Saturday’s race saw 4 Mirrors racing in sunny conditions in a light Easterly with and a run out tide.
A tricky start with boats struggling to stay behind the line saw Firefly (Gavin & Oliver Cooke) get away best leading Wave Catcher (Cullen & Rowan Hughes), Molly M (Lewie & Breda Thatcher) and Offcuts (Tony Mandl/Matt Collis).
Patchy breeze and strong tide lines made for some interesting place changes and the 4 boats rounded the top mark close together. The fleet split on the first spinnaker leg with Uppercut and Fireflytaking a higher line and reaching the gybe mork first in better breeze. However, by the bottom mark World Champions Cullen and Rowan had worked their way back to round 2nd behind Firefly.
The race then split into 2 duals with Firefly and Wave Catcher trading the shifts and lead around the course with Wave Catcher ultimately taking the gun ahead of Firefly. Molly M and Uppercutalso traded places with Uppercut passing Molly M on the final work to finish 3rd.


This week saw torrential rain at Balmoral with water running almost knee deep through the bottom level of the clubhouse.
For those that may have missed it here are a couple of shots of the area on Wednesday morning:


This is at the bottom of Raglan St next to the Fish and Chip shop. 
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqtqtQAgoHs/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=lj1czev5d3zt


This is Coronation St, halfway up the hill:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqsnfNjnkw7/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=14wp3n8blthwt


The forecast for Saturday is much improved with sunshine and a light NE.

Cullen Hughes provides the following excellent State Championships Report:

The first round of the 2018/19 NSW Mirror States were held at Woollahra Sailing Club. There were 18 entries across the weekend as teams looked to both compete for the various trophies on offer as well as gain all important local knowledge of the venue for the World Championships to be held in January 2019.
 
Saturday morning saw a number of last minute adjustments by teams with two new boats hitting the water for the first time (“It floats!” exclaimed Joe after launching the new Little Ripper) as well as existing boats sporting new masts and sails. The Branch family also joined in as proud owners of two plastic boats. They are ex Heron sailors that have started sailing Mirrors at Connells Point this season in preparation for joining the Worlds.
 
Like the last round of the States last season at Woollahra, the wind was blowing SW/S/SE at 15-20 knots with gusts into the low 20s and big wind shifts.
 
The first of two races got underway cleanly with tight racing up the first work. A group of boats rounded the top mark led by Douglas and Spencer in Waterborne at Last. Douglas elected to head to the right downwind seeking shelter from the incoming tide while the next boats, McMissile, Wave Catcher and Mad Cat gybed and headed left. As the wind veered into the SW, the left paid off and McMissile led around the bottom mark closely followed by Wave Catcher, Mad Cat and Waterborne at Last.
 
The next beat saw close racing through the fleet with multiple position changes and close crosses. At the top mark for the second time, McMissile led narrowly from Wave Catcher followed by Waterborne at Last and Mad Cat. Not far behind the leading group were Stan and Zoe in Eeezy Life and Jon and Phoebe in Barnacle Blues.
 
Wave Catcher lived up to its name and surfed a wave inside McMissile at the last gybe mark gaining the overlap. After a somewhat hairy gybe in a big gust, Wave Catcher raced home with spray flying to take the win from McMissile. Waterborne at Last, Mad Cat and Eeezy Life rounded out the top 5.
 
The second race got anyway minus a few casualties of the conditions in race 1. Again the racing was very tight up the first work apart from McMissile who picked the first shift brilliantly and crossed the fleet comfortably. McMissile built on this lead and was never headed despite breaking the vang, jib cleats and jib downhaul. Racing was close in the chasing pack with Mad Catrounding the bottom mark followed by Wave Catcher, Waterborne at Last and Girra Girra. Both Mad Cat and Wave Catcher dropped their spinnakers over the front of the boat in the high pressure mark rounding. Mad Cat recovered first and went on to consolidate second place. Wave Catcher and Waterborne at Last crossed tacks a number of times up the final work with Waterborne at Last rounding the top mark slightly ahead of Wave Catcher. However by the gybe mark this had reversed with Wave Catcher once again living up to its name and taking the inside position at the mark. Wave Catcher powered away to capture 3rd while Waterborne at Last struggled with a spinnaker sheet wrapped around the end of the boom after the gybe.
 
The teams headed back to shore after the second race to a well-earned hot shower and rest.
 
In contrast to the blustery first day, the second day saw E/SE winds at 8-10 knots with very big shifts. After some delays while the course was re-arranged to counter the changing wind direction racing got underway (a few seconds early for McMissile who was over the line early at the pin end and had to restart). Up the first work the left was looking promising early on with the breeze in the east and Wave Catcher, Mad Cat and Eeezy Life leading the charge, however half the fleet led by Waterborne at Last headed right and while looking in trouble early on came out way ahead as the breeze shifted right a long way. Waterborne at Last led around the first mark and was never seen again.
 
