Hi everyone,
What a great weekend we had together! No photos yet, results are posted on the website, but here is the report. More to come on the AGM and some special end-of-season "awards" over the next week or so. Be on the lookout.... (oh, and when we get the photos, they will be added as well....)
The MG14 State Titles provided a tremendous conclusion to the 2010/11 season! 24 boats, their crews, and assorted supporters travelled to Toronto Amateur Sailing Club for an “unofficial” long weekend from Saturday (9 April) to Monday (11 April). The camaraderie of the participants was, as usual, fantastic. The hospitality and commitment of the members at TASC was excellent, both on the water and in the club house. And....the racing was hot!!
FIRST, SOME FAREWELLS:
It was also a slightly sad time, because some of the class stalwarts were signalling their farewells from regular participation in the class, and before I get into the details of the racing and the results, I want to acknowledge those gentlemen who are (sort of) leaving us:
· Phil Moore, crew on Foxee. Phil and I have sailed together over four seasons! Boy, has that passed quickly! Up until last year Phil had been the Association Secretary for many years. He has been a very committed servant of this class, a real encourager to all participants, and a great guy with whom to sail. He has finally succumbed to his wife’s polite requests for him to do the promised renovations to their home. Either that, or he was sick of sailing with me, but I will choose to believe the former! Phil’s finest sailing moment would have to be slotting in as crew for Gary Reeves to win the State Title two years ago. I know Phil, and he will be open to making guest appearances as a gun crew for any skippers needing someone for a series. I also know he will be happily doing some co-piloting for Rochey as he fine-tunes his new MGB rig.
· Bob Taig, skipper on Filthy Fase. Bob stepped down as Vice President of the Association on the weekend. He is the backbone behind the MG14 website for several years. He and Phil have commuted to Toronto from the Central Coast most weekends across the past several summers to race. Bob, with a few different crews in tow, has usually featured near the top of leader board at the major regattas over the past few years, with the best overall result being second place in the States last season. I will miss Bob's input on tuning and boat repairs, and good-natured competitive jibes! I know we both pushed each other to improve, which is great!
I know it is hard to explain, but Bob is trying to simplify his life by staying around the Central Coast and intends to sail a Laser Radial at Gosford next season. However, on a positive note, he will continue to run our website for the time being, which is fantastic. Great to also see the Wilde family are purchasing the boat to keep it in the Toronto fleet.
· Kerry Beatty, skipper on Blew True. Kerry is one of the long-standing stalwarts (characters) of the class, sailing out of Balmoral Club, often very competitively. He still plans to sail club races, which will be great, and hopefully we will see him around a bit. He has also volunteered (!) to be the Association Treasurer for next season. Kerry has shifted more to mentoring various Redlands students that have crewed for him over the past couple of seasons, which typifies the spirit and generosity of our members.
So, gentlemen, good luck with the next phases of your lives. We look forward to still seeing you around with us at various stages, in different places, as we continue our passion for this sport and the MG14 class.
AND NOW: TO THE RACING!
Hugh Tait and Tara McCall in CARBON NEUTRAL (Northbridge) are the 2010/11 NSW State Champions, narrowly nudging the National Champs, Rohan Nosworthy and Neil Tasker in AQUA RODENT (Queens Lake / St George), in a very closely contested series.
As has become the norm, it was a case of these two boats leading the pack, followed by daylight. However, this should not discount the quality of racing throughout the fleet, which was very high and continues to improve, with the remainder of the top 12 boats regularly swapping places close to the front of the fleet, plus lots of strongly-contested battles exercised with plenty of passion among the remainder of the competitors.
The results of Carbon Neutral and Aqua Rodent are testament to their extraordinary skills and standards ahead of a quality overall fleet. Carbon Neutral’s four 1st’s and two 2nd’s narrowly pipped Aqua Rodent’s two 1st’s and four 2nd’s, but that does not tell the whole story. The series was not decided until the last minutes of the last race after a see-saw battle. Race 5 went to Carbon Neutral by less than a boat-length, with the final race to Carbon Neutral by less than 30 seconds, although the physical distance was quite small given the dying wind conditions.
