Traveller Series, Round 2. October 19 @ RQYS

Only 3 boats made it to the startline for Round 2 with others possibly put off by the forecast or otherwise engaged elsewhere. What the 3 boats got was one of the better days of OK sailing you can get with N20-22 knot gusting 25 against an outgoing tide on a 40 minute trapezoid course on Moreton Bay. Nice big waves with a frequency far enough apart for some boom crash opera upwind, sendy sendy action down the reaches and sit on the tank and work hard to keep the hull under the rig and the nose out of the wave in front of you down the runs. Unfortunately it looks like Spikey Mikey may have been otherwise engaged rescuing younger sailors out on the course area so there's no photo or video from the day, which is a pity.

Being a Northerly, the breeze was really steady so the tide was the tactical factor upwind as well as setting yourself up for clear air around the Finn fleet we were sailing with. And making sure you were going to the right marks with the bottom mark for the Northerly course being in amongst the top mark for our southern course fleet as well as the Trapezoid outer and inner courses. Confusion much ?

Steve Shale negotiated it all best, despite a swim in both races downwind. 1 crash gybing to go to the wrong mark. The 2nd, by is own admission, just ran out of talent gybing onto the reach home at the bottom of the trapezoid in a big gust. Simon & Rik suffering a little with fitness couldn't keep up upwind in those conditions and Rik still trying to finish setting up and tune the freshly refitted Shades of Grey had a couple of teething issues which didnt help in the conditions. But massive smiles on the dials and salt blasted faces all around back at the beach afterwards. Cool days sailing and exactly why we suffer through light airs days at times to enjoy days like that on the water.

Next up is the State Champs at Humpybong on November 23 & 24 which is also doubling as Traveller Series 3. If we can get our 10 regulars, there's also Addy Newlan sailing 792, possibly the younger Morse and Tim & 1 other coming up from NSW as well so that would be a good little fleet. 

Results update after Rnd 2