Helena Horswell reports on Canberra's Asia Pacifics

29 March - 1 April 2013

Venue: Canberra Yacht Club on Lake Burley Griffin. I had been told that last time a kiwi contingent went to an Access Class event here, there was a huge problem with weed in the lake, but apart from the rather murky colour, the only issue this time was the low level, causing berthing issues at the dock for Libertys and Skuds.

Day 1 was a beautiful sunny morning, but lacked breeze, forcing a delay to the start of racing for the single person divisions. While waiting, a fire appeared to be burning in the trees behind the yacht club. With the rather distracting thought of helicopters with monsoon buckets scooping liberty’s up in their monsoon buckets, racing began by late morning, as gentle north westerly filled in to enable three races to be completed for the Liberty fleet. Luckily the helicopters never eventuated as we were to hear the next morning it was a controlled burn! I started well with a 3^rd, followed by a 7^th, and was in the middle of the fleet for the 3^rd race when my main sheet jammed, causing me to retire from the race.

On day 2 a light westerly in the morning enabled racing to proceed after a short delay for the two-person fleets, and by the afternoon the breeze had freshened for the single person divisions. I managed a 5^th place in race 4 before the increasing breeze highlighted the damage done to the grit surface on my main winch the previous day, causing it to slip. I trailed in last in race 5, which, after a protest hearing became a 10 as both parties in the protest were disqualified! With the breeze still increasing and the main winch performance worsening I finished race 6 with another 9^th.

As it had for the earlier two days, on day 3 a light and variable morning breeze was replaced by a moderate westerly in the early afternoon. The single person divisions were first on the water and the obligatory AP flag was lowered at 10:30. With the light conditions in the morning, and having cranked up the adjustment on the main winch to its maximum to counter the lack of grit, I managed a 7^th and a 5^th for the final day to take me to 8^th overall from a fleet of 9, but as the only full servo competitor, sadly the title of Asia-Pacific Access Class Liberty Servo Champion was not awarded. 

Full results can be found online here