Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 1 (22nd January)
Karters and crew, what a ripper of a day! Sunny but not hot, good track, 10-15 knots at the start, 19-24 knots at the end, southwesterly throughout. Nine talented skippers, and race organisers spicing things up on the course; what more could you want?
When I think of a typical race day, I think of a fast and easy reach to Burli Bend and later on a few tacks up to Tram Trash from Pig Swill. Well, just from having a little more westerly than usual we got a tricky upwind to Burli that could force a tack on you if you didn’t use the momentum at the previous mark to overlay Burli. The touch of west also brought with it the temptation to go for Tram Trash without tacking, daring you to risk stalling in a soft patch of sand on the edge. Strzelecki was more upwind than usual too, I had to pay more attention to the firmer parts of the surface after Grant and I stalled on the first go-around.
Phillip also kept things fresh, changing from the Nalpa Classic course to a Strzelecki run, then a Nalpa Bizarro (clockwise) to finish things off. All very fun courses, and it was nice having the new course board right there. There was a little carnage; Bill slapped the dirt with his sail 30 seconds from a start; good thing he was using the old kart ahead of the nationals in WA… have fun and do us proud there Bill! Toby had a vintage red wheel shatter on the inner rim during a slide; impressive it’s lasted this long, the Dynes Duo are famous drifters. Thanks to Bill for having a spare for them, as they’re off to Kingston early.
Thankyou very much Lyn and Phillip for keeping score all day, thankyou John for running around getting the track fees and thanks to all the volunteers. I’m looking forward to seeing you at Kingston this weekend.
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 2 (12th February)
That’s two for two race days with perfect conditions, it’s so good to be back. Fourteen karts out racing on Sunday, with a pretty even split of production and performance. Enough to have good dedicated production and performance races; sure is nice having time to get out and stretch and change sails. A necessary thing what with the wind going from 12 knots in the morning to 17 at the end with 25 knot gusts.
We mixed things up by having a clockwise course, which gave us a downwind tack leg for most of the races, plus a beat up to the Moguls. The rounding of Pigswill to starboard sure was hairy! Congrats to Steve Arthur and John Brolese for winning the day’s racing. It was good to see the places vary a little more than usual too, I think having the somewhat trickier downwind and upwind legs helped shake it up (nice one on race 4 dad).
Thank you to the scorers and fee collectors and all the volunteers. Results are attached, and I’ll see you at the next!
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 3 (16th April)
Somehow all that rain Friday night didn’t make it to the track – you could see it hit the hills like a wall and disappear on the radar – and then we got about 5 mm Saturday night. Our host Greg kindly took a call from me quite early (for a Sunday morning) and walked the track, finding it to be a bit drier than on our relay race day, so racing was declared on.
The uncertainty from the bleak-looking weather had our numbers down a bit but we got four races done for each class on a course covering the whole track, with a few softer, slippery patches to watch out for. Tactical depth, I call that. We had Rob, David and myself in the performance karts, and John, the Dynes duo and newcomer Dave Hall in the production karts. It was great to see Dave get straight into racing and keeping up with the regulars already! Also nice to have his family and friends along and to see them tear around the track as well.
Thank you for recording the places Erika! Below is a preliminary table of results for the sake of getting them out, I’ll check with the older hands if I need to drop races or if the OCS and DNR are scored incorrectly, and send out a correction if needed. Props to Toby for beating his dad in race 4.
Report from PRO (Chris Tyerman) – Race 4 (30th April)
It was good to see so many of you on Sunday, including our newcomers Dave and Mike. The conditions for racing were very difficult unfortunately, but we managed to run a few races, with some “on the water” finishes due to the wind disappearing. Some pilots managed to keep it rolling; well done Rob, and Alek did very well too, only missing first overall on the scoring tie-break (positions in last race breaks point ties).
Just a reminder we have a catch up champ race day scheduled this Sunday, then another the weekend after Mother’s day. Please ensure you have your kart’s number displayed in standard numerals on either the sail, the performance cart pod, or at least on the pulley whip (many member’s kart number tags are in a bag on the bench in the shed). It makes our score keeper’s job much easier. See you at the next!
Report from PRO (Chris Tyerman) – Race 5 (21st May)
It was another case of staring down the rain through the weather station web camera in the days and hours leading up to the sailing; rain all around us in the metro area yet it seemed to skirt our track again and again. On the basis of a decent, evaporative wind forecast and the track being a long way from saturation, the race day went ahead.
Once again the track started out fairly slippery and sticky, but dried up firm in just an hour or two. Before it dried the fishtailing of the karts and the little gobs of clay leaping into the air off the wheels like grasshoppers was novel, but it was nice to have surer footing when we got to racing.
The track having to dry delayed the racing a bit, so we elected to race the classes together to get a decent number of races on for everyone; thankyou to our scorers dealing with the larger numbers! A clockwise course was set, with a port mark west of the Moguls placed to force tacking up from Pig Swill, but the wind was dropping too frequently and stalling too many of us, so the mark was removed, making it a much reach-ier course. Would love to try that again with a steadier wind, tacking shakes up the placings.
Congrats to Rob and Steve on winning the day, and to Mike for persisting through a tube change and a smaller sail to complete the fourth race.
