08/09 season over
With the Sauna Sail done it's time to plan out your Mosquito maintenance strategy for the winter months. There will be scratches to fill, hulls to polish, bits to replace.... Best to start now rather than leave it to the start of the next season.
A lucky few will be putting together a new boat over the winter. At time of writing, three sets of hulls have been ordered. Anyone else considering a new boat should contact Peter Cobden on 5441 1519.
The season ended with a bang for the Mosquitoes, when we fielded the largest class by far at the Sauna Sail. The event had 184 entries (in itself pretty spectacular) of which 24 were Mosquitoes.
Next season will begin in September when we will return to Hazelwood Pondage for a pre-season warm-up event. This will involve tuning, rigging, talking, camp fires and if the weather is right maybe even some racing. Keep an eye on the calendar below for more details as they are set.
Sauna Sail regatta - Report by Peter Foulsom
Sauna Sail 2009 at the Hazelwood Power Station Pondage and hosted by the Latrobe Valley Yacht Club again lived up to its reputation as a great event with 184 entries in 11 divisions competing over 3 days of the Queen's Birthday long weekend. 22 Mozzies had pre-entered at midday on Friday 5th June. By the Saturday morning another 2 had joined the swarm and being the largest fleet of the regatta naturally had their own division. The fleet consisted of 5 spinnaker rigs, 5 sloop rigs and the rest cat rigs. Mozzies came from many different clubs including Port Phillip and Westernport Bay, Gippsland Lakes, Lake Boga, Lake Mokoan, Sugarloaf, Warrnambool and our honorary Victorian; Darryn Kopp who traveled from Adelaide for the event.
Many sailors arrived on Friday to rig yachts and set up tents. The traditional campfires were lit and maintained by the many club and class association groups including the Mozzie group. The fires were essential to keeping warm and attempting to dry out wetsuits, boots and gloves either before races, between races or after the races. Naturally there were lots of campfires throughout the camping grounds and different social visitors to campfires throughout the weekend.
The Mosquito Association held their traditional pot roast dinner on the Saturday evening and congratulations go to Di and Mick Floyd, Sandra and Phillip Warren Smith and all the other helpers for their contributions to a delicious and very successful dinner. This was also a major milestone celebration for Phillip Warren-Smith to reach his half century. The customary dining out at the "all you can eat" cafe in Morwell on Sunday evening was cut short when we arrived to find the lights out and only the pizza take away section operating. With about 30 new customers to feed they turned the lights on and we "dined in" with take away pizza, garlic bread and soft drink.
The Latrobe Valley Yacht Club set 3 courses on the pondage with the inner course for juniors, the middle course for monohulls and the outer course for catamarans and the larger skiffs. The sheer number of yachts on the pondage meant that you had to keep your wits about you with many spinnaker yachts tacking downwind calling starboard on yachts reaching in a direct line across to the bottom mark. It really didn't matter what part of the course you were on; you just had to be forever vigilant. There was at least one major collision during the weekend. The top mark was spread over two marks to avoid extreme congestion and possible collisions.
Race 1 and 2 were run back to back on Saturday afternoon in light winds and it was very fortunate if you got out on trapeze. The wind shadow created by the island saw many yachts left in the doldrums whilst those that could gybe at the top mark and went away from the island got the most of the wind. This was also the case when tacking up to the top mark and many yachts lost places coming up to the finish line set between the club house and a marker buoy set about 100 metres offshore. Naturally there were many instances where yachts a short distance apart had totally different wind directions and strengths.
Race 3 on Sunday morning was pretty much a repeat of Saturday however race 4 on Sunday afternoon caught many by surprise when the course direction was changed from starboard to port to suit the wind direction that was more westerly. This was most possibly the coldest race with a lazy wind eating away at already cold and wet wetsuits. This was a longer course and as the wind dropped away those who were not in the leading bunch struggled to get across the finish line.
Race 5 was held on Monday morning with around 12 to 16 knots of wind and some noticeably stronger bullets. The continuous wind shifts particularly around the island at the club house end of the course kept the race interesting for many with positions changing depending on your location and the lift or knock you got. Many were caught out by the bullets and there were many capsized yachts scattered across the course; some with their masts stuck in the mud and unable to extract them !!
The overall results saw Gary Maskiell sailing his newly purchased Mozzie from Port Lincoln "Pitchfork" win with either wins or placings in all races. Gary was closely followed by Tim Shepperd on "Karma Cat" and Neil and David Joiner sailing "Immunity". Other sailors to get into the placings were Darryn Kopp, James Pearse, Garry Johnstone, Mick Floyd and Peter Nikitin.
A special mention goes to junior skippers Mitchell Jacques (at his 2nd Sauns Sail) and new junior Mozzie skippers Mitchell Meade and Nicholas Baglioni from Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club who successfully raced their newly purchased Mosquitoes for the first time and look like they will be a force to be reckoned with when they get the feel of their new yachts. We hope to see these three follow in the footsteps of Matt Stone and James Pearse who both lead the fleet at times over the weekend (James twice missed crossing the line first by only seconds). A welcome to the swarm also goes to Ken Robinson from Lake Boga who also had his first regatta on "Touch n' Go".
Well done to all sailors and support crew who attended the very successful regatta.
Sauna Sail 08/09 Results (scroll all the way down to division 9)
Neil Joiner enjoying the waves at the Spinnaker States - Somers YC
Rule change proposals
There are three rule change proposals which are up for discussion. View these proposals here. Please let the NTO (Tim Shepperd) know what you think. They can also be discussed on the Mozzie forum of course.
Mick and Sarah at Wallaroo
2009/2010 Mosquito Regatta Calendar
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