Gladstone to Yeppoon in 7.5 hours.
Heat 3 of the Central Queensland Championships
Gladstone to Yeppoon Yacht Race 2010
Immigrant Mumm 30
1300 start off Patsy Lee Place
with Immigrant on the buoy, in the tide and out of the blocks on the gun.
Windward work down the harbour in 20-25 knots S/E and run out tide to Gatcombe
Heads. Quickly overtaken by No Problem (Shonning Catamaran)and Arcadia
(Archibald 40) and heading towards and thru the east channel to E1. Arcadia was
first around E1, then No Problem 2 minutes behind and Immigrant a further 3
minutes. The other yachts were behind and out of sight. No Problem took off on
tight reach with breeze at 120 degrees. We didn't see them again.
Two sail
reach to Sable chief rocks, little bear away and a shift in the wind allowed
Immigrants yellow chicken chute to go up and boat speeds immediately up to 15
knots. Arcadia's red A sail went up. Immigrant was chasing down Arcadia and
passed them at 18 + knots adjacent to South End. Arcadia must have been doing
about 12 knots. 10 minutes later and with some squirts of consistent speed
around 15 knots for 3 or minutes at a time, the yellow chute blew into 4
pieces. Wind speed of around 25 - 28 knots. Retrieve the remnants of the yellow
chute and up with the white mast head runner.
This was a bold call in 30 knots
and after a few wild broaches from being way over cooked we changed to the red
masthead reacher. Speeds now close to 20 knots in 30 knots of wind. White water
is covering the yacht as we bury into the seas, we are travelling faster than
the seaway. Pass Cape Capricorn at 1700h and we seem to be on our own.
No
Problem has disappeared over the horizon in front of us and Arcadia is nowhere
to be seen behind. 1800h and no one wants to go below for the sched. The sched
is done and then a few moments later the red chute blows into a similar state
as the yellow one just after we hit 23 knots in 35 knots of wind at 165
degrees. It was time for it to come down any way. Nearing Hummocky Island and a
course change to the west, we put up the Class symmetrical masthead chute and
maintain speeds over 16 knots for many minutes at a time.
Heading is
lower than we can sail and we are thinking about a gybe. 20 knots of boat speed,
33- 38 knots of wind and Kerry (Mr Perfect) tells me what I can do with my
gybe. As is the case so often when it's time to gybe, we seem to crash and this
one was a beauty. Immigrant's mast was nearly flat in the water, one man
overboard and time to smoke the halyard. Guess what, the halyard jammed, get
Dave back on board, he grabbed a sheet rope on his way past and we pulled him
in like a big fish......and we kept him.
Immigrant was pinned flat in the
water, chute 15 metres from the boat and it's still full of wind. At least we
are heading in the right direction. Cut the masthead halyard L
and the yacht comes straight up. Retrieve the chute, tidy up and get the
symmetrical chicken chute up the mast. Back up to 17 knots and way more
manageable, but it's got a little tear near the luff. We watch the little tear,
it gets a bit bigger and then....chute number 3 goes pop. Retrieve the remains
and with estimated wind speed of 35 knots, we lost the wind readouts in the
last crash, we sail like sooks with a main and jib. We are still surfing at up
to 15 knots and then down to 10 knots. Seems like we have stopped. Now we can
have a feed, muslie bar and a snickers, washed down with a Red Bull. That's a
sugar hit! Bail out a couple hundred litres of sea water from below and Yeppoon
and a storm is in sight. Not much in the storm and then the breeze dropped out
to about 20 knots. We put the masthead chute up on the fractional halyard and
crossed the line at 15 knots, 30 minutes behind No Problem and 3 hours in front
of Arcadia. They must have had a more problems than just not being a Mumm 30.
Manly, QLD