BRISBANE BLOG 9:
Where a foot is not always 12 inches……..
The New Year was a fairly sedate affair here in Paradise, with a very multi-national, not to mention multi-cultural group enjoyed the relaxed tee shirt , shorts and flip flops (or as our hosts here call them, thongs) style of formal dress. Despite the reputation for questionable behaviour the Contender table were remarkable restrained and apart from a few party decorations that were turned into missiles, it might almost have been a family gathering. Some of the locals held up the reputation of the Contender fleet as being a dinghy class with a drinking attitude with event organised Matt Mulder leading the charge towards the time in the evening, when beer gets changed for Bundy Rum and coke – there is not a lot of civilisation left once you get past that point.
Matt might have been a little worse for wear, but his behaviour was apparently a sight better than that of his wife who was overheard trying to explain the subtleties of Strip Poker to the Italian contingent. Just when it looked as if the evening might take on a whole new dimension the night fizzled out….. Though I am sure that there will be plenty of time later on for Dearne’s teachings to be put into practice!
That was not the end of the alcohol related news however, as at 9.55 am on New Years Day a somewhat jet lagged Tony ‘Anton’ White wandered unsteadily into the club. Taking pity on such a thirsty and tired traveller, I offered him a coffee. One look at his watch was all it too…. “No, it is New Years Eve in England in 3 minutes, let’s have a beer. Gregg ‘I need to be sober to measure boats’ Barrington got roped in, the barman who was laying out the things for morning coffee was told to start pulling the beers and the morning was off at a gallop (if your boat fails measurement you might well question the mental state of the Event Technical Specialist – the night before, when invited to a polite supper ‘chez nous’ in the Buttner establishment, Gregg had somehow managed to pour a whole can of beer into his crotch!!!).
By 11am the day was forfeit.. but we only had to wait until 3pm when that joyous clarion call for a Contender, ‘free beer’ was again sounded.
A magic moment for Contender sailors - FREE BEER. Brett Holly mans the jugs (the mind boggles!!) as Contender sailors jet in from far and wide for a beer and a look at a new boat.
The occasion was the christening, naming and launch of the new Schappi all glass boat for Dirk Múller. A quick check of the boat showed the latest state of the art glass boats to be very clean, uncluttered and functional. With so many wooden boats all out on the Squadron rigging lawn, it is easy to forget that until the stratospheric rise of the Bonezzi boat, that GRP construction was very much the norm for most of the fleet. With a World Championship win at the hands of Jan Von der Bank in 2005, the Schappi boat clearly has the pace to be a serious consideration for any of the top sailors seeking something outside of the current norms. It was also good to see Dirk doing the boat naming and Christening in some style. There was the free beer, and then a bottle of bubbly was (after something of a struggle) uncorked by Amanda Joergensen, daughter of one of the Danish competitors. Amanda liberally sprinkled the decks with champagne, though was good enough to leave sufficient in the bottle for the onlookers to all get a swig too.
It is enough to bring a tear to a glass eye...pouring champagne over the boat - when just a drop was needed. Amanda took pity on the thirsty looking crowd and left enough in the bottle for most to have a hefty swig!
Dirk has now had the opportunity to experiment out on the waters of Moreton Bay, sailing the boat in the briskish conditions that are so much a part of the appeal here. 20 kts of wind, the sea and sky impossibly blue, scorching hot and with the water so warm that it hardly refreshed you as the waves broke on the bow, this is indeed Contendering paradise. With very high spring tides, once the ebb starts to flow the conditions out in the bay quickly develop into a testing chop that even had Jono Neate complaining that the downwind legs were hard work. Meanwhile, out on his new boat, Dirk reckons that the ‘light and tight’ Schappi sounds very different to his older Bonezzi as you drive the boat upwind, but the real bonus of the boat was the fact that the angled gunwale diverted much of the spray from the hull outwards and away from the sailor.
Dirk Dunked! A happy Schappi owner gets afloat in his new boat for the first time. Looking very clean and functional, it is hoped that these all glass boats can stem the increasing trend for the fleet to become focused on wooden hulls.
The new Schappi boat may divert the high pressure facial wash away from the helm, but there were those who still managed to spend more than a fair share of their time in, rather than on, the water. Kiwi (though sailing under an Australian false flag) Sean Managh decided to make this day the day to practice gybing whilst facing forward. After a bakers dozen attempts, the score stood at successful gybes 1, swims….9! After starting practice with a sail that looked like a well worn kangaroo pouch, Sean is getting his act and rig together in equal measures and despite the shock of firstly running aground ( I did say in an earlier blog that it was shallow here) and then treading on a stingray, is looking more confident by the day! Meanwhile, AUS 278, the strip cedar boat from Perth is now a ‘Volksboat’ or people’s boat, as so many people have contributed odd bits of gear to get it afloat. God forbid that it ever will win anything, the list of people needing thanking would outlast that of the average Oscars acceptance speech. Still, it went well enough out in the bay to run down a Dugong, a slow moving sea mammal that all but got his revenge for any pain caused by knocking up the plate – in the bay ‘wind over tide’ conditions, this amounted to a sure fire trip out onto the bendy centreboard (so bendy in fact that Brett Holly, a man of choice words, could only shout “holy ****, look at the bend in that board”!
The Organisers are to be congratulated for a well organised day of measurement that saw most boats processed as if on an assembly line. With the Rigging Lawn all but full and with all the flags of the competing nations flying, there is now a very real sense that at last the event is 'ready to go'.
The last day before competition starts (with the opening race of the Australian Nationals) was put aside for Registration and Measurement. The organisers for the event had set up a very efficient system of measurers for masts, sails, foils and hull weight which appeared to keep waiting time to a minimum.
Geoff Fisher adopts a position more often found within the Kiwi element of the fleet, under the guiding eye of Jan Mulder. Now I know where the phrase 'Brace yourself Sheila' comes from.
There were a few issues with sails that were non compliant, not to mention a few rudder blades that were either too small or too light (the only blade to buck this trend was a new unused Milanes board that was not only 15mm too big but failed the most basic of tests, the shape was wrong!
One minute it was hot and sunny, the next Suellen was on the PA system warning of a big storm approaching. The sky went very dark, then the wind and rain arrived with a vengance. As the Marketeers say, 'Another Day in Paradise'!
Then, with boats and gear spread all around the club, the Regatta Office broadcast a warning that a storm was imminent. Those who could cover up their loose gear did so, which was just well as minutes later the heavens opened. Many of the more knowing sailors thought that they had had a Tardis moment and been time shifted forward 18 months to Weymouth 2011 (the site and date of the next World Championships) as the rain fell, the wind blew old boots and the grey skies were full of scudding low clouds.
Contender Sailors from around the world getting an early foretaste of what the weather will be like in Weymouth 2011. Tent city, looking out over the bay. But every cloud has a silver lining, at least the rain will drive the noiser drinkers (from Northern Queensland maybe?) to drier spots for their late night drink fests.
This weather is not good news, as it is yet more evidence that the expected front is about to make an unwelcome appearance. In a remarkable co-incidence with the previous Worlds here in 1988, the first day of competition may well be marked by some seriously strong southerlies, the local ‘blaster’. By Tuesday however this should be starting to work its way through, with lighter winds forecast for later in the week. It will be interesting to see if the heavy weather boys can make enough capital out of tomorrows expected heavy going to keep them in contention when the conditions become more benign for the later races.
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David Henshall
Bearfacemedia/ Brisbane