Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 1 (19th October 2025)
Things weren’t looking good for racing last Sunday, with threats of rain and a northerly dueling with a sea breeze, and members struggling to keep their karts moving as they warmed up.
But then a strong westerly with dark clouds behind it came up and we decided to get everyone racing before it got all muddy. We set a two-mark sausage course, and it was some of the funnest and most interesting racing I’ve been in at our track. As it was directly up and down wind, you had to carefully pick a path through the moguls to keep your speed up going downwind, and to minimise tacking and pinching when going up, all while being mindful of rough ground and the other karts.
I had a good start to the day but then Jack ran away with the rest of the races, except race 7 when the wind dropped out and only Luke and David could keep their karts rolling to get the win.
Also, it never rained and we all got to go home with clean cars and karts. Hope to see you at the next race on 2/11!
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 2 (16th November 2025)
Hi everyone
Amazing conditions last Sunday with straight westerly winds sitting near thirty knots I reckon. It was just Peter, Greg and myself zooming around but we had a blast with the wind making a dead downwind leg straight through the finish line.
A straight westerly wind bearing is always interesting on our track as you have to find the most efficient way to tack and gybe through the Moguls, and you can really gain or lose a lot of ground based on the choices you make. In any case a wind that strong is always interesting; I never unpacked my four meter, and Greg was zooming around on a two. He kindly let me have a shot at the storm sail and boy does the wheel lift quick when the mast is that short!
From the couple of races we had, Peter and I ended with one point for the series, and Greg two.
Hope to see you on the 30th for the next one! Also remember the team race coming up on the 14th, find your crews!
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 3 (8th February 2026)
We had a great race day on the 8th of February, well attended and with an interesting variety of courses and conditions. It started out light, catching out those that put fours up anticipating stronger winds, then it really came in and caught out those that changed up to a five (everyone in performance!).
We changed up the course at one point, squeezing in an upwind and downwind mark. It made things quite interesting and tactical- figuring out how to pass the moguls was fun- but we decided to go back to using the full track after. I enjoyed mixing it up a bit.
There were some nice tight races, and quite a few position changes from race to race. Scott Saxon was my constant companion apart from the first couple where I just couldn’t reach him, and Luke got some good results.
Report from PRO Chris Tyerman – Race 4 (19th April 2026)
The forecast for yesterday’s sailing didn’t look good: a threat of rain and a guarantee of unreliable northerly winds. In the end we just had a slippery track for half the day, and an uncharacteristically solid northerly for twelve races. Didn’t blow a gale but I think we all got a wheel up and broke 40 kph.
Decided to just go halfway toward pigswill for the upwind leg, put down a little traffic cone for us to tack around. The north end of the lake has hills and trees too close and stalls seemed too likely. This little upwind leg caused many position changes and rounding it efficiently was an interesting problem. Greg gained some ground by skimming the shore, and David tested how long his kart could sail upwind to sneak around, and I happily copied them both at different points.
There was a whole bunch of position swapping. I think if Keith pumped his right tire up I’d be doing a countback between him and Greg. Steve sailed with us in his production kart in the first six races, getting three thirds and a second place amongst the carbon masts! David found a way to consistently get around the upwind mark and accelerate and I could not create a point gap; I had to go over the IBRA rules to figure out the tie break (part H section 8 sorry Dave).
Thanks for coming out to sail folks, hopefully for the next event on May 3 we’ll have good conditions and also a more encouraging weather forecast.
