DAMA said..
Line reef magic again, beautiful part of the world

looks so much better then my desk first thing in the morning

shaggybaxter said..
We had the first of the Kingfisher night races tonight. There are 4 races in the series, once a month on every full moon, held from now till Feb. It's a fantastic concept, I think if memory serves me correctly, this was originally borne out of a requirement for a pre Gladstone race series ( Jode? Lydia? anybody know for sure?) that gave boats an opportunity to sail at night in the protection of Moreton Bay before finding out offshore.
Each race is about 35nm, which is a nice length I think. It's long enough to be a little bit tactical and to allow recovery from the almost obligatory mistake or two, yet still be short enough to make it a fun arvo/evening on the water.

I love sailing at night, and most sailors I know do too. There's a special quality to it that I can't put my finger on, but you feel more alive maybe? Aware? I think it might be due to the loss in vision, forcing you other senses to become much more alert. And weirdly, one of these seems to be your peripheral vision?

We did ok in the race I think, and we had a really great night. The race finished before the moon came up, so we took the long way home to wait up for it. Couldn't get a pic of it, bit did get this is on the way to the NE mark.
Good times, thanks to all the other boats for a great, safe and fun night out.

Sounds like you had a great time ,I'm jealous I know exactly what you mean but then again sailing in Paradise
Other end of spectrum -Overnighter around Port Phillip , predawn ,winter ,cold , bloody drizzle as usual ,low visibility ,quartering sea 2 metre waves ,stuff all wind and no coffee!

To the swan river for my first sail in two yrs. Back injuries do that to ya but they also make you realise what you enjoy doing. Thankyou so much to Andrew at Funcats for helping out with a spare pin that I dropped in the drink. Such a nice thing to do and I am grateful. Even managed to get a hull in the air today.

shaggybaxter said..

simmrr said..
To the swan river for my first sail in two yrs. Back injuries do that to ya but they also make you realise what you enjoy doing. Thankyou so much to Andrew at Funcats for helping out with a spare pin that I dropped in the drink. Such a nice thing to do and I am grateful. Even managed to get a hull in the air today.

Simmrr, congratulations, that must have felt awesome after two years! What did you do to your back?

Bulging disc and nerve impingment from twisting while placing a heavy object on the ground. Year and a half of sometimes agonising pain, until I met some very good professional people and also walked into a yoga class. Havent looked back since and today is really a mountain top moment.

We celebrated Hobie Cat's 50th Birthday on the Gold Coast

shaggybaxter said..
Glad to hear you are recovering. My wife did the same thing, and I know how debilitating it can be, even with an enormous effort by the patient. That first sail must have felt so good! A small reward for all the hard work.
Congrats mate.
SB

Thanks shaggy, really appreciate it and yes it will live with me for quite a while. I had 3 first time young ladies, as well as my own son, out on the boat at different times yesterday so hopefully its planted a seed that may one day sprout. Their smiles were well worth the effort.

How is your wife doing now?

simmrr said..

shaggybaxter said..
Glad to hear you are recovering. My wife did the same thing, and I know how debilitating it can be, even with an enormous effort by the patient. That first sail must have felt so good! A small reward for all the hard work.
Congrats mate.
SB

Thanks shaggy, really appreciate it and yes it will live with me for quite a while. I had 3 first time young ladies, as well as my own son, out on the boat at different times yesterday so hopefully its planted a seed that may one day sprout. Their smiles were well worth the effort.

How is your wife doing now?

Doing ok thanks Simmrr, its been 20 years now, spinal fusion of the lower veterbrae that was brilliant because it enabled her to walk but doesn't remove the pain, just blunts it. I have a team of great docs that help her, but my biggest challenge now is keeping her core strength up. You know when you get lazy and stop exercising because it hurts (and its hard to stay motiivated) and then you start slumping and sitting/lying and just make it worse? Good on you for the yoga, that's what I am trying to get my partner to do.
The positive outcome is we've become guru's on the central nervous system, spinal chord and pain management at least!
Cheers!
SB

Did an overnight sail to smiths creek with the club. Our longest sail so far at 5 hrs each way. On sat We went out into broken bay and then pushed into the ocean a little, then up to the entrance to Brisbane water then tacked west to go around lion island. Then as we were feeling like a further detour we went up to dangar to say hello to HKSC.

