Innocent Prey turns accidental Hunter – Enterprise Report
7 knots of South Westerly greeted the fleet last night with a bit more chop than would have been ideal. Can’t complain though – it was good to be out on the water at last. Tonight’s prey were Peter and Chris (aka The Doctors) who were hunted down by a 20ft Hawk and rammed amidships, despite them being on starboard. A big split in their port side deck was the damage sustained.
Anyway back to the race. The couse was West Mallard (the big green one), Yacht Haven (the small yellow one near the bridges that you can’t find unless you know where it is), South Mallard (cardinal off the end of Mount Batten Breakwater).
There was a big port bias so all boats started on port. Peter Ganderton and Rob Beaton were right up amongst the rocks of Mount Batten Breakwater with 20 seconds to go trying to steal the pole end of the line. Rob got top slot but Peter had better speed at the gun 20m futher down the line. Around West Mallard it was the Spoon followed by Different Shade. Most of the fleet tacked straight out to sea to get the best of the ebb tide. At the top mark it was Rob and Wallace in the Spoon followed by the Doctors 40m behind but in close company with the rest of the fleet. The fleet closed down on the Spoon until the halfway mark where everyone gybed over onto port. During this process the Doctors turned hunters by catching a fish, still alive and kicking but attached to a fishing line which got wrapped around the rudder. This could count as profiting from outside assistance but it actually slowed them down to the point where they got shuffled to the back of the pack.
Up the second beat Different Shade got the wrong side of a shift and faded out to give second position to Martin and Nick. Spoony stayed out front until the end. Martin and Nick held second, the Doctors with a dent but the chance of a fish for supper (it swum off) over took Peter and Alan for third.
New boats joining
Billy made a late appearance at club to help with trollies, witness Hawk T-boning for insurance report and eat the complimentary cream scones.
Nick McDonald is due to join the fleet any week soon and was out on the water just to size up the competition, so we hope to see a new set of blue sails out on the line next week.
Worf after something of a makeover is also due to be re-launched in the next few weeks depending on Billy and newcomer Woody getting motivated. Bring it on!
