Nationals 2024

My first nationals in the PT. Muritai Yacht Club hosted the nationals this year, and we had some fabulous sailing. I wasn’t expecting much given my boat was a little outdated but I’d been hard at work making some upgrades to it, like mostly finishing off the continuous control lines and replacing the mast rotation.

Day 1

We started off with measuring everything and registration. After a long wait in the queue to get boats weighed it was my turn. Mr Jinks weighed in at a not too shabby 54.8kg, min weight of 50kg so I think that’s a win. Off to rig everything up for the first two races. It was a good 15kts or so, really nice conditions and not too much waves, but definitely more than I’m used to in Evans Bay.

Race 1

I was quite proud of my start here. I was clear but I had the issue of not acellerating fast enough so everyone went over the top of me and I was quickly in a bunch of dirty air. I kept my ground but wasn’t able to scrape back any additional places so finished a mediocre 30th.

Race 2

Not much better really. Finished up 29th in the end. On the way back to the club we sailed through a pod of dolphins which was super cool. I was assigned this race to do a report for the Tiger Rag. I managed to blow out a lower sidestay pin somehow but by some miracle it was still lying on the boat. Nothing that a hammer can’t fix. I should have taped the pins in like I said I would.

Day 2

4 races scheduled today since we didn’t think we’d be able to get out on saturday (spoiler alert, we didn’t) so was gonna be a long one. It was super light winds to start with so the races were delayed by quite some time. I also refixed with some bigger rivets and a bolt going through the mastthe mast rotation as it had become loose.

Race 3

Not my best race at all. I think I thought we had 2 minutes still to go or something so was totally late for the line. Oh well, 31st will have to do.

Race 4

Definitely my worst race, dead last. I was 3rd or 4th to last but just couldn’t tack across the line at the end and everyone else sailed past me.

Race 5/6

Much better, a 25th and then a 29th again. Slowly getting the hang of this. I decided that at the gate I would always go right and I think it paid off well for me. I had great lines to the top mark and it just felt right, despite the fact that I was nosediving constantly.

Day 3

Was quite a gusty morning. Before the races Dave Shaw, who ended up winning the regatta by a solid margin, gave me heaps and heaps of helpful tips on what to do to set the boat up right and make sure that I was tacking ok. I fixed up my lower sidestays, tightening them up a little too. We shifted the boom blocks further forward as he mentioned that it appeared to be pushing the mast forward and creating ugly crinkles in the sail. I definitely wouldn’t have been sailing without all the help he and many others, especially Peter Robins, gave me. We ended up waiting til 4pm before the ‘D’ flag was put up as it was just too windy in the early afternoon but boy it was worth it.

Race 7/8

I honestly couldn’t beleive how fast I was going upwind. Soaked through but had an absolute ball, even though I still came last (29th). Last again for race 8 one but by a lot less of a margin. I’m really proud I got through these two races and I managed to pull off pretty much all but a couple of the tacks over both and didn’t capsize. I nearly didn’t come last in the second one but sadly the boat I was just in front of caught an amazing wave just at the bottom mark and shut me out. On the first downwind reach of the second race the first capsize happened. Honestly glad I didn’t, there were some sketchy moments.

Day 4/Prizegiving

Racing cancelled for the day, too much wind. We all packed up and I followed the Evans Bay fleet home to unpack back into the shed. Dave Shaw taking out the regatta convincingly.

Learnings

• Sit further back in waves when going upwind, will stop bow from diving
• You don’t need any vang, drop it off when tacking, otherwise you can’t switch your mast rotation
• The Doyle just doesn’t work in the breeze for me, it’s still too powerful
• DONT tack into waves, I did this far too often

My long todo list

I have a whole bunch of thing to do. The hull is competitive enough, I just need to get everything else up to spec first.

1. New foils. The rudders are too small and aren’t that great. The person who built them told me to throw them away so I definitely will. Same with the centre boards. Still debating whether I buy them or build some. I’ll probably find out what is out there first. I should also replace the rudder stocks and tiller cross bar while I’m at it, I’d want to go to vertical pintles too so on the fence for that one. The extension can probably wait.
2. I need to replace the Doyle with a more modern Norths. At $2800+ I’ll definitely just go second hand for now. I’ll have to replace the mast too which could be a pain. at the same time though which is a bit of a pain, especially since I’ll have to completely build one from scratch and add a stiffener
3. New traveler. I could save a kilo of weight by replacing it and the car, and make it so much nicer. I’ll probably shift the block back too and create more space on the tramp.
4. New tramp. For some reason it just isn’t quite sitting right and is old. I could probably save a whole heap of weight too with a new one. As a start I should replace all the tramp lines with Dyneema and reduce some weight.

Images

• 2024 1
• 2022 8