Heading Home in a few hours

With Andrew's departure yesterday Deb and I were left to fend for ourselves in Sydney for a day. We had no problem taking advantage of the extra time.

We leave for SF in 3 hours.

Time for one last look around!!

Red Eye to Sydney

We all left Fremantle/Perth yesterday bound for Sydney. Andrew and Liz did it right by scheduling a flight out in the morning and arriving at about dinner time. They enjoyed a dinner on the harborside, and a couple of hours of what they say was successful gambling at the Sydney Casino.

Deb and Jim on the otherhand, did not plan quite so well. Jim had hoped to get in one last day of kitesufing and had scheduled a late night 11:50 departure from Perth. Deb wasn't too happy with this when she figured it out, and Jim wasn't happy at all when the wind never rose above 8 knots!! So....the highlight of the day was Jim getting a haircut, and dinner at the Mussel Bar at Sunset.

After grabbing a few hours sleep in our hotel after arrival this morning, we met Andrew and toured the waterfront with the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House the highlights of the day.

Off now for dinner with friends Tom and Wendy Dawes. Jim worked with Tom during his Commerce One days and we are all looking forward to catching up this evening.

Liz has headed home, and I have been assigned to "watch" Andrew and keep him out of trouble....

Final Final ...

The boat is in the box and clothes are in the bag.
I have had a really great time here and enjoyed some awesome Etchell sailing.
I am looking forward to the next season of Etchell sailing back in the Bay after a little winter sailing in San Diego and Florida.

Yesterday I was also fortunate enough to catch up with 3 great mates that I grew up with in Perth. Richard came by and picked me up at noon. Then with nothing more than an address and a road map we went on a hunt to track down the other guys who I had not seen in many many years. First stop was John's. "Surprise..." "here have a beer" We spent so time catching up and met his lovely wife then kidnapped John, jumped into the front seat of the Ute and drove accross town off to find Nigel " Surprise..." "here have a beer" Nigel is now married and has three great kids. A little catch up and as most Aussie's do we started an impromtu game of cricket in the back yard and peppered the neighbors home with lots of tennis balls. As good mates do, we compressed about 15 years of past time, hung out and enjoyed one another's company like no time had passed at all. We are all a little older, have a few more grey hairs but are all just the same as we were 15 years ago. I had waited a long time to reunite with these good friends and I am really glad that I was able to do so on this trip to Perth. It made the trip here all that more special.

Liz, Jim, Deb and I are flying home via Sydney to break up the trip home and to see some of the famous sights of Sydney. I should be back in L.A. later this week and looking forward to sleeping many hours in my own bed. It has been a fantastic trip and I take home many great memories of this regatta and the time we have spent in Perth. My sincere thanks go out to Jim and Deb, JC and Susu and of course Liz for making up "Team Down Under USA 1283". I couldn't have hoped for better team mates on this trip.

Thanks !

The Claw!!!

Great closing ceremonies last night at Fremantle Sailing Club. All the crews in good moods and lots of pomp & circumstance. Apparently it was also "Open Mike Night" as some of the award winners grabbed the microphone and acted like it was the Oscars. Oh well.

We sat at a large table with another crew from Cowes (who will be hosting the 2007 Etchells Worlds) and the Commodore of Fremantle Sailing Club and his wife.

It was interesting as all the crews were introducing themselves (or reintroducing in some cases) that the middle crews were all very, very reluctant to shake hands as we all suffer from "The Claw" - an affliction that is derived from holding spinnaker sheets on a 1500lbs non-planning hull when it is accelerating and decelerating down waves in 20+ knots of wind for nearly 3 weeks. My hands are just hamburger meat with lots of open cuts, sores and both hands are swollen to the point I look like I went 20 rounds with Mike Tyson. I can barely close my hands enough to hold a can of beer - tough work but I find a way:)

If there is one tip I learned from others over the week it is that Craig Healy really treats his crew well with a full 7lbs bag of ice cubes after everydays racing for them to spend an hour soaking their hands. I'll take that tip home with me for future racing.

The boats are packed and we are wrapping up the trip. I'll be home in about 30+ hours - the boat about 50+ days.

-JC

Sunday - Packing Day !

The final Awards dinner was a lot of fun.
It was really great to see Jud win the big one ! He is a popular winner.

Today, we are packing the boat into the container which means the trip is coming to an end :-(
Soon we will be peeling off to catch our respective flights back to the U.S. to see our friends and family. In many ways I am sad to be leaving Perth but looking forward to getting home. If I could just figure out how to lessen the impact of the long flight accross the pond. Liz, Jim, Deb and I are going to pull over for a couple of days in Sydney. Meeting up with new friends Andrew and Jayne and I believe Jim and Deb will get the opportunity to sail on the Sydney Harbor in a twilight race on Wednesday night. Can't think of a better way to see the Harbor Bridge than from a boat at dusk.

