Melbourne Winter Series (MWS)
EASE!
Two boats had MOBs on Sunday. 'Schuss' we've already seen in CSI; Port Phillip, 'Veloce' for which there are no photos sorry, but has now been verified by 'XLR8'. Well as for 'XLR8', they had done their kite work all OK before, except for the lazy kite sheet being too low and not hanging on its male appendage, as this first sequence shows.
However, the newer style boats are designed to build apparent really quickly, and the RP46 'pencil' really sails on a knife's edge to go fast (which she surely can). They must have been caught off guard. This is their effort.
OK. Obviously going to get rid of the Bag, but they need to flatter. Luffing Up, but the clew is not visible and you can see the crease indicating there is tension in the sheet. Would have been a really good case-in-point for using the retrieval line. Now check out the heady underneath the Bag in the pic below...
Sheet definitely got some Larry in it now. Bow is skewing up to windward. I called the image 'Time To Ease' and this applies to both sheets. Enough said.
I called this 'False Hope', because although the deck might be flatter, that Bag is just itching to grab a hold and now the tack and its luff are full. Office would have had a lot on, but some tack line out would have helped (or firing it).
She's powering up now, accelerating wildly and absolutely desperate to march straight across the breeze... Lazy sheet now gone and the retrieval line torn off earlier I am reliably informed. So it is a go-deep and reset-for-another crack-at-it job now.
"DUMP!" Forget trying to get it now unless you fire as Bow2 no longer has the lazy sheet (which runs the risk of going under if it isn't there already) and you have to go deep with the Bag hidden by the main to have any chance. So be it if you have to run past the mark, as you're not going to get to it like this anyway...
I called this 'Goodnight Irene', as the main is loaded and it is a one-way ticket from here. They left the sandpit for the day after they ran over their Bag and did a lot of damage to it during another unsuccessful drop, when the tack line went prematurely. Thank you to Harm Hoen for the added bits of onboard intel here.
Spectacular yes, but can cause a lot of damage and set up the Chinese Gybe, much like putting a stock into the snow to perform a turn. Gee I would have had my foot firmly planted on the 'Chicken Pedal' by now. Vang appears not to have been released. 'Air Rudders' are much bigger than their water based cousins!
Checking to see if we have more of the sequence of this episode, but just want to say that yes, I have made mistakes - thank you Chris, thought I would get in before you reminded me... (Hope you're well BTW pal).
CSI: Port Phillip can be read by clicking HERE.
A Toyota Hilux with all its pics, can be read by clicking HERE.
CSI: Melbourne can be read by clicking HERE.
Bags, Bungles and Toyota Hiluxes (think of the ad that used only the one "B" word...), the originator of the “Oh what a feeling theme”, can be read by clicking HERE.
Details of the M2G, which is Race Seven of the MWS, can be read by clicking HERE.
Some left over images that were too good to just reside on my hard drive. Thought this one of 'Cerebus' looked great and also like to thank the officials, as you know. Better pic of 'Spirit of Downunder' also deserved a posting too.
'Audi Centre Melbourne' heads back up, while 'Veloce', 'XLR8' and probably 'Ninety Seven' come down.
By John Curnow
