Wild Wassa
02-18-2008, 06:00 PM
Last weekend, the Twofold Bay Yacht Club in Eden on the New South Wales South Coast, held their annual regatta for trailer yachts, dinghies and off the beach cats. Eden hosts a very good regatta ... normally.
With my Skipper Leigh Nielsen, we raced a Micro Tonner 550. In our Division there were 5 Micro Tonners and several other designs like a Young 7.5, Farr 6000, Magic 24, a Castle 550 and a 650 and some different length Sonatas. The racing was overly difficult ... as always, being against the same sailors that we race against twice weekly ... only the Young 7.5 crew was the mysterious odd crew out.
It was lucky my Skipper won the major prize last year which was a week's free accomodation for his gun crew in Eden, otherwize it would have been a sorry regatta wind-wise if we had of not spent a few extra days playing tourists. The Bay had no swell to surf this year, the wind was not following the sea and made for much slop during the races and when we were leading one race the wind died making the water glass like, the shift came and the boat that was running dead last and tailed-off well last, cut the corner and won by the proverbial, leaving us looking like novice sailors. We had a shocker in the last race after being in third spot on points with one race to go ... we could have come second or third overall on corrected times behind a Castle 550, but I haven't seen the final overall results yet ... and I probably will avoid looking.
The town of Eden is stuck in a 1950's time warp which makes it a wonderful place to visit, to help shut down the heady pace of our rural-suburban life. Eden was a major whaling and fishing port but nowadays the most exciting thing there is the angled reverse parking on the hills. Eden is very hilly but the parking signs are all vertical.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/EdenIcecreamery.jpg
A Norfolk Island Bollard tree. They are an extremely rare coastal species ... and with Mount Imlay keeping (over)watch ... but looking the wrong way.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/Eden.jpg
We arrived in Eden a couple of days before the regatta and went to the three chandleries looking for thin waxed bright fluoro coloured whipping twine, being traditionalists and all. The only waxed whipping twine they had at the chandlers was white 4mm ... and it was as thick as our dyneema mainsail halyard. Eden doesn't really cater for small boat sailors, only for giant fishing boats that have their own helicopters to spot fish and which freeze a thousand tonne of fish from one catch. The whipping twine we found was WW2 army surplus, and I used it to calibrate the settings on our spinnaker sheets, on the topper and on the kicker ... so I could preset all the bits.
... and we went cruising in wonderful conditions. So we did get some good sailing in, ... less, ... enjoying the high visibility whipping twine which I left at home.
Outside of the Bay in the South Tasman Sea, the conditions were so good and the swell so in tune with the boat we had to remind ourselves why we went to Eden ... and then we stopped sailing to New Zealand, sadly.
We sailed across Twofold Bay to a beautiful beach and to the mountains of woodchips at the chip mill close by.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/Nicebeach-1.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/Mountainsofwoodchips.jpg
Ken Koku and the wood chip loader. Every few minutes a timber jincker would turn up and the logs were hoisted into Ken Koku as if they were just matchsticks ... in the hour we were there the trucks kept a steady supply coming and we chatted to the Philipino sailors ... using an Internationally understood sign language.
I said goodbye to the trees of the South Eastern Forests and I wished them all the best for their new lives as Japanese newspapers or furniture timber bound for Chinese manufacturers ... and sold-on just as cheaply.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/Shockingtosee.jpg
These are real fenders ... none of that small rubbish hung over the sides of yachts will impresses me any longer. I also liked the survival craft. I hope they check the rusty bolts holding the propeller on when they drop her. It would be a bit embarassing having some dude come out in a little tinny to rescue the rescue craft survivors.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/KenKoku.jpg
Now ... onto the other loader!
Warren.
With my Skipper Leigh Nielsen, we raced a Micro Tonner 550. In our Division there were 5 Micro Tonners and several other designs like a Young 7.5, Farr 6000, Magic 24, a Castle 550 and a 650 and some different length Sonatas. The racing was overly difficult ... as always, being against the same sailors that we race against twice weekly ... only the Young 7.5 crew was the mysterious odd crew out.
It was lucky my Skipper won the major prize last year which was a week's free accomodation for his gun crew in Eden, otherwize it would have been a sorry regatta wind-wise if we had of not spent a few extra days playing tourists. The Bay had no swell to surf this year, the wind was not following the sea and made for much slop during the races and when we were leading one race the wind died making the water glass like, the shift came and the boat that was running dead last and tailed-off well last, cut the corner and won by the proverbial, leaving us looking like novice sailors. We had a shocker in the last race after being in third spot on points with one race to go ... we could have come second or third overall on corrected times behind a Castle 550, but I haven't seen the final overall results yet ... and I probably will avoid looking.
The town of Eden is stuck in a 1950's time warp which makes it a wonderful place to visit, to help shut down the heady pace of our rural-suburban life. Eden was a major whaling and fishing port but nowadays the most exciting thing there is the angled reverse parking on the hills. Eden is very hilly but the parking signs are all vertical.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/EdenIcecreamery.jpg
A Norfolk Island Bollard tree. They are an extremely rare coastal species ... and with Mount Imlay keeping (over)watch ... but looking the wrong way.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/Eden.jpg
We arrived in Eden a couple of days before the regatta and went to the three chandleries looking for thin waxed bright fluoro coloured whipping twine, being traditionalists and all. The only waxed whipping twine they had at the chandlers was white 4mm ... and it was as thick as our dyneema mainsail halyard. Eden doesn't really cater for small boat sailors, only for giant fishing boats that have their own helicopters to spot fish and which freeze a thousand tonne of fish from one catch. The whipping twine we found was WW2 army surplus, and I used it to calibrate the settings on our spinnaker sheets, on the topper and on the kicker ... so I could preset all the bits.
... and we went cruising in wonderful conditions. So we did get some good sailing in, ... less, ... enjoying the high visibility whipping twine which I left at home.
Outside of the Bay in the South Tasman Sea, the conditions were so good and the swell so in tune with the boat we had to remind ourselves why we went to Eden ... and then we stopped sailing to New Zealand, sadly.
We sailed across Twofold Bay to a beautiful beach and to the mountains of woodchips at the chip mill close by.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/Nicebeach-1.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/Mountainsofwoodchips.jpg
Ken Koku and the wood chip loader. Every few minutes a timber jincker would turn up and the logs were hoisted into Ken Koku as if they were just matchsticks ... in the hour we were there the trucks kept a steady supply coming and we chatted to the Philipino sailors ... using an Internationally understood sign language.
I said goodbye to the trees of the South Eastern Forests and I wished them all the best for their new lives as Japanese newspapers or furniture timber bound for Chinese manufacturers ... and sold-on just as cheaply.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/Shockingtosee.jpg
These are real fenders ... none of that small rubbish hung over the sides of yachts will impresses me any longer. I also liked the survival craft. I hope they check the rusty bolts holding the propeller on when they drop her. It would be a bit embarassing having some dude come out in a little tinny to rescue the rescue craft survivors.
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd301/WildWassa/KenKoku.jpg
Now ... onto the other loader!
Warren.