Special honourable mentions should go to 3rd place-getters for the series, Greg Roche (former National Champ) and Ben “Famous” Ferguson in ESCAPE (Taree), who sailed very consistently near the front of the fleet for most of the series, accumulating 18 points. Their closest competition was from fellow stalwart (I dare not say “veteran”) Gary Reeves (also a former National Champ) and Alex Warner in XANADU in 4th place with 25 points. The competition may have been even a little tighter, but for Xanadu ripping its mainsail in the countdown to Race 5. However, they limped home and changed mains in time to finish strongly with a 3rd in the final race. Rounding out the top 5 was Predator (Taree), with 28 points. Les Barlin, another of the class “veterans” was the crew. He had recruited Robert Fish as skipper, and they performed extremely well. Although Robert has a very successful pedigree as one of the leading NS14 sailors nationally, this was his first time in an MG14 series and, despite limited experience sailing with an asymmetric kite, he piloted the boat amongst the top few in most races.
There were a few hard-luck stories. Bob Taig and Nathan Wilde, in FINAL FASE (Toronto) finished well inside the top 10 in four of the six races, but some hull damage forced them out of two races on the Sunday in the gustier breezes, which ruined their chances to vie for a top 5 finish. Also, the MGB flag-bearer, FOXEE (Toronto), achieved a 3rd and two 4ths, but had a wipeout on Sunday when, in the first race of the day in a gusty westerly, we rounded the top mark in 2nd behind Aqua Rodent (thanks to a momentary gear failure on Carbon Neutral), only to have the rudder box disintegrate as we bore away to set the kite! One repair weld too many on that alloy cast rudder box! The misfortune of Jasper and Alex on Super Nova, which also sustained hull damage on the Sunday and could not continue, turned out to be good fortune for Foxee, as we were able to borrow and adapt their rudder box to get on the water for the last two races on Monday – thanks guys!
The handicap series was also hotly contested, with the father/daughter crew of Brian and Lara Mansfield in FLAME BOY (Toronto) taking the top honours. This was a well-deserved reward as Lara’s grandmother passed away during the weekend, but they continued to race with the support of Brian’s wife, Annette, despite such a difficult time. Annette even turned up to volunteer at the canteen on Monday, which is a testament to the support of the family for each other and the club. Brian had been the chief organiser on behalf of TASC for the event.
2nd place on handicap went to another great participant in the class, Dave Hardaker, and his crew, Bailey Perira in WINEOT (Taree). They also finished in the top 10 on scratch. The burglars on ESCAPE jagged 3rd place, followed by the dark horses on PREDATOR. The top 5 was rounded out by Romana and Damian Ryan on TARDIS (Northbridge), who are in their first season in MG14’s as a father / daughter team and they have been very strong improvers throughout the season. They were also resplendent in their “Dr. Who” team t-shirts at the presentation!
And finally, before going into the details of each race, on behalf of the MG14 Association I want to thank, firstly, the team at TASC: Brian Mansfield as the coordinator, supported by Dave Wilde, the canteen team headed by Jane Wilde (including their provision of an excellent BBQ dinner on Saturday night), and all the start and response boat teams: Troy, Jordan, Paul, David, Ken, Kev, Pete, Mark, Corey (when he wasn’t filling in as a crew) and others (sorry if I missed you....). You all did a tremendous job, as many of you have for us all season.
Secondly, a big thank you to Col Chidgey, the Principal Race Officer. He is also an Officer in the Australian Army, and certainly had that bearing about him. He was affable, communicative, knew his stuff, and really took the on-water leadership with aplomb. I believe we will be seeing him in the same capacity in future series, including next year’s Nationals at Port Stephens.
SERIES WRAP-UP, HEAT-BY-HEAT
Heat 1 – Saturday:
Only one race was scheduled for the first day, and just as well! There was virtually no breeze for most of the day! However, a light nor-wester trickled in after 3pm and we were sent out. Amazingly, the “Seabreeze” website prediction was roughly correct and, as the course was being set a moderate nor-easter kicked in. It had its peaks and troughs, topping at around 10 knots, but averaging a little less.
