BIFFA

” Races 4 and 5 were held on the 12th January and the GBR team have continued to dominate the top places. The first race was scheduled to start at 1200hrs, however due to very flukey conditions the competitors had to wait until 1430hrs for the race to start. In the interveneing two and a half hour period the race officials did their best to get the race away with four race postponements and a general recall. Race 4 was led from the start by Mike Hart in GBR 3917, this partially made up for the DSQ he suffered on Sunday. Alan Bax in GBR3931 was second and Barry Parkin in GBR 3911 was third making it a clean sweep for team GBR in the top three places. The wind progressively filled in throughout the race as the sea breeze filled in. The breeze clocked to the right of the course as it filled with the race finishing in a a force three.

The sea breeze continued to fill and race 5 started just after 4pm and was led virtually from the start by Grant Alderson in AUS3833. He popped out from the start at the left end of the line and tacked onto port and crossed the fleet to establish the lead. However team GBR took the next four places in order; Mike Hart GBR 3917 (who maintained the second slot for the full race), Steve Goacher GBR3821, Barry Parkin GBR 3911 and Dave McKee in GBR3905.

Your President had a much better day registering a 20th and a 13th place!! After five races team GBR leads the world championship rankings, with one discard allowed. Steve Goacher and Barry Parkin both have 13 points, however Steve is leading the fleet on count back. We also have eight places in the first 22 positions.”

I will also try to send the team photos.

Cheers Adrian

Team Photo

Melbourne Missive No 2: Reports for race 2 and 3

” Due to an impending weather system that is potentially going to bring strong northerly winds on Tuesday and Wednesday the race officer brought forward the start of race 2 to 12noon on the 11th January and also indicated an intention to hold race 3 immediately afterwards. Noon arrived with light variable winds under a grey sky. The locals expressed confidence that the clouds would burn off and bring a return of the 20 to 25 mph sea breeze we all enjoyed on Saturday. This was not to be. After a 30 minutes postponement race 2 got underway with Barry Parkin GBR3911 well placed on the left. Steve Goacher GBR3821 and Grant Alderson AUS 3833 spent most of the race duelling for first and second. It was only in the last beat that Grant over did the protection put on Steve and allowed Barry Parkin to come through and take first place. The wind remained flukey throughout the race and presented challenging shifts for the championship fleet.

The local experts were disappointed by the wind today and we did not see any significant increase in strength for race three. Just before the start the wind shifted hard left and attracted most of the fleet to the pin end. The fleet struggled to get over the line and rafted. There was carnage! Four of the GBR team were black flagged including Howard Green, Charles Apthorp, Gill Browning, and Andy Goddard. Mike Hart GBR 3917 crossed the finish line first.However he lost a port/starboard protest and was lobbed from the race. Veronica and Ben Falat GBR 3799 led for the early part of the race and due to missing a shift dropped to third over the finish line, but were promoted to second place due to Mike Hart’s misfortune.

After three races Barry Parkin GBR 3911 leads the championship, with Grant Alderson AUS 3833 in second and Steve Goacher GBR3821 in third place with a spread of 5 points covering the three boats. We are expecting to compete in two races on Monday, this will put us in a position of completing 5 races by the end of Monday with three days to complete the last two races.”

Hope this is all OK. Regards Adrian

Over all results here

“The first race of the Flying Fifteen World Championships got off to a clean start at 1400hrs on the 10th January. The race commenced in a freshening sea breeze. The course was a sausage, triangle , sausage with a gated leeward mark. Over the 90 minutes of the race the wind strengthened to 25 knots and the seas developed so that the occassional 2 metre wave challenged the competitors. For Biffa this was a good start to the Worlds with 9 of the top twenty places being British boats. Steve Goacher in GBR3821 won the race taking the lead on the last of the reaches. He passed the home favourite and winner of the Australian Nationals (Grant Alderson in AUS3833), to leeward on the reach as a result of finding the right combination of wind and wave to plane under the Australian within 3 boat lengths to leeward. Mike Hart in GBR3917 was third, with Charles Apthorp in GBR3923 in fourth place. The conditions were absolutely superb with a strong southerly breeze, planable waves, bright blue skies and sunshine. If the event continues in this vein then the 80 competitors are in for a ball!” More to come tomorrow. Cheers guys. Adrian

PS Steve is a pretty mean barbequer of steaks in addition to his sailing prowess too!   Cheers Adrian

For pictures click here

Full results as always here

Steve Goacher and Phil Evans win the first race of the 17th World Championships in Melbourne, after a close battle with the newly crowned Australian Champions Grant Alderson and Dean McAullay; Mike Hart & Richard Rigg took third spot with Charles Apthorp & Alan Green in fourth. In the Classic race Andy McKee and Maf Smith were forced to retire having been swamped in the big breeze and waves, this after a formal complaint that their boat isn’t a classic; fortunately the subsequent inspection showed their boat to be a true classic, the Aussies are running scared!

Full results available click here

Congratulations to new Australian National Champions, Grant Alderson and Dean Mcaullay.

Click here to visit the FF Pre-Worlds (and Worlds) site

Dear All

” The British Flying Fifteen team have arrived in Melbourne and have started their campaign in good form. After three races of the pre worlds the current world champion, our Mike Hart, is leading the field crewed by Richard Rigg. In the top seven places we also have three of our other superstars: Alan Bax, Dave McKee and Steve Goacher. Your president is the next British sailor in 15th place.

The sailing conditions in Melbourne have been light winds in the morning with a sea breeze developing from mid day onwards. The breeze development is as ever patchy and makes for tricky sailing in the early afternoon. As the first two afternoons progressed the breeze filled in to a force four with some short waves building too; not unlike sailing at Hayling or the Solent except that there is very little tide and the air temperature is a very comforable 25 to 30 degrees C! 

The Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, hosting this event has made all the visitors very welcome. The event was opened with a reception on Saturday night in advance of the start to the racing on Sunday 4th January. I have been particularly impressed with the race management for this event, the organisers have certainly ensured that they have all the resources afloat to make this event a success. ”

Further words of wisdom (???) in a couple of days.

Cheers

Adrian

For a full set of photo’s updated each day click here

In race one first blood to the Spanish closely followed by Barry and Tim Hall & Mr Bax in third, only three UK boats in the top 10 at this stage but the rest are biting at their heals. For full results for this race and the invitation (practice) race click here; in addition to Chris and Tracy’s blog below there is more from the classic fleet on Andy and Maf’s blog click here. More results and reports as they come in.

Chris & Tracy Harris are attending the FF Worlds in Melbourne.

Please click here for their event blog