A Skippers Perspective - Maria Is Race ‘06

November 28th, 2006

For the Creative inTension crew, the 2006 Maria Island Race was the last real hit out before the Sydney Hobart race. The crew spent a frantic week leading up to the race getting the boat prepared as it would be for a Sydney Hobart, including collecting life rafts, replacing halyards, and generally making the boat race ready for any condition.

This year, with the terrific help of our sponsor Creative inTension, we were able to go into the race with a new mainsail and spinnakers, and a new number 4 jib. All these new Doyle Fraser sails made by Richard Goodfellow have worked really well, and have helped us hugely in heavy weather which has traditionally been a weakness for the yacht.The race started with a run under spinnaker in a nice 10 -15 knot northerly, and even though there was only 9 boats, there was lots of competitive yelling between skippers jostling at the start line. The race soon settled down, but the fleet soon ran out of wind off Taroona. Dr Who read the new south westerly wind best, and was away into the night with Creative inTension second with the rest of the fleet in a group behind. The places stayed pretty much the same, with the wind increasing to make a fast 2 sail reach to Cape Roull, before a tight spinnaker reach with the 1 & 1/2 oz spin to Tasman Island, before jibing and setting our new ¾ reacher for the run up the Coast. When morning came, Dr Who was in front of us, but sailed into a hole in Mercury passage inside Maria, and we were able to skirt around the outside giving us the lead. We kept the lead up to the top of the Island, but the Doctor did the same back to us and sailing past in the misty rain with new breeze up the inside. I guess it worked out pretty even.

We then started on the long beat in the south westerly back to Tasman, with the wind gradually increasing from 12 knots, to 18 knots, and then up to 35 knots off Pirates Bay. The Doctor sailed away in the increasing breeze, but we manage to hold off Fruit. Fruit sailed better than us by staying in close at Tasman, whilst we went out to sea, and she took over second place. The wind stayed pretty strong, and we had the boat well settled down with 2 reefs and a number 4 headsail. For a while there, it felt very much like the sea and wind conditions in the 3^rd day of the Sydney Hobart in Bass Strait, and it was nice and wet on deck.

As normal the breeze gradually died down between Cape Roull and the Iron Pot, and it was approaching night fall when it dropped completely in the river, and we drifted taking 50 minutes to sail from the Casino to the finish at Castray at 11.48pm just 15 minutes behind Fruit. The Doctor had long since finished, and deserved their win.

Overall, I was very excited as a skipper about the way the boat and crew performed, and our training now seems really worthwhile The only damage in the race was a broken tweaker block, and some sore bodies. I calculated that we did 17 sail changes, and used every sail apart from the Storm jib and trysail. The Maria is never an easy race, either physically taxing with 35 knots off Tasman, or mentally taxing drifting around the river, and yet again it proved to be a challenge. But you can never say its boring, and I for one will be definitely there for the 60^th Maria Race next year.

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