RANSA Twilight Race 2

RANSA Twilight Race 2 9/11/2007

Crew Scott, Tony, Ant, Ben, and Dave

With a newly serviced winch (thanks Bruno at Australian Winch Co.) the motor going again, an esky full of grog, some of Kyles McGyles crew cup cakes and a bar of chocolate, and the wind up at around 15 - 20 knots, we looked like we were in for a good race.

We paced the start line from a very empty harbour at 5.15pm to a harbour swarming with yachts by 5.45pm, we got off to a reasonable good start. The wind was at a funny angle, but we tacked and jibbed and spotted like pros, around the first mark at Clarke Island a boat next to us had its mast snap, and another boat lose its spreader, we thought we now had a chance out of the 16 starters, we were sure to get a place.

We kept up with the fleet up the harbour, Ben called a starboard, it was on for young and old. we rounded the mark up near Wedding Cake, readied the pole and headed on the home stretch, we were looking good. We got to Neilson park and the wind died but we were still moving, we rounded Shark Island - poled out, and headed toward the finish line, it was about 7.30pm the sun looked like it was still up behind the clouds, and the start boat was still there, we crossed the line about 7.45pm a got waved accross the line.

Leapfrog had raced well we thought. We went back to the mooring got in Mattys stealth dinghy "Puddles" (thanks Matty) and stealthed accross to RANSA clubhouse, it was packed to the rafters. After some overpriced wedges with sour cream and a few beers Janet finally called the race results.

Down came the count and we hadn't been called 3rd we thought, 2nd we thought, first we thought, but no we didn't even get a mention. We got a did not finish - the buggers must have had there shades on, it wasn't 8 o'clock, the sun hadn't set, whats the story - we do not know!

All in all was a good sail, thanks crew for a mighty effort and fun sail.