A Lively Northerly Puts a Different Slant on Things

A <strong>Lively</strong> <strong>Northerly</strong> <strong>Puts</strong> a <strong>Different</strong> <strong>Slant</strong> on Things
A northerly breeze, which Fawkner Beacon indicated averaged 21 knots for the
race, caused the fleet to sail on quite a slant throughout race 8. This made it a
good day to inspect your competitor’s hull. Choosing the best heel angle could
have been the key to success in this race. The breeze was certainly enough to
raise some white caps, especially further offshore, but being a northerly there
wasn’t as much swell as could be expected. The conditions were certainly testing
for those new to sailing and even experienced contestants had to give extra
thought to selecting the appropriate sail combination. Larger sails could be better
for downwind legs but smaller ones maybe better for sailing upwind. Not that this
was any sort of deterrent to the 27 yacht strong Sunday Sailor fleet who set out
to sail the 9.8 nautical mile course 7. Unfortunately, four yachts – Cadenza
(Kenneth Foxworthy), Hot Stuff (John Barbieri), My Way (Magdy Iskander) and
Misty Blue (Bruce Coram) – withdrew from the race. Nevertheless, there are
seventeen yachts that have completed five or more races in the series with eight
yachts having completed all eight races.
Searching for the best heel angle
Course 7 is a 7 leg course with a northerly start which in these conditions offers a
beat to number three, a reach out to number 2 with a good run out to number five
before turning back in shore to sail the inner triangle to the finish.

Wind Speed
(knots)
Wind Direction
(degrees)
Sunday Sailors Winter Series 2013
Race 8 Wind Speed & Direction
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
900 930 1000 1030 1100 1130 1200 1230 1300
Time
360
315
270
225
180
135
90
45
0
Wind Speed Wind Gusts Wind Direction
With a rhumb line distance of 9.8 nautical miles course 7 is one of the longer
courses sailed on Sunday but the lively breeze ensured the yachts sailed around
in less than average time.
Sunday Sailors Winter Series 2013
Race 8 Sail Time
Time (hh:mm:ss)
00:00:00 00:28:48 00:57:36 01:26:24 01:55:12 02:24:00 02:52:48
Y
a
c
h
t
D EB ON N A IR E
IN D EP EN D EN T EN D EA VOUR
XP R ESSO
LEB R OK
R A Z OR SED GE
D ION YSOS
M ELT EM I
B A R IN YA
M YUN A
T R ESOR
C OP YR IGH T
WIN SOM E
C OR OM A N D EL 3
D ILII GA F F
F OGGY D EW
C H EQUEM A T E
C A SSA N D R A M ELB OUR N E
SLIP ST R EA M
D ELL ER A
IM A GIN ER
KA OS
D ELT A LA D Y
P LA Y
01:28:33
01:36:01
01:36:52
01:40:18
01:40:20
01:43:26
01:43:34
01:43:55
01:44:02
01:45:01
01:45:31
01:45:54
01:50:07
01:50:08
01:51:21
01:57:38
02:03:36
02:04:10
02:05:38
02:15:34
02:16:37
02:17:08
02:18:30

