Page 4 - CYAA 2024 Winter Series Race Two Comments and Photos

Still, we rugged up in great
expectations of that 80%
‘drizzle and 25 knots of
wind. Didn’t happen. 10-
15 Met Eye westerlies was
Even so the riddle of the
Port Phillip sands was the
forecast and actual
westerlies while the wind
record showed easterlies.
Check the Breakwater
wind record saying
easterlies?? Life’s full of
riddles isn't it?
Didn’t matter, as Port Phillip was set for another day of great classic
yacht racing.
Race two fleet performances
Our Division Three starting number while a bit small in numbers was
full of classic yacht heritage with the 1923 Alwyn in the mix. Once
again Akala had an on the money start.
Our Tumlaren fleet featuresd with a six starters, three of which took
advantage of the local wind and pulled of a brilliant Port hand start to
establish an early lead over the three starboard hand starters.
Our division one fleet was full of hot shots from yesteryear. Mercedes
III with Doug Shields on the helm positioned herself two boat lengths
to windward to cover Boambillee. Boambillee said no to this and
tacked away after crossing the start line. Mercedes III then tacked
over to port and then back to starboard at the top mark lay line.
Mercedes IV had a delayed start due to the rough time she suffered
when going for a port hand start. At the top mark it was amixed bag of
roundings. Some classic made the mark on port while others had to
concede to the the starboard hand incoming.
Both Pastime II’s and Cyan’s starting plans fell to the capricious
mind of the wind.
On the reach to the wing mark, the chase to the Tumalren and Division
three fleet continued. Alwyn managed to hold her position with some
of the the Tumlaren fleet while Akala and Astrud worked their boats
hard to make the best of the light wind reaching capabilities of their
Classics. Unfortunately the local wind strength ensured hull speed
wasn’t one these capabilities.
Division One chasing relentess
The chase of the fleet leaders was by the division one fleet was
relentless. Mercedes III maintained her one minute lead over
. Boambillee after the wing mark rounding but when Boambillee
started the hard work of trimming her full and by the lee kite. Overtake
Mercedes III was the word on Boambillee. And over take she did. For a
while that is, sadly for Boambillee, she had to go through the same
motions that cost Rawhiti the 1907 Sayonara Cup race two win to
Sayonara. The drop in speed during the kite drop to approach and round
the bottom mark allowed Mercedes III to surge past and regain her one
minute lead. Stirring stuff for sure.
Again, like a reprise of 1907 it was a procession between Division one
classics but not so with Mercedes III’s race to catch Akala. A slight
bottom mark rounding drop off by Akala allowed Mercedes III to get to
weather and overtake Akala 50 metres from the line. A close run thing
was the word here from Mercedes III.
Moment of the day
The Division one feature moment of the day was the crossing the finish
line performance by Mercedes IV. A bad wind knock while approaching
the finish line gave Mercedes IV the fit’s. It was on by clean tacking to
starboard then back to port that put her across the finish line five
seconds ahead of Boambillee. A notable finish line performance indeed.
In the results washup, the overall corrected times show Race two was
Mercedes III day to shine with both division and fleet first for over the
line and corrected times.
Day Corrected time results
Click on these link to check out the corrected time results for each
division and overall.
Sail of the day
Of note was the performance sail by Akala. To be second over the finish
line by 34 seconds after Mercedes III indicates a lot of hard work was
happening on Akala. Same applies to Tumlaren fleet times in which
Avian lead the Tum fleet home by twenty three seconds over Ettrick.
Analysis of the race two corrected times show a range of a bit over four
minutes across thirteen of the fleet. As classic yacht racing is the only
subject spoken about in polite circles we don’t mention the performance
of the fourteenth finisher. Next time perhaps.
Race two photo album.
The photo album on the following pages show how close the race was
between the Tumlaren fleet.