Any other Tassie sailors competing in the Pipe Opener series starting next Friday

Just wondering if any other Tassie sailors are competing in the Pipe Opener series starting Friday after next dssinc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Pipe-Opener-NOR.pdf

It is a big weekend for us as we will sail the boat from Port Huon to Hobart (40 nm) on Friday for a 7pm start of the Pipe Opener, a 25 nm night race back down the Channel and then the fleet motor back to Port Huon arriving in the early hours of Saturday morning

We then grab a few hours sleep before the start of the Cock of the Huon Race which is a race around the marks at Port Huon starting at 1.30 in the afternoon which takes a couple of hours and then there is a dinner and presentation at the Kermandie Hotel on Saturday night

Following this starting at 10 am on Sunday is a 15 nm race morning back down the river towards Hobart

It is a big weekend and the weather down here is still pretty cold with snow falling the last couple of days down to 300 meters and the day time temp being around 10 degrees and nightime being around 0 degrees so it will be a bit of a battle to leave the fire place and get on the boat for the start of the racing season

Regards Don

I'll be there on the Elan E4 Frontline!!

Can't wait as I haven't sailed down south in years!!

Yeah down all weekend:)
The boat did it last year so hopefully they know where they are going!!

I'm the guy with the limp who will definitely not be on the foredeck!!

Long range forecast is looking ok!! Well more than 10 knots the entire way!!

Hopefully the weather improves in the next week

This is Port Huon today with a maximum of 9 degrees, 25 knot winds, raining and snow on the hills

We had planned to slip the boat this morning to give it a wash off before the race but have decided to do it tomorrow when the forecast is a bit better with a maximum of 12 degrees

Regards Don

Hi 2Bish

Love your photo and from what I understand it was pretty wild out on the water that day

I have been sailing with Jeff for the last 5 seasons and we sail out of Port Huon with the Huon Yacht Club huonyachtclub.org/

Traditionally our opening day as on the Sunday that the Channel race is scheduled for although this year we have changed it to the Saturday to bring it inline with the Hobart clubs

In that time apart from the races here we have done the Pipe Opener series and the Cygnet Regatta races and Jeff has also sailed in the Dover Regatta and Barnes Bay Regatta but I haven't been onboard for those races as i don't do the Sunday races as I go to church instead

Last season when Jeff bought the new boat he also did the Crown series with other crew onboard and did pretty well www.boatsalestas.com.au/news/?item=91

We are all getting on a bit in age with me at 53 being the youngest on the boat and we often say when we are doing races in the Channel that we should never leave the Huon River as we get the strong winds here but the water is normally pretty flat even it it is blowing where as in the Channel we get a bit wetter as shown in your photo

Regards Don

Will be interesting to see how two Euro chined C/R's go against each other!!

This is what i am on

Forecast is looking OK, Willy saying light NW start and then Southerly building not long after, WindyTy saying light Northerly, going West then building SW, but atleast both say breeze!!!

Looks like a quick trip!!

The interesting thing is that Willy say 20 knots at the start and Windy says 12 knots so it will be interesting to see who is correct

Regards Don

Another pipe opener series is over and the body is feeling it

We sailed the boat up to Hobart on Friday leaving Port Huon just before 9 am and arriving in Hobart just after 3 pm

We had the previous boats main sail and the furling head sail on for the trip up and had a mix of conditions from no wind to 26 knots so there was a lot of discussion on whether to keep the smaller main on or go for the larger square top main for the race back

Checked the forecast when we arrived in Hobart and the prediction was strong winds for most of the night but Jeff believed that we would probably have the normal Pipe Opener mix of light and strong winds throughout the night so we decided to go with the square top main and the furling head sail so we spent a hour swapping the main over before the 7 pm start

We had a good start in light winds and decided to hoist the asymmetrical spinnaker but then the windex started going in circles at the top of the mast which resulted in the spinnaker wrapped around the fore stay and we had to head the boat back in the direction of Hobart to untangle it and sort the mess out

