Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 1 (5th November 2023)
What an excellent race day that turned out to be! Forecast looked a little light, but in the end it was pointed from the right direction and bolstered by a sea breeze taking it nicely beyond the predictions, causing some sailors to go down a sail size. Rob beat me handily in the performance class, John dominated the production class, and also in the production class Brighton Dynes piloting through several races and Mike Gosling climbing through the fleet should be noted!
While the wind was scarce in the late morning, Peter and Alek hitched the cheese grater to their car and kindly cleared great swathes of the track of the saltbush that’s been crowding us. Thanks so much guys! And to Mike and Rob and Dad for shaking out the grater and moving clumps of saltbush out of the way. And a very big thankyou to Julie and Erika for running the starts and scoring, you kept us on the track racing!
Our next club championship race day is on 19/11 and I want to remind members we will be using the make-up day on 3/12 as a club champ race, to deal with our previous rainy day.
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 2 (19th November 2023)
Another successful race day! Healthy wind had me put my four metre sail up by the second race. We ran a clockwise course, and later Greg made things more interesting by bringing the left turn right up to tram trash, ensuring we had to beat to get up there and maybe trade positions. I could not catch Steve after race 1, and John took the production class, though Peter did manage to take a race off him. Newcomer Robert Hasenohr got the hang of racing pretty quickly and I saw him get quite a good spot on a start ahead of Peter later in the day. Good to see some new faces.
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 3 (21st January 2024)
Good day of racing last Sunday, fine cool weather and a strong breeze had most of us starting with a size 4 sail. Clockwise course, and we put the left hand turn right up next to tram trash so we’d get an upwind and a downwind leg. The right turn around Pig Swill was tricky as usual, quite a handful keeping the kart level and straight while gathering most of the main sheet back. In this process one time the main sheet wrapped around Bill’s handlebar, giving him his only duck for the day.
Quite a mix of placings (apart from Bill at the lead mostly) had Rob, David K and myself quite close. With a points tie between David and I, David gets ahead for his gold in the first race.
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 4 (4th February 2024)
I arrived at the track and found John B toiling away at a shelter for our race officials, a pair of sturdy columns that a car awning can be screwed onto to shade the score keepers, what a great idea. Thank you John! Rob was also out there scraping pretty much everything between Tram Trash and Pig Swill, he must have been at that for a while.
The unusual northerly and the increasing heat had dried the track out handily, reducing the broad puddles visible on Friday into damp patches that wouldn’t even stick to your shoes. We got a race in on the northerly, which gave us a nice upwind downwind leg but had us close to stalling as we got to the lee at Pig Swill. As we finished up the first race, the wind sprung around to a westerly that made me thankful I packed the 3 metre sail, the weather station showing 30 knot gusts after the fact. Luckily the shift was more or less ninety degrees, turning the long east west run into an upwind-downwind leg, which John capitalised on. We had to remember this wasn’t Kingston and had tens of seconds to begin losing speed to make it around the east mark and stay out of the scrub (later, on some laps after racing I ended up having to use the back track as a kind of arrester bed). We would have held many more races in this crazy westerly but alas, the heat was becoming unbearable and we prudently called it early. Peter L somehow put up with it and got in as many extra laps as he could, probably because the surgery on his foot is going to keep him away from the track for a while. We all wish you a quick recovery, Peter. Greg Devine got a lot of ks in too, he shall be representing us at the nationals in Queensland so he had to cram for the test. Go Greg!
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 5 (18th February 2024)
Great day of racing on the eighteenth, once again starting light and building to a south westerly that wanted you to go down a sail size. A race or two in Mike strolled out into the course and shifted the marks to make downwind tacking mandatory in the rest of the races, and it made it much more interesting; I think I managed one good downwind weave. John brought the shade awning to attach to the posts he put in last week and it was just perfect for keeping the score keepers cool. It was also good to see Gary here all the way from NSW, who picked up a kart from Mike and raced with us all through the day.
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 6 (3rd March)
Excellent day’s racing last Sunday; solid wind, dry track and lots of karts out. Phillip kindly scored the races, allowing us to race both classes at once, and get used to a bit of traffic. Scott Saxon had an extra exciting race; one of the lines he was taking around Pig Swill brought him close to the scrub at the edge, and a brown snake leapt out and struck his kart! It stayed outside his pod and wasn’t run over so luckily no living beings were hurt here. Perhaps it decided that it had no chance of outrunning Scott and had to fight?
I had fun trading with Rob E through the day, though Scott showed us both how to do it in the second lap of one of the races, blowing past us along the edge on the way to Pig Swill. It was great to see our newer members on the track too, we had David Hall out there and Robert “The Stig” Hasenohr. Dad had good duels with John and Luke got some great results, including a decisive gold in the final race, crossing the finish before John and Steve had reached the last mark!
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 7 (7th April)
A ripper of a race day on Sunday, nice weather, consistent breeze lined up with the course and most importantly heaps of wind jockeys, gust masters and puff pilots! Fourteen seasoned blokarters was the seasoning that really made the day delicious. We had The Stig looking the sharpest of us all, we had Snake Charmer Saxon along (without the snakes luckily), and Peter Luczak was back early from his trip to the moon, out of his moonboot and into his kart. Julie snuck some nice cakes and candles into the shed and we all gave a clap for each of Birthday-Boy Luke’s years. My hands are pretty sore still but I’m sure that’s from pulling on the mainsheet.
The wind lined up pretty nicely between Tram Trash and Pigswill and those two technical, tactical legs really shook things up. It made for interesting racing and spectating as pilots changed placing lap to lap. Well done John for getting Dad by a point, and sorry about the wheel exploding Peter, you were in contention there (thanks Bill for driving out to Pigswill). In the performance races places kept changing up; Jack had a great first race and Greg made a splash when he jumped in on race four. I was pretty pleased with the overall result but I think it was mainly because of the toddler’s first mountain bike tire I’ve now got on the front.
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 8 (21st April)
Fine weather for fishing on Sunday, but!… The sun was out and I knew there’d be a sea breeze from that later on. Lighter than we’d like in the end, but we managed eleven races! We prudently opted for a simple sausage course (two marks, going east west) that wouldn’t get us stalled over and over again on the beat back from Pig Swill. I think everyone might’ve stalled at least once but we got some interesting races out of the day based more on catching wind than pushing wheels.
Normally the upwind and downwind legs influence the outcome of races heavily and I know I’ve made up for sloppy steering with a strategic or lucky tack. Sunday’s race being all cross wind though, you had to pay extra close attention to your sail trim and steering cos that’s all you could do to close the gap to the next kart. Interesting change of pace.
John Brolese and Bill Finch won the day, but the flukey wind and short course really mixed the results up and I wasn’t exactly sure how it’d go till I finished the spreadsheet. Dad and Peter had me going back into the IBRA tie breaking rules, and Jack got me for third. Really good to sail with you again Jack, I hope our races line up with your time away from work more often.
As there were just eight karts to keep track of, we elected to have pilots take turns scoring, and receive their own average points for that race. This way we could have a ton of races, and the volunteers wouldn’t be too sorely penalised. We made a roster, but Mike G ended up stepping up and keeping us all on the track; thanks Mike, and Erika, as always!
Overall Results 2023-2024 Season
