Hello this is Foreign Tasar-News Correspondent, Bruce White reporting from London England.
Michele and I attended the Tasar International Championship in Australia this past January and had a great time - big fleets big wind and big waves and many shrimps on many barbies!! Then, just one month ago, I did some Tasar sailing in Holland. Right now I am in the U.K., again for work, and I am looking forward to Tasar sailing in a club regatta this coming Sunday.
Individual event reports follow.
Australia - via Fiji
We stopped in Fiji for Xmas to acclimatize to the warm southern hemisphere, to relax from work, and to study the southern hemisphere wind patterns from shady spots on the beaches. Was it ever strange to spend the Xmas holiday in a warm climate. Even stranger to see a slim black man dressed up as Santa Claus in a thin red Santa Suit on a 30C/90F degree day. We spent most days sitting in the shade drinking coolant - even the water was too hot to swim in. We had a nice time. After a week we were so unwound and relaxed that we had some trouble getting up enough energy to move on to Australia and the regatta.
Tasar International Regatta Upon entry to Aus., the lady a customs asked if our 6 inch diameter, 8ft long tube contained sails - so right away we knew that we were in the right country - everyone in the whole place must be sailors and they were all waiting for the start of our regatta. We could not spot any of the press cameras though. Perhaps they misunderstood our arrival time. However, we were met by our two very enthusiastic hosts, Rob and Carol Sharp who foolishly opened their home to us for the following two weeks. We befriended their German shepherd puppy, begged for rides around town, shared their refrigerator, borrowed their tools, borrowed their car, hit only one curb - twice, kept their neighbours up late as we worked on our boat, shared their friends and gained their friendship. It was a great deal for us.
The three North American crews, Richard and Helen Spencer, Jeff O'Brien & Liz Hamilton, and Michele and I each chartered boats. Michele and I arrived a few days early which was good because we definitely had a few details to fix on our charter boat. Don't ever believe the brochure. The boat we had was labeled "DEMO BOAT" in enormous it-was-us-that-was-over-early letters. We thought it was short for Demolition but we were told it meant Demonstration. Richard suggested that we should demonstrate for Tibet's freedom. I will not list the details of all the things that were wrong with the boat because I have since gotten over my frustration and would rather not relive it. There were 15 essential items on our list which needed to be fixed (we fixed 14 of them) - the centre board foam was scrunched back 2 inches, broken mainsheet block, broken bailer, broken whisker pole loop, rotator stop 1 inch out of proper position, the shrouds were not new as the brochure said but were instead on the verge of breaking, the bottom was scratched and rough so it needed work, the thwart was not attached to the centreboard trunk - etc.
We were to sail in Port Phillip Bay near Melbourne. It is an amazing bay. Its opening at the south end is only a kilometer or two wide. From north to south is 80 km's and 50km's from east to west. Most amazing to me is that it has a maximum depth of only 13 meters (45 feet). The water was relatively warm and there were very few sharks.
I've not got my notes with me so I cannot give you the conditions by specific race or day but we had a practice race in what I think was 15 knot winds in 1 metre, and fairly short, waves. Our strategy was to avoid the crowds at the start and to sail as much as possible in clear air - not easy in a 107 boat fleet. I thought the right side would be crowded so we picked a spot 3/4 of the way towards the left end of the line which was not so crowded. We got a pretty good start and had a good first leg. Sailing in the relatively big waves was challenging. There has since been considerable debate about how big they were but the locals said that over the course of the regatta they were up to 1.5+ metres. Definitely the biggest in which I've ever sailed a dinghy. Upwind it was best to: "do as the book says." Head up as you are going up the face of the wave and bear off as you go down the back of the wave. I think the transition at the top was a critical thing. Timing your turn to avoid pounding your boat on the wave took practice and skill. The top teams were very good at the up wind sailing (and downwind). Later I discussed technique with Marc Conry, who ultimately finished 3rd. He said that he carves up the face then sometimes up the back if the conditions were right. I visualized this in my mind over successive waves until I ended up head to wind so I never tried it. In this, our first race, we had fairly good speed up wind but could not keep up down wind. Other crews were much better on these wave than we were. Planing just happened to you even if you didn't try but they were better at staying on the plane. Upwind we kept up with some, but downwind we slipped back. By the end of the practice race we finished 15thish and were quite pleased.
Then we had a day off so we went to town with Jeff and Liz and pretended to be tourists.
Finally the regatta began. Two races were scheduled for the day. The winds were similar to the practice day, and for most days - 15 knots building to 25 with building waves. Again the left end was less crowded so we started there. Got a great start. We were fourth to the weather mark and then back to 8th by the leeward mark, 6th by the weather mark then back to 7th again by the leeward, 5th at the next weather mark. We were passed on the next reach but had a fair lead on the next group. We jibed around the wing mark in 6th and headed for the with a finish. We were having a wild and crazy reach and were 1/4 of the way there when our windward shroud broke - darn. (*!#!!!) We were awash with mixed emotions - thrilled to have done so well and disappointed that it was the windward shroud. (incidentally, the shrouds were the item we did not replace. I had inspected them though. They definitely were not new, as the brochure had said but there was no visible sign of breakage). We debated trying to jury rig to complete the leg but decided to hit the beach for repairs and try to get back for the second race. The tow was slow then fast then slow then fast as we surfed on and off the waves and the back of the tow boat. Repairs were slow but luckily for us the wind had built to over 25 knots so the next race was not started and we had only consumed one of our throw outs.