In the latest start I can remember (particularly without Daylight Saving) at around 4 pm, we jumped out next to Carbon Neutral and realised that, yet again, they were in another world of speed and height as they climbed away to a comfortable lead, comfortably ahead of Aqua Rodent at the top mark. Foxee rounded in third, closely followed by Escape.
Whilst the two leaders continued to race away, and Carbon Neutral stretched its comfortable lead to more than 2 minutes over Aqua Rodent at the finish, the next few boats had a constant tussle, with positions exchanged as each boat had its own successes and failures in locating pressure which varied considerably across the course. At different stages different boats pressed for higher-placed finishes, particularly as the breeze tired in the last lap or so. Some of the big forward movers included Sea Change, Xanadu, Wet ‘n Wild and Predator. However, in a downwind finish Foxee prevailed for 3rd place, ahead of Escape, Sea Change and Xanadu, with only 13 seconds separating the four boats!
The fleet hit the shore not long before a beautiful sunset, with many of the sailors hanging around for some liquid refreshment and a fantastic BBQ at the club.
Heat 2 – Sunday:
I can’t comment too closely on the Sunday races, given Foxee’s mishap early in the first race. However, the “Seabreeze” website was back on form for the day, with the wind being nothing like what was forecast!! A fresh / strong westerly pushed and continued to freshen in the lead-up to the 11am scheduled start, peaking around 20 knots in gusts.The start was well down the lake towards Belmont, and the chop had some real bite to it heading down there. A few boats came to grief as they set kites down to the start. I even saw our series winner have a little swim as they tried to drop their spinnaker below the start. Ah! Mortals!
Very exciting first leg as the usual suspects plus ourselves powered ahead of the fleet. Near the top mark the Carbon Neutral team seemed to have some minor gear problem to address, which charitably allowed Foxee to slip around the top mark behind Aqua Rodent. As Foxee collapsed rudder-less into the drink, Aqua Rodent blitzed the field with a masterful higher wind display, gapping Carbon Neutral by more than 4 minutes, followed by Escape, which was comfortably ahead of Predator and then Xanadu.
Rohan had the GPS speedometer going on Aqua Rodent, which I believed topped out at an average 19.7 knots speed over a 100-metre spurt, but did exceed 20 knots in a few shorter bursts. Pretty good stuff!
Heat 3 – Sunday:
This was raced back-to-back after Heat 2. Just as well, because the wind was showing signs of losing its punch. It held out at different times during the race, but really started to fade and swing in the latter stages. Once again, Rohan and Neil demonstrated their strong higher wind capabilities with a comfortable win, although Hugh and Tara narrowed the gap in the latter stages.
Greg and “Famous” continued their consistency with a comfortable third place. Places further down the order shifted as the wind died, with the Mortons on Wizard of Oz pushing into 5th, just behind Xanadu, and just ahead of the Marsden-Jones sisters on Wet ‘n Wild, then Locky and Ellie on Total Eclipse.
Heat 4 – Sunday:
The competitors headed in for lunch, and watched the wind die to nothing as the clouds rolled in with a change in the air. The PRO in his infinite wisdom considered there was still enough wind to warrant a race, so out they went to see who could outdrift each other!
In short, Carbon Neutral and Aqua Rodent were faster drifters, with Hugh and Tara taking the bickies on a shortened course.
As the unsettled conditions continued, the boats which took the western Valentine shore upwind found, to their chagrin, that a big shift to the south-west heavily favoured the boats that choose the left side down the middle of the bay. The chief beneficiaries were Wizard of Oz, Predator and Filthy Fase, skipping away in 3rd to 5th respectively. The chief sufferer was Escape, spoiling their consistent leading efforts to suffer a blowout at 15th.
Some of the leading boats needed to be towed home. The latter boats didn’t because a sou-westerly change hit them as they tried to struggle home, which meant trying to head directly upwind to the club in a squally wet breeze was the final feature of their day.
