My trip to the Australian F16 Nationals championships at Paynesville Victoria, started as planned. I had been driving for 9 hours, with a couple of stops for fuel and breakfast. I was only three hours from my destination when I had gear box problems. In short, I had 4th gear and I could nurse 2nd gear if I had to. I managed to drive to the nearest town about 1 hour away and leave the Ute there with the local mechanic.

An elderly couple overheard my plight while I was on the phone trying to arrange a hire car. They offered to take my self, the two boys and the boat to Paynesville, which happened to be their home town. They had no room for any of our gear.

First stop was the hire car company. I then followed them to the yacht club, where they were locals. We met Gary, Simon, Neil and Marcus in various stages of rigging up.

We told them our story, said our goodbyes and then drove two hours back to get the rest of our gear. Another two hour trip back to Paynesville, just so we could catch the last ferry to Raymond Island at 12pm.

We finally got into bed at 12.30 am Friday morning, 25 hours after we had left our home. I didn’t sleep very well.

Friday Morning.

I got up at 6am, had my breakfast, made my lunch, checked on the boys, who were having no trouble sleeping, and left for the regatta.

I arrived to see 9 boats being rigged.
My boat, which is really Phill's boat on loan, sitting there.
And Brett Goodall was on his way.

We had 11 boats in total. Just 1 short of what our expatiation's were.

1 x Taipan cat rigged

3 x Mosquitoes cat rigged

1 x Blade sloop rigged

4 x Blades cat rigged

2 x Vipers Sloop rigged

It was the 1^st time I had seen a AHPC, Viper in the flesh. And I must say they are a tidy unit. A good looking well thought out boat. With obvious Taipan pedigree and Capricorn influences. There were some individual touches, like tramp main sheeting on one of them.

Having said that, the FCA Blades were of the highest standards as well.
The finishes were professional looking, with most of them being customized to suit their owners.

It’s a credit to both Greg at AHPC and Marcus at FCA, that they see a big enough future in F16 to put their money into producing top quality race boats like that.

The mosquitoes didn’t look out of place amongst the optimized boats, but there is no denying that a more modern rig sitting on them would go a long way.

The only Taipan there was still using the old version main.

The 1st race was Friday after noon held in approximately 10 knots of breeze, not much swell but lots of waves and chop from a million pleasure craft getting their annual Easter fix.

With 1 minute to go I was sitting about 20 meters down and back from the start boat, only one boat above me and Gary just below me. Having not been in a start line for nearly four years, and Gary forcing me up and one of the Vipers moving in above me, I dropped the sheet, tucked in behind Gary and hit the line running. My heart was pumping, but I got away cleanly and in a reasonable position.

It didn’t take long to realize that I wasn’t the quickest boat out there.

One of the Mosquitoes tacked straight away, most sailed on for a while.
I was heartened by the fact that some boats had to take my stern when they decided to tack.

Simon, my self and one other stayed on starboard for a long time, sailing up close to Raymond Island.

By the time I got to the top mark, only the three Mosquitoes and the Taipan were behind me. I reached to the separation mark, pulled up the spinnaker and prayed. I had only completed one successful gybe in nearly four years.

I didn’t trapeze. I got to the bottom mark, in 1 piece and unscathed. I dropped the spinnaker early and sailed dead down wind for what seemed like an eternity. At least this gave me plenty of time to set things up for the next work.

A quick glance over my shoulder showed four boats right behind me.

I rounded the mark and found my self pulling away from the four boats behind me upwind, but loosing ground going down.

This pattern repeated it’s self for the three laps.

Heading to the last downwind mark, I thought the permanent buoy in the bay was where I had to go. I saw the lead bunch go there; But I didn’t notice Gary had sailed to another mark altogether.

I had a small laugh, when I saw Peter on his Mosquito, “Bee Alert” head to the same mark that Gary had sailed to. I quickly stopped laughing when I saw the rest of the fleet behind me heading there as well.

I managed to finish seventh, I was reasonably happy with that fact.

I had survived without capsizing. And knowing there was plenty of improvement to come.

I was on high after the race and was eagerly awaiting the next race, when an electrical storm rolled in and racing was called off for the day.

My observations of the race were:

That the cat rigged boats were mixing with the sloop rigged boats. There didn’t appear to be a huge difference in the type of optimized boat either.

All the lead boats trapped down wind.

The mosquitoes were noticeable slower up wind, and they didn’t trapeze down wind.

The cat rigged boats appeared to sail lower down wind. The sloop rigged boats could power up more and drive harder.

Boat handling and technique appeared to be the difference.

The evening was a pizza night at the club house, the AGM was supposed to be held. But I need to get the bed; I passed on the pizza, caught the ferry and hit the sack. The AGM was rescheduled.

When I find photos, I will attach.

That completes my report of Day 1.

Tony