Telemetry from Chemical Weapon

The scene was set, NE, 12 knots and building.Eight R's raring to go. Pork Sword (Sir Lancelot & Yabba), Gryphon, Reggae (Depender), Subwoofer, Meridian Energy, Chemical Weapon, Liquid, and Montana Bakery. The course was huge, wing mark set to challenge the skills of all skippers with the mark 25 metres above Eastern lighthouse and the navigation stake directly in line after gybing! Great.

Clean start by everyone with the exception of Reggae being noted sailing with the prod stowed on the foredeck, trailer yacht tactics obviously. The first mark saw Meridian first closely followed by Liquid, then the Weapon, with a gap back to Subwoofer, Gryphon, Pork Sword and the upsetter Reggae (14 years old) beating Montana (1 season old). So much for technology! Montana decided to save face and pull out in disgust. Reggae thought it to boring to carry on as they proved that trailer yacht sailors have got some level of skills, plus how were they to attach that prod now that it was finally needed. Can't very well get the crew up on that fordeck without getting damp.

The bottom mark saw a come back by the Weapon sliding into 2nd behind Meridian, with Liquid close behind. Not this again! A tight battle between these three yet again you may wonder, well sort of. To the top mark saw Chemical Weapon sail out to the left of the course and round ahead of Meridian and Liquid. The gap back to Subwoofer, Pork Sword, and Gryphon was growing. Gryphon decided they were out to practice their drift net fishing techniques. MAF officials were seen inspecting the craft once ashore to see that they hadn't exceeded their quota. Bottom mark still tight at the top. No place changes.

The next round, OH god, even I am already getting confused now, saw much the same, only the gaps widening a bit. The Pork Sword however decided to have target practice on the jib with humans as the projectiles. The jib didn't win. Bye, bye.

The next down hill saw a change in the lead with Meridian Energy up into first as Sean, on the Weapon (yes it was my fault) calling the course wrong and going around that dreaded wing mark instead of straight to the bottom mark. Meridian now first with a bit of breathing space, then the Weapon, closely followed by Liquid. Boy have I mentioned this was a long race! Anyway Now Liquid started their decline, while the Weapon started to pull a little back off Meridian. These two increased the margin on the rest of the fleet as Liquid must have swam (another clanger for Dan not to front up for. The tally so far for un paid clangers is 7 this season. Girlfriends eh).

I'm completely confused now (like on the day) so the final downhill saw Meridian having prod outhaul problems, letting Chemical Weapon through to a lead, which was held, but closely fought to the finish. 1st Chemical Weapon ( no bubbles to be blown this week by Hubba Bubba), 2nd Meridian Energy, 3rd Liquid, 4th Subwoofer. Time to go in and listen to all the excuses.

Sean.