The first F16 Victorian State Challenge was held over Easter at Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club in conjunction with the annual Easter regatta. We had absolutely perfect sailing conditions. The sun shone for all 3 days of the regatta and the wind varied between 12 and 18 knots. The first two days racing comprised four windward-leeward races, and on the final day we combined with the other classes (B14s, dinghies and trailable yachts) for a Round-Raymond-Island passage race.
Although some NSW F16s (Taipans and Blades) intended to make the journey things conspired against them and we ended up sadly with only Mosquitos representing the F16 class. Given that almost all the F16 activity in Victoria is in the Mosquito fleet and the Taipans had decided to run their states over the same weekend this wasn't too surprising an outcome. Still the four F16 Mozzies of Rod Saw, Tim Shepperd, Peter Nikitin and Gary Maskiell had a great time.
The series began with the lightest wind of the weekend (about 12 knots) and two back-to-back races during which Tim didn't put a foot wrong and Gary and Peter gave chase not too far behind. Although Peter managed to get in front of Gary towards the end of the second race he had to be content with two 3rds in the end.
Sunday began with some stronger breeze which was more to Gary's liking. A shift just before the start made the port end favoured and Tim completely misjudged it to end up rolling over the buoy and having to re-start. Gary made an excellent start and took off with Peter and Rod in pursuit. Tim had almost recovered his lost ground on Peter when Peter's chute detatched itself from the tramp making it impossible for him to raise his spinnaker. At this point the wind was around 18 knots and strong enough that some of us thought Peter might do ok without the spinnaker but he found he was unable to stay anywhere near Gary and Tim without it. Gary held his lead to the finish.
The second race of the day saw the wind abate slightly and the windward mark saw Tim round just in front of Gary with Peter and Rod not far behind. Gary and Tim crossed gybes all the way to the bottom mark where they rounded the mark side-by-side. Gary out-pointed Tim from below and forced Tim to tack off early. By the windward mark Tim once again had a slender lead, but Gary clawed this back downwind and the two rounded the bottom mark together again. This time Tim managed to stay to windward of Gary and had pulled out a short lead by the windward mark. However just as Tim reached the windward mark disaster struck for Gary as the mainsheet slipped out of his hand and he tipped over to windward. Gary made a fast recovery but was unable to make up the distance and had to settle for second. Peter and Rod had their own battle going on as they exchanged places throughout the race, however it was Peter who once again made it through to third by the finish.
The final day was the round-the-island race which started with a spinnaker run down the McMillan Straits between Paynesville and Raymond Island. The Mozzies soon broke away from the monohulls, and Gary showed his expertise at downwind starts by leading the other Mozzies into the Straits (already out of the picture here). |
