The Countdown Continues

December 23rd, 2006

With the boats arrival in Sydney in the early hours of Tuesday morning the crew started the final preparations for the big race. Check out the photos in the gallery. With the cruising gear removed and the damage from the chinese gybe being repaired or broken items replaced things where really starting to take shape. The arrival of Tim, Jory and Guy on Friday morning once again livened up action on Creative inTension with the crew having two busy days on the boat including, Fitting out the new Carbon Fiber Spinnaker pole (much to Bowman Jory’s delight) as well as fixing the damage sustained to the track on the front of the mast for the kite pole to go up and down which was damaged in the same incident that snapped the old pole in half.

With the saftey inspection complete and the required CYCA race stickers put on the hull the yacht was pretty much ready. But what was planned as an afternoon of sailing turned into an afternoon of work when the boat was involved in a collision when it was being reversed back into the pen. As a result of the impact one of the life line staunchions was “flattened” to the deck much to the despair of the onlooking crew helpless to stop it as the boat lurched on the swells rolling through the Marina.

The staunchion was subsequently removed and taken to a fabrication firm in Fairfield just out of Sydney and was back on the boat within 5 hours of the accident.

The crew headed out for a small sail at around 5pm on Saturday night and methodically hoisted each sail including the tri-sail just to make sure there where no problems. After a quick two boat training session with the New Zealand Maxi Maximus, which resulted in the 30meter yacht being forced to bear away for clear air after being gassed out and completely dominated by Creative inTension (We wish).

The official race briefing is Sunday morning with a few final touches to be done to the boat things are on track to the 1pm start on Boxing Day. The crew would like to pass on their thanks to all the people who have emailed with messages of support and for those who have entered the competition so far.

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