Melbourne Winter Series (MWS)

Straight to the Pool Room!

In A Toyota Hilux from the other day, I wrote the following:

 

OK. We have not see much of 'Icefire' on these pages yet, but this is a "Straight to the Pool Room", if ever I saw one... 25knots and still manages to get a dart in the mouth, steer and have a bit of string in the hand. Just awesome! That's gotta be old school, right there.

 

Well it certainly is. I've just found out that the helmsman in question is one Tim Dutton. He is a past winner of the ORCV's Melbourne Two-Handed (MTH) from back in the 80's aboard a Quarter Tonner named 'Spectrum', which was owned by the World Quarter Ton Champion, David Birkhill, from HBYC. Tim was also a crew member on 'Terra Firma' (now 'Mocean') when she was the overall winner of the S2H in the mid-nineties. "Sailed a few miles? Old School? Definitely!!!!", was how 'Anonymous' put it to me.

So thank you 'anonymous' for all your bits of intel on the man. You must surely know him him very, very, very well and he must be close to you. (Which is my way of assisting Tim find out just who 'anonymous' is!)

And also a thank you to everyone for reading the pieces, together with your comments, emails and calls about them. It makes all the work that your team of volunteers and office staff of the ORCV perform, even more enjoyable.

The last race of the 2009 MWS is the new M2G. You can get the Sailing Instructions and Notice of Race HERE.

 

 

By John Curnow

 

 

 

 

Melbourne Winter Series (MWS)

Pointy End Specialists.

All rightey then. The FDU are going to love me and anyone who used to go up to adventure island, but is now too large, old, smart or [D], all of the above, is going to admire them anyhow. This article's hero pic is the bowman from 'Veloce'. You know the deal, if you want some of your fifteen minutes, then email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Now there are plenty of other great images here as well, so get a glass of red and kick back. 55 personally selected pics await you...

These images are Races Five and Six of the MWS, as seen by Steb Fisher. This is the only authorised site you can see these images at. You can view more of Steb's work here or contact him via either of these - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and mobile 0438 160 753.

Sunday's weather was always going to provide for some spectacular racing and viewing, so let's start with FDU corner.

'Audi Centre Melbourne' and I called them ACM Over, ACM Under and ACM Pasting... I think that just about covers it. (And I think I've just about covered the sponsor being happy issue too.... What do you think Chris?)

'Schuss' left and 'Ice Fire' right.

'Cougar II' above and 'Clockwork' on the right.

This is 'Audacious', so this should be our FDU Poster Boy, Michael Stephens.

Alas it is not so - we've just learned it is in fact their "...multitasking Mastman, Lindsay Berge. I must have been fetching the spin halyard", Michael tells me.

Aboard 'Ninety Seven'.

Checking it out on 'Jazz Player'.

Bow1 and 2 and plenty of water about on 'Audi Centre Melbourne'.

Aboard the Doyen's 'Challenge', left and on 'Wicked', right.

This article's hero onboard 'Veloce' and then it's 'Schuss' on the right.

Right there on '38 South' and then the chainsaw icon on the bow of 'Audacious' (and Lindsay again, Michael...).

"You mean this bit of rope in there? I know. Maybe when the boat comes down again, it'll be closer huh...."

- aboard 'Jazz Player'

Very, very, very wet aboard 'Spirit of Downunder'. Don't think the fluoro hood is going to stop much, just maybe collect a bit more actually...

OK. Let's completely turn it on its head now. This is Robin Hewitt leaning over and possibly Dennis Livingston looking on, from the Committee Boat, RYCVs 'Thorsen'.

This is the crew from 'XLR8', who did not have the best of days....

'38 South' with a little variation in the hiking theme...

'Clockwork', another Sydney 38, were hiking hard.....

...but then some of them got sprung when they thought the camera was off!

'Ninety Seven' on the left and 'Audi Centre Melbourne' on the right.

Greg, Michael, Lindsay and the rest of the crew on 'Audacious' going into the mark and hiking hard on the way there.

