Aaawww Phuuuuk

"Hey Dad - what was your sail like?" asked the young fella when I got home. So how do you answer that?

I said "Well son, we had no swell, it was warm and sunny, the breeze was warm, we flew a kite for half the race. What's not to like?"

But what more it could have been.

Picked up Rude at 4.45am, went through the nogo zone into Bunbury to get the Slatherman, and set off for Freo. A bowl of fat with hair in it from a roadhouse for breakky and we were set. Even allowing for the skipper to peel off a nervous one just when we wanted to leave the pen, we were at the start line in good order. Picked up the sign on snakes, and took in the view of a glorious summer's day on the water.

Till it was time to put the drive unit to bed. A rather unsettling thud was heard when trying to pull up the leg. A bit like the sound of metal on fibreglass. Not good - and about 3 mins to the warning signal.

We decided to start so as to give ourselves a chance. Pnve well clear of the line it was time for an on-site inspections. A quick glance through the crew revealed that John Boardman was the fittest fella to send over to sort it out. He confirmed that he could not tell what was happening. So then it was the skippers turn. As was his right, he identified the problem, and so instructed John on how to fix it. Quite fantastically, John did.

Having given the fleet half an hour, we set off. At the insistence of the cook, we hoisted the A3 for the leg to the windmills. Cracker of a move - why haven't we listened to him before. 8.5kts and fetching the mark. Bar Minds Eye, no-one else attempted such a bold move. We carried the kite comfortable for nearly all the leg, just needing to peel to the Code 2 for the last half mile.

The course was complex - straight to Bunbury. The fleet went right, we went left. The SW was in earlier than was forecast, and we were fetching Coventry Reef. And all the time we were making Bunbury faster than the rest of the fleet. Halfway through Comet Bay we looked good as we looked like clearing Cape Bouvard. If we could continue on that, we would sail the shortest distance to Bunbury.

But the wind backed, and we found ourselves on course to sail into the Dawesville Cut. We took a step out, hoping to clear the Cape and reset on Starboard. But the breeze continued to back, and we were to have this routine of taking steps out to the West all the way to Bunbury. This was not the only disappointment, however. We were settled on starboard for a period when, somewhere near Preston Beach we lost the spinnaker pole. It slid down the deck and into the piss. We hastily turned the boat around and returned to where it lay in the water. We made a couple of passes to retrieve it, but unfortunately it sank before it could be saved. With the breeze from the South it looked like we may well be without a valued tool.

The remainder of the beat was just that, and we were an hour behind the competition when we rounded Bunbury. But it was hard to be unhappy then. The breeze was about 12kts and warm. And the water was flat. It was more of a summer night's cruise than a hard offshore sail.

We elected to settle onto starboard for a while. It was the rhumb line and the pressure was reasonable. We were sailing to fetch Cape Bouvard, which was a little deeper than was optimal. But it was the shortest course. However when we got closer to land the breeze dropped off. It was time to either hot up for speed, or go offshore to hunt for pressure. We did the latter, and it proved correct withing half an hour. Even in just 4nm's we were back in pressure and making good speed. But port gybe was not comfortable given the wind-wave state. Nevertheless, we hung out there for a good while just to make sure.

The breeze continued to build, and backed a little. It was above the working range for the A1 and we were going fast. But it had to happen at some time. We rounded up - not too badly, but we did lose steerage. With the gear eased, the kite flogged horribly. We were slowly getting the boat back up when the 0.5oz cloth gave away. It was time for a very hasty retrieval of sail cloth and the detached tapes.

We got the A2 up. and soon decided to gybe. We had nearly 24kts so the new heading (around 012) gave some great surfing conditions. The swell was small, but the wind waves were ok. And the new heading would put us very close to the windmalls, albeit some hours away.

In the early hours, the wind veered a little, and it became slow trying to maintain the layline. But the pressure was solid and fair progress was achieved. With the veer, another gybe was needed to get to the windmalls, before a fetch to South Mole and the finish.

Fair to say that it was a tiring race. Everyone was a little weary at the end. It was not a great race result, but it was one of the better trips south one will do. And a fun ride home.

There is always next time.