Brisbane Fleet Championship & big birthdays!
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As I Saw It (and remembered it!)
What a great weekend of Etchells racing and camaraderie.
The fleet came together for the annual Brisbane Etchells Fleet Championship regatta and what a weekend it was, filled with big birthdays, socialising and some close and exciting racing.
Where to start — well let’s get the fleet birthdays out of the way first. On Waterloo Too, Patto (Noel Paterson) and Will celebrated their birthdays on Saturday with Patto hitting the big 75. He was presented with a cake decorated with an infamous photo of Waterloo Too in one of their less controlled downwind moments during a previous regatta. Rounding out the birthdays was yours truly who clicked over another year this past Monday.
After racing on Saturday, the fleet put on one of their renown BBQs for participants, families, volunteers. Some ex-Etchellers were even seen in attendance. It was an excellent wind-down to the day with around 50 hungry souls to feed and drinks to be had. Thanks to the Rappers team (and Ange) for the cooking, Chris for his famous mushroom sauce and Patto for some birthday drinks.
The BBQ rounded out with the awarding of the Pick of the Year trophy. This trophy dates back to at least the mid 80’s and is awarded to someone who has made a significant contribution to the fleet over the past 12 months on or off the water. This year it was awarded to this humble scribe for services to journalism, or probably and more correctly — disservices to journalism, for my work in putting out the race reports and newsletter each week.
Now on to the racing...
We had 9 boats entered with Wayne Kirby making the trip up from Southport. Aspen was unfortunately only available for Saturday so only competed in the two club races on Saturday pm. Now being a year older and struggling to remember what happens in two racers on a Saturday, let alone a whole regatta, I am not going to give a detailed account of each race — just what I remember and deem the most important bits!!
The programme was for 3 races on Saturday and 3 on Sunday with 3 required for a regatta and a worse result drop after 4. Race one got away in 7–8 knots from the nor-east and flat water. Aspen, who was out on the water early for the two latter club races joined this race though considerately 15-20 seconds after the fleet started. They went hard right, got the benefit of a 20 degree RH shift and led around all marks for an unofficial victory, meanwhile in the real race Kane Sinclair on Gen XY took the first gun of the regatta followed by Waterloo Too and TAG. Wayne and his pick up crew on Emotional Rescue picked up a 4th while Rapscallion who had been caught on the wrong side of the shift managed to get within 2 seconds of Wayne for a get out of jail 5th.
Race 2 saw Rapscallion lead round each mark to take the gun comfortably ahead of Gen XY with Patto and the Waterloo Too boys 3rd.
In race 3 the Rappers took their second gun of the day ahead of Waterloo Too who had led around mark one only for Rapscallion to sneak past on the first run with Gen XY just behind in 3rd.
This left these three boats tied at the top of the table after day one with Rapscallion ahead on countback.
Sunday dawned with some showers and no wind – the bay was like a millpond. Once the postponement was hoisted on shore everyone adjourned to the bar area where we got to watch Spikey Mikey’s excellent video compilation of Saturdays races – the good, the bad, and some very ugly kite drops.
As the morning wound on and reports from the course of only 2–3 knots, there was much debate as to when to or if we should pull the plug on the racing. Naturally the Rappers were happy not to sail while Waterloo Too, who were sitting 3rd on count back, really wanted to back get out there. At 13.15 the RO made the call that he would aim to get two short races away so off we went. The Project by this stage had already made their decision not to race.
Race 4 started in a 6–7 knot sou-easter just off the leads. With a short course it was hard to get clear air and Rapscallion was soon buried in the pack. Todd finally remembered how to sail his Etchells and TAG got clear to lead around all marks to take their first win of the weekend with Gen XY second. Waterloo Too was 3rd and Rapscallion having dug themselves out of a hole beat The Saint by 2 seconds to grab 4th. At this stage it was all on for the championship with any of the top 4 capable of winning it with 1 race remaining and just 2 points separating them.
With some dark clouds on the south-east horizon and the breeze up to 10 knots, the final race of the regatta got away just before the cut off time limit. Rapscallion went right off the line while their 3 title contenders went left. As they came back together near the top, Rapscallion had a narrow lead over TAG while both Gen XY and Waterloo Too were buried in the pack. These two managed to keep clear of the chasing fleet and with Rapscallion covering TAG for the remainder of the race they took their 3rd bullet of the series and the championship title. Waterloo Too managed to fight through to finish 3rd while Gen XY could only manage a 5th. After dropping this 5th it meant The Gen XY and TAGwere tied on points for 2nd with the count back giving it to Kane and the Gen XY crew with Todd and his crew claiming 3rd. As a reflection of how close it was, Waterloo’s worst result of the regatta was a 3rd and they had to settle for 4th overall.
Congratulations to Rappers for a well sailed regatta and deserved title. Can I say that? — I can because I’m the author of this masterpiece. (Full disclosure — for those of you that don’t know, yours truly is part of the crew.) Photograph above, left to right: Ian Miller, David Healey, Kevin Molen.
A lot of thanks go to RO Guy and the RC/Volunteers for a great regatta and ensuing we got the two races away on Sunday. Thanks to our committee and those associated with organising the weekend including ‘weigh in & bbq Sue’.
I make no apologies for the bias nature of this report — it’s just one of the perks of being the author.