R-class South Island Champs including Meridian Energy Aviemore Classic

The alarm blares away, but it is still dark outside and I am not overly keen about getting up. Not enough sleep and too much alcohol means I am not yet enthusiastic about the road trip south. A strong coffee and fry-up for breakfast, a horn from outside and we are away into the blurry night/morning. Our destination; Lake Aviemore for a hard weekends skiffing. Only four R's going down, which is a shame, but nonetheless conditions and the presence of 100+ trailer yachts on the lake always make for exciting racing. This is far from my mind though as I pitifully try to snatch some sleep as I sober up on the drive down.

The schedule for today is 4 short races with a few of the trailer yacht classes. We start with the high performance trailer yacht class (snigger), with the more bath-tub like variants 5 minutes behind. We miss the first start (amongst other things we were given the wrong start-time), and launch without Montana Bakeries who were delayed leaving Christchurch by work. It is a moderate westerly, mostly single wiring, twins in gusts. Nice short course, quite shifty and gusty off the hills. Starting with all the big-boats was an interesting experience, as they point higher and travel slower, so we were squeezed off the boat end of the start-line. The other R's faired worse, sitting in the second row and blanketed by the big sails. We get in clear air and get some pace on, quickly passing the slower tubs. The faster ones are reasonably even in speed upwind in this breeze, and we round the top mark about 4th. Heaps of speed downwind even if it was single-wiring. We have trouble passing the leaders however. They are going higher and slower, we can't go to leeward due to a big wind-shadow and can't gybe until we round the large start-finish line cutting off the middle of the course. Back in clear air we clear out, then a loose cover up and downwind. Meridian catches up bigtime, riding a big puff down, but we have lead to spare and win easily.

Montana arrives to bolster the fleet. The wind drops and backs just before the start and it is a race to make it to the pin in time. Meridian has the best start of the fleet, with us in the middle somewhere, Pork Sword and Montana back a bit. Didn't matter though as the other two beat us both to the top mark, catching a nice right-hand puff as we wallowed out to the left. We caught up a bit on the first reach, and the game closed right up. The next reach was a bit stressful as we couldn't quite get above the line of the trailerboats, but had superior speed. We seemed to take turns passing each other, then wallowing in the shadow of another boat and getting passed again. Porkie led around the bottom mark. A knotted kite halyard meant they had a slow drop and we quickly passed them. In the light winds we had similar speeds to the bigger trailerboats, and had some good battles upwind, before clearing out downwind for the win. Montana held out Meridian for second place.

The wind appeared to fill in better for the next race, although a large right-hand shift meant the top mark needed to be shifted. We picked it to shift left again and it did, giving us a biased upwind. We picked the shifts well and were first R and second overall around the top. We had a huge lead halfway to the bottom, but the wind died and we drifted to the bottom and watched the entire fleet carry wind down to us to the sound of our and the leading trailerboats' curses. The whole fleet converged right at the bottom mark. As the wind flipped from the west to the east, making us head left, before flipping back to the west making us miss it completely. We were pissed at this stage. Montana was the first R to squeeze around the mark, followed by Meridian who turned right around the mark and hit us while on port. A quick ignom and they pushed us off, we drifted around the mark and quickly tacked towards the building westerly, determined to beat these guys to the finish. Even though we sailed away from the finish for a while we had better breeze, had the next shifts and speed and powered away to a satisfying win, about 3rd boat over the line. There was a good breeze now and we were all keen for another start, but the committee boat didn't seem to want to help. They relented, gave us a 3 minute gun, but declined to leave the marks in place, giving us a start but no course. Thanks guys! We tried to make a bit of a race out of it, but it was a waste of time. There was one more exciting event to watch however, as Montana hit the shore with pace. Yes they actually hit the shore and broke their centreboard struts off.

There was one more thing to get done today, and that was to build a big fire, then get lagered. If the Smith brothers on Pork Sword weren't winning on the water, they were sure winning in this count achieving it quickly and efficiently before Lance decided to turn in early and throw up in their makeshift tent.

