Uncle Mikes Report from Heat 3.
32 keen sailors rolled up to the test launch site behind Swansea on the Saturday greeted by a building nor-easter. The location was near perfect – aside from the long shallow to get past, this location was an idyllic paradise. Bit of tide running past the beach – note to all, don’t fall asleep on a couple of flotation noodles for too long unless you’re tethered to something fixed.
And after the debut of the new Starboard at the last event, some more new boards had arrived. Exocet have gone from a very cool looking, manly black board to a lightish grey, pink and purple motif – very, well..umm… french….plus a new JP, with the graphics designed in MS Word (and possibly the shape as well?).
Quite a few new boards….except notably for Brett, who although has a new board, decided that the peculiarities of the forecast meant that his older board would be the go….hmmm, interesting choice…..possibly influenced by his new power band?
The Power band website claims its products use “holograms embedded with frequencies that react positively with your body’s natural energy field” to improve core strength and power. It certainly had some sort of effect on his natural energy field – normally a top 3 competitor, Brett came 7th……….it is possible though that having just one band, on one arm might throw the body out of balance, and what’s really needed is a second band on the other arm. Hopefully Brett isn’t to perturbed by the experiment and will persevere for all our amusements….
The first two races were in an ENE gusting around the 14kn mark. Sam, who didn’t have the option of a 10.7 looked at the wind and decided the 12.0 would be fine, in no way supported by the rest of us smirking at the concept, as we rigged 11’s and 10.7’s. But the smirks flipped around rather quickly as Sam got to the front of the first two races and was never headed, followed by yours truly and Rick in third (who always seems to go really well at lake maq….)
Roger had the best of the ‘Free’ fleet with a 2nd and a 1st to Chris’s win in the first race, and mixed bag of results for the minor placings – showing just how competitive it is.
After lunch we got back out and the wind had swung a bit into a true NE and picked up, gusting to about 18kn. By this stage Sam had stolen a 10.7 from Barry (some sort of strategic alliance by the two? Team Pawkes?) and Remi had busted out a new exocet sail. And the course was now getting really rough from boat wake plus had the horrible inclusion of weed, which effected everybody to various levels at different times, and helped to mix the racing up a bit.
I arguably had the best of the weed in the 3rd race taking it from Byron, but karma caught up with me in the 4th race with weed up the first work, and any slim chance of tying it up with Sam disappeared with him sailing off in the distance.
The Free fleet mixed it up as well with Adam Craven winning the 4th race by a nose hair and Mr Lake Maq, and Team Pawkes Ninja Baz mixing it up for the top places with Baz heading the points overall with morning leader Roger in second and Ad’s 3rd. Four races, four different winners and four runners-ups confirms how keen the lads are taking it – great to see.
Sunday was a lovely day sitting around debating wether the wind was going to come in or not before finally deciding it wasn’t and calling it quits around 3pm. After Sam and I, was the next 8 sailors covered by less than 8 points with Byron taking 3rd overall, just edging out Rick on a count back, and taking the series lead outright heading into the half-way heat at Sydney.
Great to see a Qld contingent with long time friend of the fleet David Middleton and new friend Clayton McDonald making the journey down.
Massive shout out to the Marmong guys who manned the boat and set the biggest course we’ve had in a while.
Heat 3 results:
Heat 3 – Results
Overall Season Pointscore after Heat 3:
Overall after Heat 3
Good report Michael! You let me enjoy the day again!
Dave Middleton still lives in QLD? Outrageous.
Can’t wait till somebody gets the new Patrik board; then we can have a proper showdown with the JP for the title of ‘ugliest graphics for 2012’.
Thanks for organising everything Brett and team. The new venue has loads of plusses.
Power bands suck!
Awesome report Mikey, just read it. It has a subtle Hunter S. Thompson flavour in it’s tone and general piss taking! Looking forward to the next one. Great regatta fellas one and all & cheers Brett for your organising efforts. Just for the record mate, I think wrist bands look cool!
Hey Ad’s, I’m guessing Uncle mike was before your time?
