Con remarked earlier in the week that the up gero race looked as though it would be a hollywood sail, indeed it was. We were mistaken however in thinking this would be a film with all the connotations of a tinsel town romantic as in fact we had tickets to a blockbuster double screening.
Much anticipation had gone into this race on the part of the Jaffa crew, disappointed we were then when the race was heralded with a lacklustre start that saw us completely blocked and stalled out with 30 seconds to go. It really is quite amazing how such a short period of under performance can produce consequences that potentially last for the rest of the race. Needless to say then, by the time we reached the windmills those consequences had manifested themselves in a 3.30mi deficit on Next Factor and comparable gap from Al fresco whose ability to keep up with the bigger boats was very impressive.
Rounding Rottnest therefore we all had on our minds some hard sailing to get back in the race. That is exactly what we did, starting with the A1 and then reluctantly changing down to the A2 had us surfing waves and doing reasonable numbers. At 7pm helm changed over to Doug who took it upon himself to push the envelope achieving a new Jaffa record of 19knts. Unfortunately there was little time to celebrate such an achievement as just after dark the fatal words:
I’ve lost steerage ! I have no steerage ! Everybody on deck!
Escaped his mouth, at that point I was not quite aware of the implications of such an exacerbated statement and so made my way onto the rail to fully take in the moment. Initially we bore down rapidly and dangerously close to gybing, however we actually seemed pause just at that point. Now someone said “get that spinnaker down”. Right I thought now I’ve got something to do, Cooksey and I had a remarkably calm chat about how best we should do this deciding a drop through the front hatch most suitable, going forward there was no way of grabbing the lazy sheet to help bring it in, instead I shouted to fire the halyard and used the lazy brace to pull the foot down to the boys. I had neglected to notice that presently we had no topping lift on the pole but fortunately my head prevented it from suffering any damage when fell onto the deck.
With the kite down a little civility returned to the boat and such formalities as emergency steerage, waypoints back to freo and radio checks were sorted out. Our night was however by no means over as after heading inshore for some 13 miles under storm jib and reefed main a tack was called for. This as Doug, who was again on the helm (pattern emerging) remarked, would be interesting as it would require turning the boat disconnecting the emergency and then reconnecting it on the other side. The first two steps were executed easily, the last one however was where some difficulty emerged and resulted ultimately in breaking the emergency steerage. That’s okay though because we’ve got the emergency rudder cassette right. Wrong! When the original rudder is still attached and your trying to punch into swell that little fella is inept. Desperate times called for extraordinary measures and it was at this time Terry chose to fix the primary steering and although this meant we spent close to half an hour spinning un controllably, ultimately and to much acclaim the steering was fixed. While we were still along way from home the journey back was in comparison, dull being for the most part a matter of keeping course, mitigating the slamming and staying clipped. At about 10.30 am we had finally made it back to freo but not without further the tribulations of again loosing steerage and motor several hundred meters from the harbour entrance which was only resolved by a tow in by sea rescue. I think everyone can be impressed by the way in which despite adversity no one flipped their lid and that we have an RO who can fix his boat. Indeed if such an ordeal was a film it’s reviews would read; without a dull moment this was a story, albeit a drawn out one, of adversity, ingenuity and endurance and although having moments of brilliance viewers won’t find themselves in eager anticipation of a sequel.
-Al.
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