The chasing pack of Mad Cat, Girra Girra and Lolliehead battled closely on the downwind leg followed by Wave Catcher. Wave Catcher went deep inside the leading pack sailing by the lee and by the bottom mark was able to secure the inside mark rounding position in a very tight rounding between 4 or 5 boats. The next leg saw some snakes and ladders as the wind shifted back and forth before the downwind dash to the finish which saw Wave Catcher take second followed by Mad Cat, Girra Girra and Lolliehead.
 
The second race of the day started cleanly in similar conditions with Waterborne at Last again hitting the right side first but appearing to initially over stand the top mark. Wave Catchertacked inside on the lay line and looked to be in a good position but Waterborne at Last pulled one out of the hat and sailed into a puff just as Wave Catcher sailed into a hole with a big knock. Waterborne at Last at last again rounded first and was never seen again for the second time that day.
 
The battle for the minor placings raged on between Wave Catcher, Ezy Life, Mad Cat and Girra Girra. Eeezy Life led the pack around the top mark for the last time but Wave Catcher was able to secure the inside mark rounding at the bottom mark for the short dash to the finish leaving Eeezy Life to take 3rd following very closely by Girra Girra and Mad Cat.
 
The fleet then faced the rather long sail back to the club house to wrap up the day but were treated to the 18 foot skiffs rounding their top mark in Rose Bay which provided quite the spectacle.
 
The States were closely contested right through the fleet and bodes well for the Australian fleet to show the World how to sail Mirrors in January 2019.

With much of the fleet away at the State Championships or on the Race Committee boat, Molly M (Lewie/Breda Thatcher) were left to fly the Mirror class flag at Balmoral on Saturday. They sailed well, holding their own against the other classes on their course in the Fresh S-SE breeze.
That was until 100m from the finish where a tangled tack ended with a capsize.

Correction from last week, Douglas did sign on but missed the cutoff from the electronic sign on and got missed off the results sheet.
You can avoid that by using the link below to sign on early!


We rigged the club Mirror Yenda Lee up on Saturday morning to so club Moth Sailor Les Thorpe could take his boys out for a first sail.
They loved it, so when you see Les, remind him he should get a Mirror!
We also had the Tolers in the Offcuts out for a family sail in the afternoon to enjoy the sunshine.


With the Hughes away at the Manly Junior State Championships and the Raftesath clan celebrating the end of the HSC, the afternoon racing was conducted in a very pleasant 10-15kn SE with an outgoing tide and full sunshine. 
The first work was a tight affair in a with the fleet going with a port hand start ofter the tide moved the start boat around.
Firefly (Gavin Cooke) led early but Tiger Tail (Derek & Cladia Hadwen) took held on the the starboard lay line to snatch the lead at the top mark with Molly M (Lewie & Breda Thatcher)close behind in 3rd.
Firefly sailed a lower line on the first spinnaker leg and kept in the breeze to sneak back into the lead which was retained to take a rare race win in what turned out to be one fo the most enjoyable SE breezes in quite while.

The prospect of a nice NE and fewer distractions brought the best fleet of the season to the start line.
An even start saw the fleet on starboard with Waterborne at Last (Douglas & Emily Raftesath) leading the way as the leeward boat. However, they slightly over stood the top mark allowing Wavecatcher (Cullen & James Hughes) through to lead at the top mark. Jazze (Tara Wilson / Rowan Hughes) were next just ahead of Firefly (Oliver and Gavin Cooke). Next around were Molly M ( Lewis & Breda Thatcher) and Uppercut ( Tony Mandl / Matt Collis) 
The 2 leading boats snuck away on the next leg to the wing mark and Wavecatcher sailed away in the increasing breeze to record a strong win over Waterborne at Last. Fireflyclosed up on Jazze on the final work but skipper Oliver managed to fall overboard on the final reach. His rather surprised crew was able to right the boat while Oliver swam back to maintain their 4th place. 
The importance of getting to the first mark first in a seabreeze was underlined with the finishing positions matching those of the first mark. 
The breeze kicked in more than forecast but all the crews reflected at the after race BBQ that it was a great day of sailing. 


A big thanks to Tony for helping out with the Duty activities and a special thanks to Andrew Dent who gave up his sailing to help out on the rescue boat as we were short on the day. ​

Heat 2 of the Club Championship came with a forecast of a moderate NE.  Steve Malone in the Spiegel joined the fleet for the first time but the fleet was down on number with 3 crews racing in the Manly Junior Teams race the following day.  The NE filled in strongly with gusts over 20kn. Discretion over valour saw Spiegel and Molly M retire early leaving Cam / Stirling (Yenda Lee) to battle for the lead with Douglas / Spencer (Waterborne at Last). The Yenda Lee was too quick upwind and recorded a strong win.


The Balmoral Manly Junior Team lead by Mirror Sailors Rowan, Oliver and Jackson performed well with a 4th place over all in the Teams Race the following day.