'Bombora' and 'Jazz Player' head downhill.

'Can Can' and 'Challenge' behind a wave.

'Clockwork' heads downhill and 'Cougar II' sends its bow through another wave, with the Bag all set to go.

'Cougar II' surfs down with a Bag and the Staysail - must have been under 20 knots...

'Dream' go in to the mark, left, while 'Ice Fire' and '38 South' tussle it out, right.

Finally we have a shot of the mighty little 'Godzilla' under kite. Thanks Steb for the pic and well done to the crew, who have the little 31footer on the podium.

'Ice Fire' sets up to go around and Stephen "Jamboy" Hill and the crew aboard 'INSX' punch on into the waves.

'JAHMU2' beats uphill, while 'Jazz Player' is behind a wave. Check out the colour and clarity of the water!!!

At least the tapes got clipped up the right way on 'Jazz Player'.

'Jazz Player' and 'The Secretary' head uphill.

'Mirrabooka' keen to get to the mark and then get flat and a bit warmer on the way back down.

'Sierra Chainsaw' and 'Wicked' and possibly 'Schuss' in between them as they head away from the line.

'Spirit of Downunder' puts some green over the deck, the sheets, the sails, the dodger, the crew, etc, etc, etc.

'Veloce' gets set to go into the top mark.

Love the pattern in the expensive rags when the sun shines through...

Now if it wasn't for the wet weather gear, you'd swear this was at Hammo - look at the colour of the water! Oh yeah. Giddy up, eh Nifty...

So if you haven't had enough, other related material to MWS Races Five, Six and Seven can be read in the following articles.

EASE! can be read by clicking HERE.

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.

It's YOUR Money can be read by clicking HERE.

Details of the M2G, which is Race Seven of the MWS, can be read by clicking HERE.

 

 

By John Curnow

 

 

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

 

Melbourne Winter Series (MWS)

CSI: Port Phillip

Schuss comes from the sport of schifahren (pronounced 'She-far-ren'), which is German for skiing and it means to 'make a fast and straight downhill passage'. Now after Race Five on Sunday, 'Schuss' either went straight down on top of 'Bombora' or alternatively, 'Bombora' cut straight across 'Schuss'. I do not have enough photographic evidence to comment yet, but the results???? Well they were spectacular enough - have a look for yourself! We pick up our sequence of photos well into the exchange, but there were definitely clashed poles etc...

Here comes 'Bombora' post Race Five, which finished downhill, preparing to dump the bag.

A black rig and silver rig don't go clang, but things have definitely connected here.

Lots of faces looking at stuff, not sure how much "doing" is going on though (except for the letterbox drop being performed on 'Schuss')...

If you have a look at 'White Pants' (the guy in front of the guy with his leg wrapped around the vang), you can see that he's definitely "committed to the deep" here. A sloppy sea and off balance, with 'Schuss' spearing up over 'Bombora's stern wave. Lucky no one else was in 'White Pant's way... Rolling, Rolling, Rolling - RAWHIDE!

OK. Bow coming down, one foot on the rail, sermon done - time to 'step off'. "And    Here    We     Go!", as the late Heath Ledger's 'Joker' character said...

Port Phillip in Winter - Hhhhmmmmmm. Yummy! One instant Soprano, coming up - with a shrimp salad side order.

Now in all seriousness, look how hard it is to spot the MOB........

And then a little wave, as in the pic above. Imagine trying to spot the MOB in a 5 to 10m sea!!!! This is why SOPs like the dedicated spotter and one Dolphin torch over the side are so important.

Bow comes around.

He's got the life ring now...

...getting a hand up - 'Schuss's transom not as bad as some for retrieving a person - and then...

...goes back for the life ring. Note the letterbox drop still going on...

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.

 

OK now all you Demtel shoppers. There's even more CSI to be had as we look at 'XLR8'. Have your credit cards and phones ready as we get set to offer you more.

 

By John Curnow