As a crew we learned more about how to tack this 25ft catamaran. Back winding is essential and very effective. Getting the luff of the main straight when raising it is still hit and miss. However The rotating mast is going well and we are getting good numbers. Max speed so far is 8.2 knots SOG. It just so happens it was my 10 yo daughter at the helm when we got that number so she holds the record.

Had a swim in the morning and a dinghy safari up the creek and then beat back into the easterly back to Pittwater. By the time we moored back at clareville I think we had tripled our total sailing experience in one weekend. There was wind against tide in broken bay and the swell looked big from where we were sitting

A fun adventure but we were happy to be back in the calm of Pittwater.

Datawiz said..
Happy days Felix - treasure them...??

For sure. It can be a bit stressful at times when things go a bit askew but we finished the weekend in sync and ready for the next.

Back After a sneaky 3 day long weekend sanding decks and painting. One gorgeous boat came and said hello yesterday! I wish I had sails up!

SandS said..
magic yacht !! yours is pretty good too SA

Mine is also pretty good she has her goods and bads like most boats...I just hope I don't damage it!

Saturday night was the 2nd race in the Kingfisher Night race series, a race series held amongst all the clubs in Moreton Bay over the Xmas period. It's a must do series for the tradition alone, let alone the fact that its always held on the full moon, you're racing from 3pm into the night and it's a easy length of approx 30nm round the course.
The 4 courses are chosen well in advance , which direction the wind will be is in the lap of the gods.
Race 2 course resembled a candy cane:
-start up the tip on the hook to the West of Mud Island in the north end of the bay.
- Head Nth and East to loop over the top of Mud Island
- a big 10nm leg to the south.
- Turn at the yellow marker off Cleveland in the south end of the bay.
. Repeat in reverse to the finish line back to the west of Mud Island.

If the wind is in the North or South, you can imagine you'd have oodles of tactical choices, but the winds stayed westerly. This meant the longest legs were now near a broad reach. The winds were a bit flukey from 15-28kn. We made it around Mud and promptly popped our reaching kite for the long leg, but the angle was a little fine and gusts too strong, we were going sideways with lots of dumping off the main and grinding on the gusts.
OK, get rid of it. Back to the headsail and tuck in the 1st reef as the winds first went north of 25 for the first time, so the boat was confortable but a bit underpowered in the lulls, but all good, a nice easy groove to sail in. I'd been off crook and was still only 50% functional, so after making several bad calls on trim I handed over the wheel and let the crew sail the boat. It was fresh enough to give you lots of horsepower, it really became a tweaking exercise for the reaching legs. We'd set the headsail and traveller position and really just trimmed mainsheet to the nominal angle of heel.
It's amazing the difference constant trimming makes, it brings the boat's average speed up a lot, and is much easier on the helm. We weren't at our best but still managed to finish well, to be rewarded with a glorious full moon popping out in a cloudless night sky, it was awesome way to wrap up a Saturday night. We were back and enjoying the BBQ by 8pm.

Big thanks to the crew for looking after the boat!.

Also, Congratulations BoTY!!!! for his well earned third place! The almighty Seabird pipping some glamour race boats along the way to another big haul of trophies! You'll need another house for the trophy cupboards with that bloody thing. Well done mate.

cisco said..
Thanks shaggy, great race and go Pagan!!

If it is not a rude question, did anybody take any pics of that fabulous full moon??

Cisco, I so wish I could. Any attempts with the IPhone just end up with a tiny white circle in a sea of black. I have a older but good Canon digital I've tried with, but the shutter speed isn't up to the task, the boat movement makes it all blurry.

The Chinese are in the process of making a couple of fake moons to provide better lighting at night, I might have to wait till then!

Game. Set. Match.
That's definitely one for the pool room EC!

boty said..

sorry no pictures of the moon rise but a little footage after east cardinal mud of a duel with Sydney 32 and sassy we were holding them off till the breeze drooped shaggy looked really cumfi coming back toward us and had a deservedly good result

Reef? What's a reef?
I love that boat Boty, she just pins a rail and trucks all day..