeice on the helm, both from the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron. We also have Lindsay Holland’s Tumlare` Zea back on the water, ready to take the fleet on.
A note of reassurance, Tandanya, who has never missed a Classic series, will be joining us. That great man of our fleet, Bob Munro, will have her with us soon. So rest easy you commando’s.
Re the handicaps. They’ve been tightened up. Most are those used to calculate the abandoned race 8 pursuit start times, the last race of our previous summer series. Don’t bother the handicapper, who you all know and love, with your suggestions. He’s already run the ruler over all the boats plus their skippers and crew. The boats and crews come up OK but those skippers look a bit shaky. Must do a rerun on them after this race.
For those who never bother reading or taking the SI’s out on the water, I suggest you think again. Four additional courses have been added. Two are out to P3 when racing conditions are suitable and two are set up with a shortened course option, to provide for light or strong wind conditions.
With the expectation of great on water battles across all our fleet at 10:30 am Sunday, with Tums to the fore, it’s Boom goes the Dynamite time. Stirring stuff, so while the blood rushes to the head, don’t forget the race start rules that say “NO BARGING”.
Attention all skippers and their attendant super numeries
Queenscliffe Maritime Festival
March 28-30
2014
The Maritime weekend at Queenscliff will be held on 28-30 March 2014 so note it in your sailing diaries. A great social and sailing event. The Classic team successfully defended the Guineas this year and Fairwinds won the Classic yacht race. More details in the next magazine.
This is a great opportunity for a cruising activity with family and friends for the Classic fleet.
To put yourself in the Queenscliffe Maritime Festival picture check out these articles from our Classic Yacht Magazine archives.
One by Carmen Bell Ex. pres. Couta Boat Association, the other by Michael McTavish who tells us what Ella didand how to set yourself up for the passage sail to Queenscliff