The rest of the regatta was similar, our speed was better upwind than down but the starts got harder as more and more boats moved to the left end of the line. We did get one stellar start though in the 3rd race. The wind had shifted to the left so I figured that it would be crowded and was prepared to avoid the crowd. When the crowd didn't develop we raced to the left end and got right up on the line. A photo of this start may be included in this newsletter. Only two boats were to leeward of us. They were both top boats going fast and sailing high. After a short distance we wanted to tack free but feared that it would be impossible. However, when we looked there was nothing but clear water. We tacked and cleared the entire fleet on port tack. We did not need to sail so far to the right but it felt great!! Michele had to tell me to stop waving back at everyone. This race was our best finish - 7th place (a recent issue of Sailing world shows us just behind the eventual winners of the regatta at the last jibe mark - our claim to fame). Starting got harder and we began to have repeated general recalls. We, and 16ish other boats, were caught by the black flag during a recalled start and dsq'd from the following race. Darn, that was both throwouts now.
I got a little more conservative and the starting got harder. We finished between about 18th and 33rd for the rest of the races except a bad race in which I tacked cautiously, hit the windward mark then capsized on a big wave downwind oops! and spent the rest of the race trying to convice Michele to trust me again. Overall for the regatta, we finished 31st.
Pretty much every evening during the regatta we were invited to throw shrimps on various barbies around town. We played snooker and ate the Dave Bretherton's colossal burgers, watched Rob Gilpin feed the local possum, got caught by automatic sprinklers, drove 1 hour on the lay day to a remote viewpoint and happened to bump into the Spencer's.
In fact, everyone was bumping into the Spencer's. Prior to a start, Jeff and Liz caught an unwanted wave and plowed into the Spencer's transom (OUCH!!) Perhaps not funny but I found some humour in them hitting each other amongst so many boats.
Generally, especially for the windy wavy conditions with so many boats, and a new set of rules, we found everyone to be polite and well behaved on the course. We only had a few fouls against us and those boats spun with only a minimum of urging.
The final dinner event was great. We had a presentation by Japan who will be holding the next worlds - best wishes to them.
Tasaring in Holland
When I was young I was told that windmills in Holland were used to keep the keep the water out of the country. I thought that they were somehow powered and blew water off their low lands. In reality it is the wind which drives the windmills which, in turn, drive pumps. The old traditional windmills have pretty much been replaced with enormous two-bladed propeller-style generators but it is still a windy place.
I've just had a rather whirlwind experience which took me sailing in Holland. On Monday April 27th I agreed to take a job with Baan - a Dutch company. We signed the deal on April 28th and 3 days later was off to The Netherlands. In the 3 intervening days I had been emailing John Richmiller of U.K. to get Tasar contacts in NL and I arranged a boat and crew with the generous assistance of Tijn Udo. I arrived Saturday, borrowed a company car, drove 1.5 hrs to Tijn's club and we rigged up his spare/loaner boat. It wasn't up to top condition but it was mine to borrow complete with an enthusiastic Dutch-speaking crew. Saturday afternoon we struck out on the lake in a quaint lapstrake boat with a hand-crank, single-cylinder engine to rescue a single handed skiff sailor. Later that night we went to a tropical party at their sailing club where the women put on a very nice candle dance.
The next day we towed our boats up the lake to a nearby club. They had two races of mixed boats. Tijn was masterful. Sure my boat was a little off the mark and my crew and I had difficulty communicating, but he really knew his way around this little lake. Apparently everyone but me knew about a mysterious but regular dead spot. The second race was better as we got a better start and forced Tijn to work so hard he fell out of his boat but our lead only lasted through the first two of the 10 different marks up and down this canal/lake which are to be rounded on various sides. The wind was puffy, from 8 to 16 knots, shifty and the water was very flat. Then we towed back to the home club for more Heinekens!! - sailors are the same everywhere!!
I am grateful to Tijn for his generosity and I am impressed by the value of a good introduction and the Tasar Community.
Live near London I now find myself in Reading, a community about 1/2hrs from London by train. I'm here on work too but I am looking forward to sailing Sunday. I've contacted John Rischmiller again and will be sailing against him and probably 8 other Tasars in one of their club races. Wish me luck. I'll report on that event shortly.
PS: If you've been wondering why Michele and I haven't been on your courses too much so far this year, it is because of work or other conflicts. Hope to be out soon.
Bruce White - live near London.
PPS: On Sunday I sailed on St Mary's reservoir which I think is a couple kilometers across. I also think it is about 5 miles south of Heathrow Airport. They have a nice dinghy-only club on the shore and have pretty much exclusive use of this little pond. The sailing was fun. There were about 8 Tasars and a medium breeze and again, beer afterward. Thanks John!!
Bruce White - back at home - for now!!
Bruce White, BaaN BBS
September 19, 1998
News>1998