ALTHOUGH often attributed to others, it was Oscar Wilde who first observed that “Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess”.
There have been numerous adoptions of that principle, ranging from the pop group INXS, to local sailor Andrew Macleod with his aptly named F23 trimaran 2Excess.
Indeed, monohull sailing yachts must only feel exasperation when physics-bending trimarans throw up rooster tails in their faces.
Yacht club handicappers, with an already unenviable job, face the task of creating a level playing field so that while taking line honours is one specific race category, all yachts have an equal chance for overall (handicap) honours.
With last Sunday’s river A event being considered a tune-up for the introduction of a proposed 22-event inshore race series, several yachts failed to face the starter.
While Kookaburra 2 and Third Man were absent for repairs, Folie a Deux, Salty and Solar Coaster were coping with crew absences, while the venerable Hobart winner Indian Pacific is not expected to sail until 2027.
On the day, seeing barely five knots of breeze, yachts engaged in a hotly contested light-air mid-river prestart.
Enticer (Andrew Walmsley) jostled for early position with Tribal Wave (Mike Shulzer) and 2Excess (Andrew Macleod), with Ninja, Galene and Cool Change mid fleet and modified Northshore 38, Four Shore, electing not to contest the start, trailed the fleet.
The first (Northward) leg of the course saw Enticer riding 2Excess’s rooster tails, keeping that yacht honest and rounding the first and second north marks in close company, before 2Excess accelerated away on the long South leg towards Town Green.
Along the same leg, Galene and Tribal Wave were testing each other’s tactical abilities, making for an interesting Town Green mark rounding. Cool Change was leading Ninja from the North, but elected to run a Code Zero headsail, while Ninja deployed her bright yellow spinnaker and ran down Cool Change before the Town Green mark. Sailing two up, Four Shore trailed.
The two leaders put an ever-increasing gap between both themselves and the rest of the fleet, but on the penultimate leg Galene was trapped in an unfortunate confluence of adverse tide and lack of wind, allowing Tribal Wave to sail past at the Town Green mark. On the same leg, Cool Change aggressively luffed Ninja, preventing her from passing to challenge Tribal Wave.
In the washup, 2Excess gave her newly acquired screecher sail a good trial, finishing in 61.01 minutes, while Enticer never gave up and finished some eight minutes behind. No other yacht finished within 30 minutes of 2Excess.
The field-levelling handicaps saw Tribal Wave first, with a corrected time of 49 mins 25 secs, Ninja second (51 mins 30 secs) and Cool Change third (53 mins 46 secs).
The closeness of the day’s racing saw both Galene and Enticer finish within 50 seconds of the third placegetter.
A revised series of 22 Hastings River events will commence on 11 October, with details to be confirmed and announced soon.
By Captain SLIPPERY
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