HMAS HOBART Cup
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Alongside RSAYS, Outer Harbor It has been quite a busy week. As well as the usual maintenance chores, I gave a talk at the Squadron about my pathway into long term single-handed sailing, preparation for which took up quite a bit of time. Then, on Saturday, I helmed one of the CYCSA's Elliot 7s for the interservice HMAS HOBART Cup. The HMAS HOBART Cup is a teams race between Navy, Army and Air Force, with each team being assigned two boats. Teams racing is very different from normal fleet racing as it involves more strategy around helping out your team mate if they are falling behind by using the sailing rules to "attack" the opposition's boats. It was a hot day with variable wind conditions, starting off light, then freshening to 20 knots around 1100, before easing to a very nice ten to twelve knots in the afternoon. We completed a practice race followed by two races in the forenoon before heading back to the club house for lunch. Then in the afternoon completed a further five races. There was some tough sailing with the Army team in particular giving us some stiff competition, but I am pleased to say that we managed to hold them off and won the cup with a very narrow two point lead. In all it was a great day. Not so great is the engine. I went to start it last week only to find that the corrosion problems had returned and the fuel rack in the injection pump was sticking again. I spent much of yesterday pulling the injection pump out, cleaning it up and trying to work out where the water is coming from. Unfortunately I had no luck in finding the source of the problem but I did manage to get the engine going and this morning we have moved from the maintenance berth to a berth on the other side of the yacht basin a bit closer to the club house. Now I need to find a diesel expert that can help me solve Sylph's engine problem as it is way beyond my level of expertise. Nonetheless, overall it has been a good week and ... All is well. |