Racing in Tough Conditions.
This is an article I wrote for the Hartley Association last year but thought with season coming up good to share with the club as well.
Racing in Tough Conditions.
Williamstown Sailing Club, 16th January 2010 Club Race.
Just another day on the Bay was the expectation for the crew of “True Colours”, although the weather forecast mentioned 20-30 Knots for the day, which made me think twice. And not to forget the 1-2 meter swell.
There where about 6 Hartley TS16 and a view Trailers Sailors attending the Club Race. Phantom, Took a Chance, Just a Boat, Seabiscuit, Trevor with his new boat Whispering and True Colours.
After the briefing we head out to the start line over in Port Melbourne and once over the channel I think I had my first experience of planing with a TS16. It’s great feeling until the moment it’s time to tack. Pretty hard work!.
We did a view tacks trough the start line to prepare but noticed soon after that our Jib was flapping a lot and was losing tension. Looking closer we noticed that one of the batten pocket’s had ripped and the rope that keeps the sail up had come loose. We decided to head back to the club and change over the jib with a spare one. The condition had become worse with heavy gust and increased swell but the crew and I decided we needed more practise. We missed the start obviously but head back out again to join the remainder of the race. It turned out to be a real challenge for us to deal with the conditions and apparently the same for the other competitors. The reach was absolutely fantastic and down wind as well, but going up wind in an increasing swell and heavy gust proofed more difficult. The GPS showed 18 knots boat speed. The size of the waves, water spraying over the boat and judging the gusts where pretty difficult. It was hard to trim the sails and keep the speed up enough to tack properly going up wind. Once tacked and riding the waves on a different angle seemed to go better. Everything became pretty slippery on board and wearing prescription glasses didn’t work with the spray coming over so I threw them in the cabin. The wind nearly knocked us over twice and I was surprised that ‘True Colours” actually straightened her self into the wind. “Whispering flew past us and we wondering what they were doing and we were not. I think the trick was to not sail to high and rather keep the speed up and ride the waves instead of smashing over them.
The container ships and a moored larger town boat also created some strange experiences in wind shifts. One minute you’re nearly tipping over and the next minute you are with your butt in the water scrambling back in.
We decided that was enough experience for us that day and headed back to the club. Going around again was going to push our skills. We were glad though to have gone out again after changing the jib. You can read as many books and magazines you can but nothing beats to go out and try the conditions your self.
Stefan Gevers - “True Colours” TS16