It was time for the big race, the Aviemore Classic, basically two laps of the lake. We decided if the wind was in, we would start 5-10 minutes after the last tub start. For once the wind seemed to oblige and the morning greeted us with a decent breeze, promising we could start on time. As we got out there, the wind dropped however and we crawled up to the line. We got there just as the last tubs started. Porkie started with them, the rest 13 minutes after. The wind had come in beautifully, about a 20 knot easterly, just perfect. Meridian had a bad start to their day and capsized twice before the start. The wind had built more, and we got away in a strong 25+ knot breeze, in the upper limit of our rig. This was one long upwind leg, the entire length of the lake. We were soon passing boats, even though they had started nearly half an hour in front. Many were sitting head to wind reefing sails, and it became a bit of a dodgem match try to keep away and in clear wind. Doing this we got well out of phase with the shifts and Meridian caught up and passed us. We were getting very cold in the strong wind and rain, not helped when we had a quick capsize during a tack. It was weary work, with frigid fingers and toes, and quite draining physically constantly vang sheeting, playing the main in and out in the strong gusty wind to keep the boat flat. Meridian was flying and hard to catch. We wondered why everyone was hugging the right-hand shore at the head of the lake and went out the left to have a look. We soon found out why as we sailed into a big hole and had the ignomy of having to come in off the wire. We were both dead tired as we finally neared the top mark, but turning the corner was a relief however, if only for a change. We were surrounded by boats, so reached a couple of lengths for clear air. A hairy hoist, ease the kite then bang we are away, instant acceleration. The head of the lake was awash with boats making a daunting sight as we had to weave a path through all of them, going at more than twice their speed and completely different angles. Some hairy moments, but we kept it together and were soon clear of the pack. Meridian had a couple of big swims and were soon left behind. The middle of the lake threw up a few big waves and I had to throttle back a bit to prevent any cartwheels. We rounded the wing mark third boat, with Stealth and Chocolate Fish, a couple of sport boats, ahead. We soon passed them on a two-sail reach across the lake, and were clear ahead for the next big upwind. The wind had dropped slightly and we had pace to burn, we just had to tough it out and keep it together for the rest of the race and victory and all the ensuing glory would be ours! The upwind was brain and body numbing, the body aching from the constant work and numbed by the cold. We sailed conservatively, but still stretched our lead, catching up to the tail-enders by the top mark. Here was me thinking we were having a long race, you had to feel sorry for these guys. They were out there for a long, long time, well done for toughing it out. With the lake clearer of boats, and flat water at the head, the sailing started fast and easy. It soon got lumpy and hard work to keep flat and fast. We were almost home when a big wave bumped us in the air, Dan got airborne, became unhooked and fell off out the back as I sailed on alone. The loss of the helmsman affected the steering, balance and control of the boat somewhat and it soon capsized. Dan was about 15m away swimming furiously towards the boat. I was somewhat concerned the boat would drift too fast, pushed by the wind, but he made it ok, we righted and carried on.

As we neared the bottom mark, the next problem became apparent. The finishing boat wasn't there! We rounded the bottom mark and headed up to the start buoy, but there was no-one there to finish us, and no-one else in sight. We went past the buoy on both sides to be sure and sat around wondering what to do. The next boats were heading towards us at that stage, so we headed to them to see if they knew what to do. They had as much of a clue as we did, but as we all headed down to the bottom mark together, Chocolate Fish and Stealth, closely followed by the second R, Meridian. As we did this, the finish boat sped past us, just beat them to the bottom mark and signalled a shortened course, to finish us there. They finished the others, then we went to politely explain to them our slight frustration. They were however oblivious to the fact we were lead boat, and didn't seem to care. I guess we weren't a 'real boat' and didn't really matter. A bit angry but with nothing we could do, we headed in. We passed on the congratulary champagne and got stuck into some hot chips and sat around the fire, trying to recover from an exhausting day. Montana had retired, their centreboard-strut repairs not holding, and Pork-Sword had had enough and went in early. Despite a number of swims, which really drain you in the cold, the guys on Meridian carried on, finishing just behind the first two trailerboats. They were even more exhausted than us. It was a few hours before I could lift my arm above my shoulder. The result of constantly playing a sheet for almost three hours.

The prizegiving confirmed the R's treatment as second class citizens. They duly gave us a prize for winning the South Islands (although they had no idea who won and had to be told). They then completely snubbed us at the prizegiving for the Aviemore Classic. it is the first prizegiving I have ever been to where the line-honours winner has never even been mentioned during the prizegiving! They gave away a trophy for 'first trailer yacht' instead, and gave the race record to the second boat (178 minutes) not us (155 minutes). I don't like bagging race management, they are all volunteers and otherwise did a great job, it just seems a little off that one class of boats (who happen to be the most modern and fastest out there) got constantly snubbed. Oh well, it was a great weekend of fantastic, tough, racing. We'll let the glory go to the bigger boats, their egos and expenditure need it more anyway.