The Voyages of Little Dragon: "Work the main!"

12 November 2010 Bridge to Breakers regatta

"A fleet of 56 boats descended on the Big River Sailing Club last weekend to contest the annual Bridge to Breakers regatta. The event continues to be well patronised by regular visitors who travel from all parts of New South Wales and South East Queensland and this year attracted an entrant from Victoria... The fresh north to north east breeze tested competitors on the Saturday when boats made the grueling trek downriver from the Harwood Bridge to Iluka and return. By race end most boats had been on the water for three to four hours and it was a generally weary bunch of sailors that gathered on the Saturday night to rehydrate and recount the day's adventures." [extract from the BRSC press release]

A year ago I decided that it was time to stop being a total race refusenik. I got the additional insurance and chose sail number 98 (my birthday is the 9th August and I can do with help from all quarters. 9 and 8 are lucky numbers in Chinese cosmology). Last February Noela Yates and I tried our luck at racing was in Grafton and that time there was hardly any wind. Despite that we had fun and decided to give it a go again but this time was quite different, there was more than enough wind. We reefed.

The "grueling trek" in the official account was almost 20 kms head to wind down river against a strong tide. Soon all the off the beach classes that started 5 mins after us overtook us and the fast catamarans were our of sight way ahead. Our handicap shows that near the tail end is our rightful place.

John Woods, the BRSC training officer, was in the rescue boat keeping a watchful eye on the tail enders. He kept zooming up to us and yelling "Work the Main, Don't Cleat It!" Noela and I were taking turn and turn about tacking downstream. We both knew the theory of easing off on a gust and sheeting in between gusts but the reality was that whichever of us had the main sheet felt as if our arms were being pulled out of their sockets. We just didn't have the strength not to "cleat it" some of the time. John also pointed out that the luff of our mainsail was not taut. Our sails should be as flat as possible in strong winds. I am still learning how to achieve that when the boat is reefed.

It took us over 4 hours to reach the Goodwood mark which is around two thirds of the way to Iluka. We were quite relieved when the committee boat ordered us to shorten course. We were enjoying ourselves (at least in retrospect) but getting very weary. We fairly whooshed back to the finish line in less than 30 mins with wind and tide behind us, really exhilarating.

Luckily before I took to the water with this bunch of experienced and serious racers I had been practicing the excellent on line racing rules quiz http://game.finckh.net/indexe.htm I felt reasonably confident that I knew who had mark room at a buoy although my intention was to keep out of every one's way all the time. The photo below shows us in the middle of the fleet with boats heading every which way.

We were still tacking downstream and the fast cats were returning on a spinnaker run for the second time. Justin Forrester, who skippered the winning fast cat Stingray, approached us like a bat out of hell. We just didn't see him and we tacked right into his path. We were just stunned and he somehow had the skill to swerve round us. We were 100% in the wrong. I know we should have done 2 penalty turns but I confess I didn't. After 4 hours at the tail end of the fleet in what I felt was more than a mere "breeze" it just seemed too much. However I did seek him out ashore and offer him a beer. He was very gracious and declined but he did remember the incident with the "THAT red mono hull". I will also remember the incident for a long while.