This week saw the Balmoral fleet get away to a handicap start. With the aim of getting all the boats finishing together, there was some careful calculations and considerations on the beach (along with the wave of the odd wet finger in the air) before allocating starting slots.
To add to the complexity, Cullen in the scratch boat Wave Catcher was missing a forward hand and the fleet also enjoyed the presence of new members David and Lachlan Johnson in the Heron She Said Yes. There was some debate as to weather missing a forward hand would slow Cullen down or speed him up but in the end he started with the other low markers.
We also welcomed back to the start line for the first time this season, the Upper Cut. Which Tony Mandl has lovingly updated over an extended off-season, this week joined by Matt Collis on the helm.
Away first was evergreen Steve Malone in the Spiegel. The back markers started together with Cam and Stirling sailing the Dash leading the group around the first mark after the others overshot the top mark by some distance. However, Cullen showing the benefit of ditching the weight of his crew, used great speed on the spinnaker legs, to catch Cam downwind. Drama continued with Douglas and Spencer in Waterborne at Last breaking their spinnaker pole cleat - preventing them setting a spinnaker. Meanwhile Gavin and Oliver in Firefly had their mainsail halyard give way, requiring a voluntary capsize, to also put them out of contention.
The scratch boats finally caught Steve on the final lap with Wave Catcher finishing first closely followed by Dash and the. Waterborne at Last completing the podium.
Mirror Dinghies and Herons are said to be very similar in speed with the Herons using their longer waterline for better upwind speed and the Mirrors foster downwind with the spinnaker. And so it bore out with Wave Catcher and She Said Yes finishing only 5 seconds apart in elapsed time.
To add to the complexity, Cullen in the scratch boat Wave Catcher was missing a forward hand and the fleet also enjoyed the presence of new members David and Lachlan Johnson in the Heron She Said Yes. There was some debate as to weather missing a forward hand would slow Cullen down or speed him up but in the end he started with the other low markers.
We also welcomed back to the start line for the first time this season, the Upper Cut. Which Tony Mandl has lovingly updated over an extended off-season, this week joined by Matt Collis on the helm.
Away first was evergreen Steve Malone in the Spiegel. The back markers started together with Cam and Stirling sailing the Dash leading the group around the first mark after the others overshot the top mark by some distance. However, Cullen showing the benefit of ditching the weight of his crew, used great speed on the spinnaker legs, to catch Cam downwind. Drama continued with Douglas and Spencer in Waterborne at Last breaking their spinnaker pole cleat - preventing them setting a spinnaker. Meanwhile Gavin and Oliver in Firefly had their mainsail halyard give way, requiring a voluntary capsize, to also put them out of contention.
The scratch boats finally caught Steve on the final lap with Wave Catcher finishing first closely followed by Dash and the. Waterborne at Last completing the podium.
Mirror Dinghies and Herons are said to be very similar in speed with the Herons using their longer waterline for better upwind speed and the Mirrors foster downwind with the spinnaker. And so it bore out with Wave Catcher and She Said Yes finishing only 5 seconds apart in elapsed time.
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