Pacrim Day Four
Well today ended up to be a surprise, especial for me !
Usually morning report, breakfast and the trip out to the lake. A quick motorbike ride down to the briefing tent for the 9am pilots briefing. No wind (surprise one), come back at 12’oclock.
90% of the skipper jumped on the bus and did the local sites with a picnic lunch at some salt works half way down the lake. John and I stayed back at the camp. John removed the 20degree of negative tow out of his class 3 wheel alignment. And I built a wheel alignment grid out on the salt and straightened up my Class5 chassis.
Come 1.30pm and the wind was tempting us with 5 knot gusts. A pilots meeting was held and we sent the Class 5 pilots out onto the line to get ready, should the wind hold at this strength. The starters after 15 minutes decided to chance it, as they could always black flag the race if the fleet could not sail. (surprise two)
Flag drops and we were off on race 2 of the Class5 Pacrim 2006 World Championships.
I was right at the bottom of the grid and got a good start and was up to speed. Our last attempt two days ago had the witch’s hat half way up the course as the top mark so I proceed around this in the lead with Gemma trialing close behind. Three laps latter I crossed the line, however I could not raise the finisher’s attention and they had the flag out for one more lap, so I continued. At the end of the 4th Lap John finished 2 seconds in front of me, however the race was Black flagged as most of the Aussie Class 5 pilots were stopped. Lucky as it turned out, I had taken the Kiwi fleet around the wrong course as they expected us to go around the outer course today. Lesson learnt, Always ask the starter! (Surprise three & four, Wrong course and I am fast)
We quickly rigged our class’3. With this amount of breeze filling in the class3’s were in heaven and we shot around the course like a dream at 80 to 100km hour average in this gentle 6knot breeze, I hate to think what the big yachts are going to do if it blow over 15knot ??? A 2nd Class 3 race and we all went back to camp with big grins from ear to ear.
Class 5’s were up and there was a 5 to 6 knot breeze on the start. I aggressively scooted off the start line (kiwi’s have agreed not the run and jump in to give the others a chance) and found myself again in the lead around the top marks with Phil. On the first two down winds Gemma kept passing me however I always had her back by the top mark. Last leg to the finish we had all the kiwis trading tacks, Me, Phil, Jason and John as I tried to cover them to the finish. Yes, One win for this Ohopian (really surprised, surprise five).
After the rest of the Class5 fleet drifted in we headed back down for Race3 of the Class5 Pacrim. The starter started throwing around treats of instant disqualifications if we ran our yachts and took our safety belts off at all. This created huge confusion, what the hell are we to do ???? I decide this is Pacrim, and not a club race, so all the kiwi still “scooted” but not quite so aggressively… At the top mark I had a good lead, I had a soft 4 knot breeze on the first downwind did not hit the straps. Gemma and Jason pasted me at the bottom mark on the first windward beat. As I rounded the bottom mark I saw a gust coming down the course and put in a couple of tacks to grab it and got the lead back. The next lap the wind was back up to 6 knot and I was away and laughing with John in close pursuit, then Gemma then Jason. Where’s Phil? Half the fleet come in and then along trundles Phil with his right wheel pointing out into right field. His rear axle had rotated and he was even lucky to be rolling. So all points are equal at the top of the Pacrim Class 5. (Graham 6th, 1st, 1st = 7.25 points)(John 2nd,4th, 2nd = 8points )(Phil 1st,2nd, ?10th = 12.75points) Surprise Six..
Sorry did not get a photo last night of results but everything was locked up when I left. I will try and get results today if they are not posted on the Pacrim website. Check out http://www.pacrim2006.com.au/tue.html
We rushed back in and changed down to our class4 sails. The wind had softened to about 4 knots and the wing did not kick. An enjoyable sail and very fast on the wind! The USA guys are doing really well in the standarts and are getting faster and faster every race taking 3 to 5th placing. Down for another start and we have 6 knots off the start. After getting the wing to terminal speed the windward wheel is off the ground and she was “fear” humming upwind. I hit the top mark doing 4 times the speed of the other. I fluff the rounding as I try to go around them and end up floundering back down to the bottom mark. One the upwind she was back up to speed however the wind had dropped slightly and as performing below average again. I was able to hold out for 3rd behind Bill and Phil. Phil may have got a dsq in this race for pushing before the starts flag had dropped by the sounds of it. Will see when we get yesterday results.
Well this is enough babbling for me today. The NZ blokarts put on a few songs, poems and heaps of jokes for last nights entertainment in the Kambalder country club. Yesterday the blokarts all bailed so they are going to sail today, the Lay day for all other classes.
Until tomorrow. Bye from Aussie
Have fun at work all.
All the best
Graham Roberts
nz777@ohope.co.nz
+64 21 725 760 mobile
