Wisely, the final heat of our winter series was moved from Saturday to Sunday when the Saturday forecast was looking pretty grim-as it proved to be.
Fortunately, 10 Aeros were able to make the change with only 3 missing out due to other reasons. That’s right! Our little fleet has grown from 3 actively sailed boats at the start of last season to now 13. Wow! In a blink of an eye! How did that happen?!
Unlike the previous day’s squalls and heavy rain, Sunday dawned with sparkling sunshine and blue sky with a fresh15-20 K SE breeze greeting the enthusiastic participants. It was cool, but there was an air of eager anticipation.
A hybrid course was created where we engineered an OTW start from #14 to #4 and then sailed a regulation club course 6 in the prevailing SE breeze. It seemed like a great plan-the only problem being that mark #14 was missing!
Being a quiet Sunday, no one had key access to the racing marks and ground tackle so Doc created a mark from an old disc weight lying in the floor on patrol 4 a bit of old rope (fortunately longer than the water depth) and a boat fender which then served as the pin end start mark and then mark #14 of the course. This all worked surprisingly very well except that a white boat fender amongst the whitecaps was almost impossible to see on the 2nd reach. Fortunately, we were able to station a safety boat at the leeward mark to guide the fleet.
Experienced and talented sailor Alister Danks of Sabre and Contender pedigree jumped into his daughter Pip’s boat and showed the combined fleet how a well-sailed 6 rig in a 15K fresh breeze can out-compete the 7 rigs, although Gaz, not to be outdone, was nipping at his heels all the way around the course. Contender rivalries were now being manifest in the Aero fleet! It was great to see. The welcome addition of competitiveness and talent will lift all of our standards.
It was also great to see Flynn Cleland having a crack in a 5 rig, his first sail in an Aero for a very long while. Relishing a challenge, Rob Evans sailed a 7 rig for his very first Aero sail in a breeze that normally leaves little margin for error in an Aero (as we’ve all discovered one time or another!). Rob gets the bravery award and an open invitation to come back for another try on a more forgiving day.
Having chartered a boat for the previous four heats of the winter series, Tim Adam unveiled his recently acquired Aero for the first time and is now another welcome permanent addition to the fleet.
Our Commodore and Smarty kept in close contact with each other throughout the race with Smarty pulling out 3rd place and you couldn’t wipe the smiles off Paul and Dean’s faces as they cranked up their boats for high-velocity off the wind reaching.
Our profound thanks go to Andy Mac and Nicole who ran the main safety boat, doubled up as a start boat and then primarily reprised their day jobs by obtaining valuable video and photographic material of our emerging fleet, which we plan to use in both club and fleet promotion for the upcoming State (March 2025) and National (Jan 2026) Championships.
Doc jumped onto an additional safety boat at the last minute to help Andy and Nic when it looked as though the combination of a freshening breeze and a number of sailors new to the flighty Aero in a stiff breeze might present a challenge for just one safety team.
That completes our Winter Series for 2024. Five races in 5 months with a warming après-race lunch in the Racing Lounge has proven to be highly successful venture for our young fleet. It’s kept the Aero enthusiasm bubbling along in the off-season and has seen the addition of 6 Aero sailors to the fleet who have relished the chance to develop their new skills before the main season gets underway.
The successful Aero winter experiment has also served to underscore the fact that OTB winter sailing, when appropriately designed to align with sailors wishes, expectations and availability, further establishes BYS as a year-round yachting venue not only for keelboats, but also for small OTB craft.
Andrew Little