Heat 5 – Monday:
A nice fresh autumnal day replaced the misery of the previous evening’s weather. However, there was virtually no wind, which meant another waiting game during the morning. After a while it became clear that 3 races would be an impossibility for the day. Hugh was happily on-shore, not needing another race to win on countback. Greg was hoping for another race, because he couldn’t drop his 15th unless there were 5 races. Gary was happy to also sit on shore, because no further races would have locked him in to 3rd. Meanwhile, on Foxee, we appreciated the raising of the AP Pennant so we had more time to fit the borrowed rudder box and tiller on to the rear of the boat.
Around 12.30 there were faint signs of a filling westerly, so Col said “Let’s go!”, and so we did. Although onshore westerlies can often be gusty, nasty horrible breezes, this one was reasonably forgiving, with some nice 10 -15 knot bursts, and some quieter periods, but not too violent. As mentioned earlier, Xanadu’s main ripped during the start sequence, which cruelled their chance of competing for 3rd place in the series. As they limped home, the rest of us lined up.
In terms of Hugh and Rohan, this was the most exciting race so far for them. Spectators on the course commented later on the skill of these two crews, as they exchanged the lead regularly amongst each other, with Carbon Neutral taking the victory in the end by a matter of inches.The next group was a complete see-saw, as different crews took turns near the front. After the start Wineot picked the left side of the course and hit the top mark comfortably in 3rd, closely challenged by Filthy Fase, Predator, Escape, Sea Change, Total Eclipse and Foxee. The downwind melee amongst these boats around the wing and to the bottom mark saw several placing shifts, which continued through the second work.The real break-throughs came in the last work. Foxee worked for a shift on the left side of the course, which was successful, picking up several places to round the top mark for the final time just behind Escape, which was in 3rd place, and just ahead of Sea Change. These places held until the finish, ahead of Predator in 6th and Filthy Fase in 7th.
Heat 6 – Monday:
The final race. The scenario was this: Hugh had three 1sts, but had to beat Rohan the last race. If Rohan won, they would be three 1sts and three 2nds apiece, and Rohan would win the series on countback as winner of the final heat.
The two leaders stalked each other behind the start line, and some of us started to ponder whether their match race might allow one of us to take advantage and steal a top-two finish in the race.... of course not!!However, there were a few anxious over-starters at the hooter, and both Hugh and Rohan took the safe course to circle back and re-start. In the meantime, Predator, Foxee and Filthy Fase pushed forward in the gusty breeze, with Foxee and Filthy Fase rounding the top mark together in the lead, closely followed by Predator, Wizard of Oz, Xanadu and Escape. The first run to the wing mark was extremely tight, with the leading boats struggling to carry kites to the mark in the gusty conditions. Carbon Neutral stormed through with no such problem and rounded just behind Foxee and Filthy Fase. Hugh gained the ascendancy at the bottom mark, just ahead of us, but the big news was that Rohan and Neil had a screamer to the bottom mark as we all languished in a hole, rounding just behind. We got out of the way as these guys took off to push each other for the title. Whilst we had a very ordinary upwind leg, the other leaders stayed tightly bunched and rounded the top mark in a close group.In the meantime, Hugh and Rohan exchanged the lead dramatically as each pushed for the final victory.
On the windward-return, the boats which chose to go further along the Toronto shore to capture the land shifts were handsomely rewarded with a screaming ride to the bottom mark that shut out the other major players. Foxee, Escape and Xanadu were the beneficiaries here, and these three boats fought for the minor placings in the race, with Gary and Alex pulling away in the last lap for 3rd, ahead of Foxee and then Escape, which had already secured 3rd place for the series.
In the end, though, the teams on Carbon Neutral and Aqua Rodent showed their superiority, their skill and their determination. It's never over until it is over. On Monday, Hugh and Tara prevailed, but only just. This friendly rivalry has a long way to go before we can declare any lasting winner. Let's hope that never happens. Let's keep seeing that exciting competition, and maybe some others will find a little extra in the next season to mix it up with these elite sailors.
Conclusion:
A great series, a great range of breezes, high quality racing at all levels, and a particularly show of force by the two top contenders, who will be doing at all again at the NS14 State Titles in Teralba over Easter. Good luck to them, they are true winners, as are all the other participants, young and old.
Bring it on, next season!!