Blakesleys Cruise

At last the weather was good for a weekend cruise. Winds were from the ESE so we sailed to Blakesleys setting off early Saturday morning arriving at around 9:15AM. Blakesleys is a small sandy beach between Dunich and Canaipa on the Western shore of North Stradbroke Island. The WMYC cruising group arrived at lunch time and we joined them for a chat on the beach with sundowners later on Rob and Annette's boat 'White Star'.

The picture above is all that is left of a wrecked yacht on a sandbank adjacent to Blakesleys. The picture below shows what it looked like back in May 2010.

Back in the water tomorrow!

Lion Rampant will return to the water tomorrow. We felt quite lost not being able to use her this last weekend.

Lion Rampant Repairs!

Lion Rampant being launched with the new paint job last December.

Lion Rampant will be slipped next Tuesday for new antifoul. Should be back in the water by the following weekend.

St Helena Cup

We have just had a fantastic weekend sailing Lion Rampant in the St Helena Cup. The weather was 15 to 20 knots SE and rain for most of the weekend but this didn't deter 98 boats from competing. To anybody who dosen't sail we would be looked upon as lunatics!! We had 4 POB including Martin, Sally, Vicky and Lindsay. We were one of a team of three boats which comprised Lion Rampant, Soothsayer and Red Jam. Our team was to be called the Rampant red Oracles but ended up being Sooth the Red Lion. Our team placed second which we were very pleased with.

Combined Clubs Race August

 Sally and Martin
(Note Martin is on the helm here! How did that happen? I will have to buy a new tube of araldite!)

 Martin

 Jacq

Kate and Jacq "Love those bandannas!"

We had a great race last Sunday. The crew were Martin, Sally, Jacq, Kate and Chris who took the photos. The wind started at around 15 knots from the NE and built to about 20 to 25 knots direction varied. By the end of the race the wind was swinging westerly. We began the race without knowing what the day's course was and were unsure until we were quite close to Mud Island. The course turned out to be start to Locker light to Hope Banks around Mud Island back out to Hope Banks to the Locker Light and the finish. We had a very good start and kept going on one long tack out past hope Banks the first leg before tacking out to Mud and this seemed to be a good move. We popped the kite at the NW of Mud and held it out to Hope Banks where we had our first ever broach in Lion Rampant. This occured becuase of a number of things going slightly askew at the same time. We were about to drop the kite and were trying to hoist the genoa but it got caught on a knob on the cartridge (which it has never done before) and the cartridge came off the forestay. We had two crew to leeward ready to pull the kite in under the boom so there was not enough weight in the rail. Once the boat went into the broach I could do nothing with the helm and I had no option other than to dump the kite sheet until the trouble on the foredeck was sorted. It all worked out in the end but we did lose a bit of time. But hey it was fun and an adventure and that is what it is all about!!

Presidents Cup Race 2

In the first race of this 3 race series I elected to sail with no spinnaker. This was a mistake as the wind was so light I was left way behind and it was frustrating. For race 2 I elected to use a spinnaker. I was no better off in the results but I did achieve my goal of hoisting, gybing and dropping a spinnaker all by myself. Ray the autopilot was pretty good during these manouvers! My first spinnaker hoist was for a shy reach from empire point across to the red at the north of St Helena Island. I used our medium hounds height spinnaker and all the bands popped beautifully. It was too shy and I eventually (I did hold it nearly the whole leg) had to drop the spinnaker as I was heading to Tangalooma. The next spinnaker hoist was after the north cardinal on Green Island. I used a different spinnaker as I knew Ihad other packed spinnakers on board and so I had not repacked the first kite. But I couldn't get all the rubber bands to pop and I had to sail across the finish line with a pretty weird looking reef in my spinnaker. How embarrassing and frustrating. When I dropped this kite I checked the bands and discovered that the next band to pop was actually a double. No wonder it didn't pop. I think I will give wool a go for next time and only band the bottom half of the spinnaker as the shoulders don't really need banding anyway!

Lady Skippers Race 2010

This years Lady Skippers race was again hosted by WMYC in Brisbane and the major sponsor was Dr Lewinns. The event is to raise money for breast cancer as well as to encourage as many women sailors to take the helm of a yacht for the race. No male skippers are allowed and points are deducted for every man aboard a yacht. The weather this year was light and a little wet but it was a great day. Lion Rampant came away with two trophies. One for 3rd on handicap and one 3rd after adjustment for our one male crew. Part of the prize was skin products from Dr Lewinns so maybe I will look a little younger in the photos next year!! One thing I am sure of is that Hot Pink is definately not my colour so I will be toning it down a bit for 2011.