Debonnaire (Phil Gomez) sailed the course in the shortest time 7 minutes 28
seconds faster than the race winner Independent Endeavour (Malcolm Mohr).
Third fastest was Xpresso (Ari Abrahams) who completed the race in 1:36:52.
Course 7 was sailed in race 6 with slighter stronger winds but the average sail
time was more than 8 minutes shorter in this race than in race six. There were
nine yachts that sailed race eight in a sail time quicker than the best (1:44:02) in
race 6.
Getting away to the best start and winning Start of the Day was Xpresso only 5
seconds late for a 32 minute handicap start. There were no real strong
competitors for Start of the Day with no other yacht getting within 10 seconds or
less of their start time. Chequemate (Ian Whitbread) made a valiant attempt but
he crossed the line 2 seconds too soon putting her out of contention.
Starting 1 minute 22 seconds late for a 25 minute handicap start in 19 th position
was Independent Endeavour. This was only her second race of the series after
competing in race 1 but she seemed quite comfortable sailing in the conditions
without the use of the mizzen sail.
Independent Endeavour Approaching No 4
Independent Endeavour sailed the course in 1:36:01 to pass 18 other yachts and
be first across the finish line at 11:31:01. This win helped to lift her 3 places in the
aggregate from 27 th to 24 th place. Crossing the finish in second place 4 minutes
20 seconds behind Independent Endeavour was Foggy Dew (Joe O’Grady).
Foggy Dew had started the race in 11 th place 54 seconds late for her 13 minute
handicap start. She completed the race in 1:51:21 crossing the finish line at
11:34:21. Foggy Dew has completed all 8 races in the series and her second

Position
POSITION
place in this race is her best result so far. It is her 4 th top ten finish to go with a 3 rd
and two 7 th places. It has helped raise her to 5 th position in the aggregate 15
points behind the leader – Myuna (Geoffrey Dixon).
Sunday Sailors Winter Series 2013
Foggy Dew Finish & Aggregate Position
25
20
15
10
5
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Race Number
Finish Position
Aggregate Position
Completing her 7 th race in the series and crossing the line in 3 rd place at 11:34:21
to record her 4 th top ten finish was Copyright (Stuart Morrison-Jack). Copyright
started the race 30 seconds late for her 24 minute handicap from 13 place. It took
1:45:31 to make her way into 3 rd place in the race and put her in equal 2 nd place
in the aggregate alongside Dell Era on 37 points.
Sunday Sailors Winter Series 2013
Copyright Finish & Aggregate Positions
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Race Number
Aggregate Position
Finish Position

Position
Along with Independent Endeavour, Copyright was one of the mid fleet starters to
finish within the first third of the finishers. The remainder of the first third finishers
was comprised of 3 early starters and 2 late starters. The late finishers comprised
3 early and 3 late starters plus 1 mid fleet starter.
Sunday Sailors Winter Series 2013
Race 8 Position at Start & Finish
25
20
15
10
5
0
PLAY
SLIPSTREAM
DELL ERA
KAOS
CASSANDRA MELBOURNE
CHEQUEMATE
FOGGY DEW
DELTA LADY
COROMANDEL 3
COPYRIGHT
DILII GAFF
IMAGINER
Yacht
INDEPENDENT ENDEAVOUR
Start
Finish
TRESOR
MYUNA
MELTEMI
DIONYSOS
WINSOME
BARINYA
XPRESSO
RAZORSEDGE
LEBROK
DEBONNAIRE
At the completion of race 8 the top ten in the aggregate are shown in the table
below. Coromandel 3 and Imaginer enter the top ten in place of Lebrok and
Kaos.
YACHT SKIPPER Race 7 Race 8 CHANGE
MYUNA Geoffrey Nixon 1 1 0
DELL ERA Mike Coulter 2 2 0
COPYRIGHT Stuart Morrison-Jack 4 3 1
DELTA LADY Eric Clark 3 4 -1
FOGGY DEW Joe O Grady 8 5 3
DILII GAFF Paul Macbain 6 6 0
WINSOME Simon Hemingway 5 7 -2
CASSANDRA MELBOURNE Bob Reeves 7 8 -1
COROMANDEL 3 Gus McLennan 12 9 3
IMAGINER Chris Byrne 11 10 1
Myuna has held a firm grip on top position in the aggregate for 7 of the eight
races and with only 3 races left in the series and a lead of 8 points she is looking

more and more difficult to move. However, both Copyright and Foggy Dew have
had better results than Myuna in races 7 and 8 which could be a continuing trend.
Dell Era looks to have a clean hull
The next installment of Sunday Sailors, Race 9, is in 2 weeks time on 25 August
2013.