IRC NATIONALS

IRC was a well organized event.. this time the location was out of the V&A as part of the VOR festivities.. it brought considerable public interest and put our sport int eh public domain. Prior to the event we did a lot of boat preparation..

Day 1:
Light conditions with two races being held.. We managed a first and a third.. We were quite pleased with this.. as the conditions were definitely

not ideal for a Sunfast 3200 which has a large wetted surface which drags with it's wide stern in the lighter conditions...

Day 2:
This was the double points medium distance race.. Conditions started off with twelve knots.. with nice starting conditions but by the time we got near the Sea Point Pavilion(after tacking up the shore line) the wind had died.. with little puffs coming once in a while.. Yolo lost some distance at this point, but caught a puff to round the bouy.. and sail back to the light.. after a while new breeze started to set in.. with the boats in front getting first and pulling away..  Towards the latter part of the race we caught up with the class leader but we did not cover.. allowing them to pull away again.. giving the race back to them.. and us scoring a second..

Day 3:
Due to time pressures and possinle wind shifts the course set was a short one... Yolo sailed a good first beat and started to pull nicely on the downwind.. with Just the J sailing faster.. however we ended up sailing into a "hole" and while the J sailed around it and the little boats were able to catch us on time in the new breeze... So a 4th place.. (to be our discard) The last race.. breeze had come through.. 25knots and counting. Yolo got a good start and although they should not have.. gave some room for the J at the committee boat..(could have pushed them out) First half of the beat was good.. but suffered on the starboard tack as the big boats came through to weather and dropped dirty airs.. between that and dodging kelp and plastic on that leg we fell back a bit.. With all that we did not focus on the downwind.. Round the mark.. Kite up.. and off we went.. 15plus knots of boat speed... boat was happy... but the gybe angle was coming up.. and the wind was gusting 38 where we were... so we decided the gybe was too risky, if we got it wrong, there would have been carnage, few boats had kites up, those that did some were in trouble.  We dropped and gybed..
In hind site we should have tried. Yolo got a 3rd in this race.

Overall before discards  15 points(winners had 17 points) after discards we were level on points with the winners, but the tie split determines the winner giving them a well deserved win..

Event was enjoyed by full crew, both abaord and ashore.. Well done to the organizers and the bridge..

Aboard were: Dale, Ian, Sieger, Hans, Shane, Mark, Ross, Daphne. (On the last day Ross was replaced by Mornay as Ross had fallen off his motor cycle.. Hope you get well soon Ross.)
Boat performed well.