Got it unwrapped and setting and heading in the right direction again and had the same thing happen so once again we turned back to sort it out and lost a fair bit of time

We gave up on the spinnaker and headed in the right direction and had a nice sail in reasonable winds until about 11 pm when the predicted sustained strong winds of around 30 knots arrived so we put one reef and then a second reef in the main and rolled off about half of the head sail but still had good boat speed

When the wind died off a bit we were back to full main and head sail and again had a nice sail and just before midnight we could see the flashing light of the finish line boat not to far ahead

I made the radio call to the finish line boat advising them we were about to finish and then the wind dropped out again and it took us about another half an hour to cross the line a 12.20 am finishing 5th across the line and 5th on handicap out of a fleet of 8 second division boats

The weather was freezing cold for the motor up the river and we had winds of up to 18 knots on the nose with occasional rain showers coming through which felt like pieces of ice hitting your face so we took it in turns to steer while the others on the boat were in the cabin keeping warm finally arriving back in Port Huon just after 3 am

Saturdays race was a bit better for us and with the big main and head sail on we made a good start in light winds and were briefly leading the division 2 fleet by sailing a bit closer to the shore until the wind dropped out completely leaving the fleet becalmed for about 10 mins allowing the division 1 fleet that started 15 mins later to come up on us

My mates Elliott 780 and a couple of other boats that were more to the centre of the river picked up the freshening breeze before us and pulled away until we finally managed to get the boat moving

After that we had a good sail in a decent breeze with a bit of sunshine between the rain showers and didn't make too many mistakes to again finish 5th across the line in 2nd division in a fleet of 8 but 3rd on handicap which we were fairly happy with

In the 3rd race this morning from Port Huon back to Gordon (i didn't sail in this one as i go to church) the guys on the boat had a good run down the river under spinnaker to finish 5th across the line but 2nd on handicap in division 2 so they did well and we ended up second with a score of 10 points in the 3 race series results in Division 2 as there were 2 equal firsts on 9 points

If any one is interested how we went compared to Rumblfish's Elan (that was racing in Division 1) here are the elapsed times so Rumblfish went quicker than us in 2 out the 3 races

Race 1
Elan 4 hours 43 mins
Jenneau 5h 22 mins

Race 2
Elan 2 hours 28 mins
Jenneau 2 hours 42 mins

Race 3
Jenneau 2 hours 10 mins
Elan 2 hours 14 mins

Here is a photo of some of the fleet ( i think we are second from the left ) in the Cock of the Huon race held at Port Huon that i copied from the DSS website and here is their race report dssinc.org.au/2017/09/dss-boats-win-pipe-opener-series/



I should also mention that my mate Mick Bartlett ion his Elliott 780, Another Girl Another Planet, took out the Cock of the Huon Race in the combined division 1 and 2 results so once again the trophy and funny hat is back in the Huon for this year so well done Mick and his crew


Regards Don

nice photos must be great racing on flat water

Was cold, bloody cold all weekend!! Pretty sure it snowed at about 2am motoring up the Huon!
we had a great weekend, Friday night race we decided on no kite at the start and due to falling in a bit of a hole pre-start we started about 20 seconds late.
Caught up pretty quick with sounds of flapping kites in the darkness left and right.
Went more mid river than most and it paid off, passing a heap of inshore boats before the channel, we even passed the Cookson 50 boat for boat in the same breeze at one stage!
Entering the channel we found ourselves in 4th place and were passed by a couple on the two sail but passed the Hobie 33 near the finish when they ran too long with full sail.
Saturdays race we fell in a hole and never recovered, Sunday was simply magic sailing in 10-12 downwind for 20 miles. We were one of the only boats with assy kites only which was not ideal.
We took a chance gybing south and it looks like it paid off until the wind died, filled from the North for the boats inside us first, oh well!!
Great weekend, hope to be back next year!!

Hi Don,

I love your photos.

Would you mind if I printed 12356076.jpg as a gift for the skipper?

Thanks in advance.

L