Green Island Nationals

SeanAUS120 said..

Freestyle - 1st Elimination:

1 - Al Bentley
2 - Steve Flack
3 - Ben Severne
4 - Max Ploumis
5 - James McCarthy-Price
6 - Will Johnston
7 (joint) - Ben Newson
7 (joint) - Luke Baillie

Freerace results from today's session are still being collated ... as are the pictures from JC ... stay tuned.

Haggar said..

So how does the elimination system work ?

AUS02 said..

After three days of racing we now have a day off. It has been a lot of fun and a big learning curve for all of us from TAS.

Day 1 was freerace sailing which saw us all sailing back and fourth between two marks about a kilometre apart (boundaries defined by an imaginary line 90 degrees from the line between the two marks). Upwind boundary provided by the reef, with no down-wind boundry other than the wind seemingly decreasing the further away you got from the reef. Some chose to sail the upwind flatter water that required some degree of pointing whioe heading out to sea, allowing faster, off the wind speeds on the way back. Others chose slightly more offshore sailing in the rougher water at right angle to the wind, which was skewed to the angle of the buoys, allowing longer runs and fewer gybes. The Tassie crew often passed tracks but some stayed upwind, some styed dwnwind, while otheres swapeed back and fourth, desperately looking for the best combination of speed and length of the run. The result have not been finalised yet, so be interesting to see how it all pans outs. About 20 competing.

Day 2 was slalom racing. Fast and furious action. Elimination Round 1 comprised 4 Rounds of 4 Heats, each of sailors. Your sail number goes up on the board telling you what Heat you are in for Round 1. Races are run approximately 5 minutes apart and last about 3-4 minutes. A large board on the boat tells you waht heat is about to run. Red, yellow and green flags indicate how much time to the start. At a bout 1-2 minutes prior to each start the group of 8 begins to emerge and with 20 seconds to go they are all planing at full speed to the start line. Getting a good start is paramount to a good finish, but pushing to hard and the video footage will catch you go over early, as many did, race after race. Back on the shore between each Round (after each set of 4 Heats) sailors see where they placed by which Heat they are placed in. Heat 1 is the top eight, Heat 2 are sailors ranked 9-16, heat 3 sailors ranked 17-24 and heat 4 sailors ranked 25-32. It only gets more complicated when trying to describe how the ranking works, but everyone picks it up pretty quick and you know from your last race when you're going to be placed. However, sailors starting too early or being disqualified for some other reason can cause an unexpected re-shuffle of placings. After the final 4 Rounds of 4 Heats, all sailors are ranked and you have a provisional result. I'm sure all sailors knew they could do better and made silly mistakes, but the system works well and while at some times can be harsh, at others it see's you advance back up the ranks quite quickly. First two races were downwind M-shape, then the course was changed to figure of 8. All up, a great day of powered up racing with some of the best sailors in Australia (and a fair few from overseas)!

Day 3 was slalom racing and freerace. The wind was lighter, but the race committee did a fantastic job running a complete Elimination Round 2 (a repeat of what was just described aove)! All the Tassies sailors more clewed in now to how it all worked and ready for action. Buzzy defintialy had the mistake of the day having sailed a fantastic race, way out in front of some top sailors, to sail between the wrong marks to finish. This is when the system can be harsh. Having competed in Heat 2 a win puts you into Heat 1 (top 8) for the finla deciding race. Getting disqualified puts you in 8th, which drops you back down two heats to Heat 4. Top eight to bottom 8 in a moment. Anyway, we all had similar situations of despair and relief with the way the racing was going. I got eigtht in my first round and went straight to Heat 4, but slowly worked my way back up to end up in Heat 2 (with Izaak and James). Wind was dropping as the day continued. With slalom racing over the race officials started the freerace at 2:30pm, but it was cancelled about 30 minutes in due to a fading wind.

Not sure if we'll get any more racing in as forecast not looking great.

I think the Tassie crew over here will all take a lot away from this event and will be back again more determined than ever!!

Jordan has been taking some fantastic photos and I have a few, so wil try to post them soon.