Day 6 of training, practice and getting ready for the Newport-Bermuda ocean race. It’s been a tough few days as we meet at the boat at 9, are out on the water for hours of sailing maneuvers, getting data on performance of the sails, and then fix issues and clean up by 6 in time for the daily debrief from our coach. Finally around 730 grab some dinner, relax and ready to start all over again. We’re still climbing the…
Well, what a few days these have been. And who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. The format is excellent with practice practice practice and then some racing. The good news yesterday was that we were in second place after sailing four 6 leg brutal races. The bad news is that there were 3 boats tied for first 😳 But we are all getting better in our roles. Joe is driving better all the time and seems…
Day one of North U’s OD program behind us and we are still alive. The Flying Tiger boats are fun and fast… not as fast as TL but still good. The challenge of the day was crew placement… in our upside down universe we had Joe driving and Sean and Kent doing foredeck and jib with Rory in the middle on main. Chad, our coach, just shook his head in disbelief. Lots of starts, gybes, hoists and douses and a…
4 erstwhile members of the Triple Lindy gang head off to Charleston SC for some North U training and one-design sailing in 7.5 m Flying Tigers. Practice first then off to Race Week where hopefully the cobwebs come off and the brilliant OD minds that used to be get kick started back into action. Stay tuned as the Triple Lindy reps become true Melons 😃
After hogging the helm for the past 4 days, the admiral was hauled before a kangaroo court (appropriately), and sentenced to be banished. Loaded into the ships dinghy, with nothing but a case of Shiraz for company, he was cast adrift, only to quickly row around the boat and jump back on board. Crew are now on half rations. Admiral back on the helm.
After the excitement of the race, we’re now slowing things down by cruising the East coast of Tasmania. I say slowing, but with Donald on the helm reaching at up to 16 knots, it’s still a sporty ride. Donald is glued to the wheel, only taking a break for the evening meal and some sleep, and is having a ball. Remaining crew are reading up on “Mutiny on the Bounty” as we have both Joe and a dinghy aboard. Seems…
With one minute to go to the start, Triple Lindy had lined up at the boat end, and started building speed to the line. We shut out boats attempting to squeeze their way in, and at the gun, we were front row in the fleet and off down the eastern channel, and past the Lindy supporters on “Majestic”, making a suitable amount of noise. Fourteen helicopters and small planes circled overhead as we reached the first of two turning marks.…
This is report 1, as after some sleep, food, and beer at the legendary Customs House (forget the sleep – that’ll be later), I will be able to report the race with more clarity. Sorry for the lack of posting during the race, but this is a different beast, and there’s no time, let alone no way of sitting at a keyboard. The boat spent a lot of the trip in the high teens to mid-twenties in knots of speed…
Day after day the fourteen crew put in long hours on preparing the boat and themselves for the race. Equipment is unloaded for the training sail of the day, the job list is attacked, and whatever we break that day is fixed before the boat is put away for the evening. A quick shower then out to dinner, then it starts all over again. Friday had us finish at 2pm, then meet back at 4pm to head out for training…
Well today was interesting. It was 35C at 10AM and never got any cooler until a southerly ‘buster’ came through. The nav boys knew it was coming and Brad checked the airport online and they had 30 knots from the south. We were barely moving at 5 knots under sunny skies at the time. But you could see it moving across the inner Harbour towards us. Comanche was practising nearby with a code zero and got it furled just before…