forum.southernwoodenboatsailing.com/news/isyd43wiz0wyhcgu8tlc6a7t5rlnba
gidday guys a link to a short article my crew and i penned about the Gladstone race this year

Thanks Boty, that was really well written, you've a bit of a flair for it! I was saying to my wife on the first night I'd expect Pagan would be on her ear with full canvas up.
Sorry to hear about the boom, but gotta love wooden boats, a replacement already! It must be something about that stretch of water, we broke our boom West of Elliot.
Well done to both of you, it woulda been a great race. Wistari sailed out of their skin, what a performance.

A great read.
I could actually hear the boom go, here in my living room.
Thanks

gary

That was a great read, well done and congrats!

Good one boty.

Good read and good effort.
You probably did but always a good idea to do a debriefing and run through the whole race whilst its fresh in your head.
Especially when there has been a breakage. What would you do to stop it happening again? It usually comes all the way back to prep time. As you said there is never enough.
Look at the sail configurations you used and the VMG you did with them. At some point a poled out headsail is the same or better than a kite on a displacement hull. What was the speed difference between the kite and poled out sail? What was the difference in handling?
Is it a boom furling main? You mentioned a couple of wraps around the boom worked like a sling. Could you have reefed more before the gybe. Heavy weather gybing with a kite up is still one of the highest risk manoeuvres I think. Some boats you can reef running deep some its a nightmare. When possible reefing before a big gybe can make life a lot easier. Sometimes after the gybe you notice you aren't going a lot slower and the handling is better and stay like that until it drops down a bit.
To win first you must finish!
No racing happening in the Med for a while yet!

Select to expand quote

tarquin1 said..
Good read and good effort.
You probably did but always a good idea to do a debriefing and run through the whole race whilst its fresh in your head.
Especially when there has been a breakage. What would you do to stop it happening again? It usually comes all the way back to prep time. As you said there is never enough.
Look at the sail configurations you used and the VMG you did with them. At some point a poled out headsail is the same or better than a kite on a displacement hull. What was the speed difference between the kite and poled out sail? What was the difference in handling?
Is it a boom furling main? You mentioned a couple of wraps around the boom worked like a sling. Could you have reefed more before the gybe. Heavy weather gybing with a kite up is still one of the highest risk manoeuvres I think. Some boats you can reef running deep some its a nightmare. When possible reefing before a big gybe can make life a lot easier. Sometimes after the gybe you notice you aren't going a lot slower and the handling is better and stay like that until it drops down a bit.
To win first you must finish!
No racing happening in the Med for a while yet!

we did a big debreif in gladstone we were in great control and had just done two very smooth jibes sittting on 10 to 12 knots but after the second jibe did not reset the blooper as the breeze had settled to about 30 and we felt we didnt need the sail area but we failed to ease the brace forward on the pole this started a rythmic roll witch quickly ended in a Chinese with the boom catching the backstay and splitting the boom in 4 places ( probably a good thing as it may have taken out the backstay otherwise )
normally we would ease the brace forward to 3/4 position when we make the new permant boom probably timber carbon to get some weight out i will be able to reinforce internally and will have a drop down fitting to take a vang this should make it a lot safer when running deep in breeze
very hard to practice sailing in fresh conditions as the trend nowdays is to call a race off as son as we get a capfull of breeze