Gwen Slade

 

18/04/2015

 

On Saturday 18th of April 2015, MAKS Racing had the privilege of borrowing RPAYC Commodore Ian Audsley’s Etchell ‘Kalika III’ to compete in the annual Gwen Slade Regatta for female skippers. The day consisted of three windward/leeward style races against a one design Etchell fleet of 6. It was a fantastic opportunity for us to get back on the water after a short break and to learn about technical sail trim as these boats have so many different fine tuning mechanisms.

 

The gusty North Westerly conditions kept us on our toes and after a very close first race we placed second against fellow member Jill Connell sailing her boat ‘Odyssey’. These conditions saw us making constant adjustments to our trim and we had to make sure we picked the right shifts off the starting line to stay in the front of the fleet.

 

On race two we took the lead off the line from the pin and played the shifts to round the top mark in very close second place. After some good downwind pace and mode we snuck into first place and lead the second lap to the finish, putting us on equal points with Jill and her team.

 

Between races two and three the breeze dropped off substantially and swung far right changing the game once again. Realising that we had to beat Jill in order to win the day we played to our strengths and picked the best shifts on the course whilst maintaining a loose cover on Jill off the start. Jill picked some good shifts on the upwind as well rounding close to us at the first top mark. She then picked up more ground with a good mode and smart tactical decisions on the first downwind. We made gains on the second lap and after a tense second downwind crossed the line first to win the day.

 

As the only all girls team of the day we were very proud of our results. It was a great opportunity to get on the water, have some fun and sail with RPAYC members.

 

A huge thanks to Ian for letting us use his boat for the day, the other competitors for some fun racing and the Race Committee who did a fantastic job getting through the races in some shifty conditions. We are looking forward to the next few months of hard training up in the lead up to Worlds and Nations Cup!