Lane Cove Club Report 15/5 Up to Misscheif Trophy The forecast for the week was for a dream noreaster. I woke up early, looked out the window, clear sky, crisp air, all the ingredients for a stellar day on the harbor. There was a lot of excitement heading down to the club but unfortunately those dreams faded very quickly pulling up to the club to see a soft river with little to no breeze. The readings on the harbor, however were coming in noreast so the dreams werent quite dashed... yet! By the time rigging came about it was still big rig which is what most of the fleet decided to run with a lot of holes appearing on the river. With a staggerd handicap start and softish winds it was going to be anyones game and all eyes had to be out of the boat the whole day to get on the right side of the breeze and preferably in the breeze also! The Hey Charger (Nick Bernard/Robbie Bruno Polec) came out of the blocks full speed ahead and recorded a double with first over the line and first on handicap finishing a whopping 10 mins in front of second place The Bird (Dave Lusty/Glenn Granddad Farquhar). The Bird, Madonna, Skoll & Vantage were having a real tit for tat battle most of the way around the course but the looming storm building in the west was coming over quickly which brought with it an early end to the Skoll, pulling out of the race with crew (Jamie McCrudden) Degloving one of his fingers going through a gybe. A quick and impressive rescue effort from the club rescue committee saw him in the emergency department half an hour from being on the water and getting stitched up with new skin again. Hell be out for a couple of weeks in recovery unfortunately. In what was a sight not seen on the river for a number of years in sailing nor predicted either, the storm mentioned briefly earlier came over with the majority of the fleet either literally just finished or just about to finish in the river. The unfortunate 2/3rds of the fleet who hadnt yet finished experienced a major belting of 35knt Westerly storm forced breezes which knocked the whole big rig fleet over. Vantage (Jack Winning/Brett Phillips) did an impressive job capsizing, pulling the main down and finishing under jib only. Unfortunately the 5 other DNFs werent so lucky with most requiring the clubs rescue crew to get them out of the moorings and back at the bar sooner rather than later. A few hairy moments for the Madonna bouncing off some very nice (and expensive) looking cruisers with the human fenders deployed to avoid any insurance paperwork. No one has time for that! In what was a day that started with 5knts and finishing with 35knts its fair to say it was one of those days that had a bit of everything. Literally! A huge thanks must go to the clubs response crew who, along with other volunteers at the club did a very impressive job coordinating the first rescue with Skoll early in the day then again when the storm hit to quickly get all the boats off the water. Full results came be viewed at lc12ftssc.org.au/results/Skiff.pdf
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 06:24:23 +0000
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