Mirrors at Rose Bay

[khiemtran]

Come with me this week for a sail on Sydney Harbour. This time, we're going to have a race in this wooden Mirror...




This particular Mirror is probably the slowest in the club. It's up for sale, but we're going to take it for one last hurrah before it goes...



Race day, and all the dinghies are getting ready. Besides the Mirrors, there are Pacers (the type I normally sail).



And these Tasars.



But the bulk of the field will be Lasers (the three left most boats with the laser symbol on their sails).



Or kids in Optimists...



As it happens, having the slowest boat in the fleet is not as much of a handicap as you might expect. Since only three Mirrors made it out to the start line, we're pretty much guaranteed at least a placing... Here's the top boat. Note the fibreglass hull, aluminium mast and speedy sails.



Plus the steely determination of her crew...



Waiting for the start of the race (this is actually a shot of the boats waiting for the start of the second race, but the first start looked just like this...)



No pictures of the race itself, but we sailed a triangular course in front of Shark Island (photo taken yesterday while I was out in a Pacer).



The end result? Second! Mainly thanks to a lucky windshift and some coaching from my instructor. Not too bad for a forty year old boat. Although we did nearly get run down over the last fifty metres (which seemed to take about half an hour to cross, thanks to the wind dying).



Heading back home again, just as the littler kids come out in their Optimists for some coaching...



Stan gets some pictures of the boat for the "for sale" ad...



And after we're done, you can see the big boys heading down the harbour...

Comments

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, a spinnaker would certainly have been handy. (The other two boats had them, and that's why we were very nearly overrun on the last downwind leg.) I found my biggest problem was the aft mainsheet - I'm much more used to the centre-main arrangement. I think that was one of the last aft-main boats at the club though.