Nimrod catamaran: August 2017

After bringing Nimrod north in May, she has lived in Abell Point Marina. This week we are taking part in the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week, and it is a lot of fun.

Seawind Street

Race control said: '215 boats starting in Dent Passage, 25 knots of wind, 4 knots of tide, three aircraft arrivals. What could possibly go wrong?'

Well, our start for one thing!

But some great fast sunny sailing.

Avalanche, a beautiful Gary Lidgard 54' fast cat.

Here overtaking Talisker, a souped up Seawind 1160

Condor

Heatwave, a Lightwave 45

Nimrod

Seeadler, a new Seawind 1160 lite

Vivacious

Nimrod close-tacking up between Henning and Dent Islands (thanks to Lucy Pallis)

Monday 21st

A not entirely uncomplicated day. 😟 We got entangled with a mark when there was little wind and a rushing tide pushing us against the buoy.

Nimrod parked on the buoy (photo from a helicopter)

Another boat (see approaching on extreme left of the picture above) then crashed into us, and claimed that we had used our engines to reverse into them! A protest ensued. We had to plead guilty to hitting the mark and using our engines to escape, but the other boat was held responsible for the collision.

This shows us tethered to the buoy by our stern, while the condomaran first hits the buoy, then us.

The judgement of the protest jury is here.

Results for the day here.

Whale calf waving as the fleet goes past

Happy crew

Kite panorama

Rushour

Salacia

Scarlett

Scarlett on HDR

Scarlett and Nimrod (thanks to Paquita Fadden)

Seeadler

Star Dust

Tropical Sunset

Tropical Sunset and Vivacious cross the finish line

Wight Dog

Tuesday August 22nd

Not much wind, so the start was delayed several times. Eventually we got going from a start-line to the east of Hamilton Island and had a short course around the south of the island, and then up Dent Passage for a finish.

Some pretty scenes of colourful kites.

Black Jack

George

Simple Pleasures

Vivacious passing Pentecost Island

Hammo at night

The marina

Hammo Yacht Club

Friday 25th

Wednesday was a scheduled 'lay day'. Thursday racing was cancelled from lack of wind. Today was brisk, about 20 knots from the south gusting to 30 knots.

Seawinds have a big roached mainsail, and small rudders. Easy to get over-pressed with too much weather helm. We had a few scary moments trying to bear away under pressure and the helm not responding. 'Dump the main!' yelled in panic. Close tacking through the Fitzalan Pass with rocks on one side and boats on starboard tack on the other was nerve-wracking. We put a reef in the mainsail and immediately things got a lot easier.

Alive

Wild Oats XI

Kerumba

Kramen

Salacia

Toy Box

Vivacious

Wight Dog

Saturday 26th

Another day with lovely conditions; sun and a fair breeze between 10 and 20 knots. We went around Lindeman Island and back to the finish line in Dent Passage.