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme3/nsw_slalom/unclemike.html
OMG I didn’t realise Uncle Mike was the true guru!…I’m so excite now and with out question, he has a new follower. A fresh question then for Uncle Mike,…..tell us oh wise one, I need some advise. There’s this short stocky bloke who use to be in the FE+ fleet that I sail in. He seems to be resting on his laurels a bit this session because I haven’t seen much of him, but that’s besides the point. Anyways, I’m a bit worried that my improving form might slip a tad on his return. He’s traditionally had great psyching out skills, aside from his incredible speed and general sailing prowess. My question to you then is, psychologically, how do you approach a race and do you endorse any particular brand of sports psychology?…
i think i know the short stocky bloke you refer too….is he the really stumpy loud one? last i heard from him was ‘four more years boys’ following some little footy match the kiwi’s played against the frogs, and rumour has it that shortly after he had a unfortunate incident in a vat of Steinlager…..waste of beer really. i’m sure he’ll return once he’s sobered up
Anyway, you’re worried you’re form might slip on his return?? kinda pathetic…. but i’m all for assisting anyone in beating a kiwi so all you need to start practicing ‘one more lap buddy, one more lap’ for his return.
as for approaching a race….i generally approach a race heading upwind on starboard and through the start line. Occasionaly you keep the punters guessing by switching to port but any attempt otherwise tends to lead to rather poor psychology, and typically rather poor results. ……..
but for completness, don’t ignore the off-water lead up and preparation before a race either. Any oppurtunity to niggle or heckle the competition must be taken at all costs. Questioning ones gear selection before a race is niggle101 and has been a staple of mine for years – and then the 6min start sequence is plenty enough time to do the round of your competitiors, look at the sail size and shake your head. if they ask a question, don’t say a thing, grimace and slowly sail away…..
boring suburban house husband
Hi Uncle Mike (BSHH),
Sounds to me like Ads may need to take out a “Brycing” contact on said Short Stocky Bloke.
Do you know anyone who could fulfill the contract?
Regards
CT
ahhh long time friend of the column CT….how are the rope tacks progressing??
its been a long long time since the days of ‘Brycing’ – and since that time Muzza and Mizza did get mazzied and they’ve celebrated their union by introducing the new, young Bryce. Such a sweet kid, thankfully he takes his looks from his mother, and i was struggling to see the connection between the old Bryce and the new….until that is the Wiggles came on, and he damn near knee capped me as I was in between him and the TV. So its a good tip….if you want to get all Kiwi rugby league on someone, get them in between you and young Bryce and shout out Wiggle Wiggle…..the young fella will take care of the rest……
Well that’s great Uncle Mike, thanks for all that. Reading between the lines there, I think there might be a message there of ‘toughen up’!?…..So I’ll take that as a comment and move forward with it on board.
CT, thank you also for the convoluted history lesson. I’m sure there’s a message in there too. Maybe I should of said, ‘short stocky bloke with funny accent’ to avoid confusion?
Any ways, I feel much more enlightened for the whole experience and look forward to the future ‘pearls of wisdom’ instalments.
Cheers to you both!
It’s great to see Uncle Mike is still alive and kicking, the rumor that he’d lost his Mojo and become a boring suburban house husband perhaps isn’t true?
All in favour of seeing a regular return of the Infamous Uncle Mike to the digital realm, please show your support by posting here, or if you dare, ask him a question….
The JP sure felt pretty on the water though Sean. First proper sesh with new board and untried fin proved ok.
Just watched your GoPro vid Sam! That board looks fast ;-)
Maybe we need a new Uncle Mike forum on here??
Being built ‘close to the ground’ is not a crime!
Uncle Mike,
Nice to see you back and still at the bottom of your form.
Where were you at the slalom last week? No Uncle Mike, no Byron, no Steve W! Why were the pretenders absent?
SF said you were washing your hair but we all know how long that would take. Ricardo reckoned you were afraid of being beaten by him on his mew big JP. Sam P thought maybe you were not allowed out till the lawn was mowed (He had grass clippings in his hair). Personally I thought you were spending the day on a hill down the road, looking from afar, to try & get some gybing tips (understandable after seeing you in the water at Hawkers last year).
But after re-reading those old pearlers from the old U M archive I can see you were probably following the advice you gave to Robbie Bro, find a small regatta no-one attends & dominate it, even if you have to hold it yourself; ie the Woollongong Saturday racing. So how did you go, did you beat Bushfire? When will we see you at a slalom again?
Ahhh Uncle Bruce….pining for me is so not like you! The term boring suburban house husband has been bandied about lately, I’m wondering wether it’s been mis-direct and should be sent Terrigal way??
You obviously didn’t take heed of the advice judging by the results, and you wanted more of us to come along and beat you?? But you’re all quite right (except for Rick, he’s never right) – I was washing my hair whilst mowing the lawn – it was the ultimate sobriety test which I failed miserably.
I then tried the Wollongong Saturday Racing, and couldn’t even get a result there. So the next effort will be the ‘Warragamba Dam Invitational’.
Not sure about the Lake Maq lads, rumour has it the Swansea tide took them out to sea, but the tide is expected to turn and deliver them back in time for the next event