It is another picture perfect day in Perth. Sunny, blue skies and plenty of wind. Good day to go SAILING !

Saving the best for last

Good start. Good lane. Good speed.
18th overall. Enough said...
We had a good finish to an incredible series.
First three boats (and 18th boat) over the line were USA boats.
We had a good day and ended the series on a high note so we are very happy.
We are now going to the presentation dinner and having a few cocktails.

Final Day of Australian Etchell World Championships

Good morning all:
Yep - last day of the championship and we are both looking forward to returning home and sad that the Worlds are nearing an end. It has been an incredible experience to sail against such a high quality fleet. The final race will decide who is this years champion. There are 3 boats that can take home the title. Which ever team wins it will be well deserved - each team has sailed very consistently and it hasn't been easy going out there with the talent pool amongst the competitors.
We have been enjoying both the on and off water experience of the Worlds, as our blog suggests... The Event Committee has done an exceptional job of keeping everybody well fed and entertained. The Race Committee has been A-1 in managing the race course and Brian Thornley and Val Icanovska, who some of you met last year at the SF Worlds have been phenominal at running the event and keeping Team 1283 out of too much trouble. Hats off to these guys, they sure have done a great job with this years World Championship.
The forecast for today is much the same as the past two days. Team 1283 enjoys the breeze - especially now that we have made weight and we have all of that weight on the rail. We are still compensating for a full lower section of the main which makes it difficult to hang in thin lanes and keep some boats from rolling forward on us. JC and Jim have done a great job of figuring out a rig configuration that keeps us in the game and with good course management we have been able to sail in clear air for most of the course. Following racing today we are hoping to pack the boat into the container leaving tomorrow open for a little R&R. Tonight, we have a closing ceremony dinner at the Fremantle Sailing Club where we will crown this years World Champion. We are heading off to the boat shortly. It should be an exciting and busy day !
Andrew

We make weight for the last time!!

We made weight again today. This was the last check for the regatta, so dinner tonight is going to be good!!!

Four hours to race time and it's already blowing 23 knots out on the course. Should have some good stories to report later....

So...what's going on down under??

Here's the deal...

For the much of the last regatta and certainly the first two races of this regatta we were totally confused.

Every race we sailed on the lifted tack, patiently waited for a header, and tacked when the header arrived.... Each time, we ended up losing ground to those that went the other way!!!

Now we are absolutely convinced that we should sail on the headed tack into the left corner, wait for the lift that always arrives and then tack!!!

Who thinks that sounds right??

Well, not many of you I'm sure, but it has worked for us without fail about 8 times in a row!!!

It is all backwards, it shouldn't work but it does!! Why?????

Well, the answer is ... Things ARE all backwards!! We are upside down!!

Our compass was purchased in the Northern Hemisphere. We are in the Southern Hemisphere. So our compass is upside down and reading backwards. In otherwords, when it tells us we are lifted, we are actually headed.

Now everything makes sense and we'll be fine.

What do you think???

What's wrong with this picture???

What's wrong with this picture??? Well, the answer to the confusion described in JC's post below is hidden in the answer to this question??

See next post for more.

-Jim

THIS issssssss JEOPARDY!!!!!

"Hello and welcome to Jeopardy. I am your host, Alex Trubeck. Let's introduce today's contestants.

Jim, a homemaker and father of 2 from Danville.
JC, a desk jockey from Sausalito.
and Andrew, a failed Broadway actress/dancer that is making a career as a Kareoke/Wedding singer from Santa Monica.

We had a coin toss back stage and Jim won. So Jim, let's play Jeopary."

"Thank you Alex, I'll take Fremantle tactics for $300."

"Your pre-race research shows a progressive right shift with building pressure from the right. You should sail in this direction?"

Ding!

"Jim!"

"What is right."

Bong!!!

"I'm sorry, the correct answer is LEFT."

"To Andrew."

Thanks Alex, I'll take Fremantle Tactics for $400."

"You have completely stuffed up the start. Gas masks have fallen from the boom. You have a clean exit to the right. You should sail in this direction?"

Ding!!

"JC"

"What is right."

Bong!!!

"Ooooh. So close. I'm sorry the correct answer is LEFT"

"To JC"

"I'll stick with it Alex and go Fremantle Tactics for $500"

"You are approaching the leeward mark with a clear and free rounding and opportunity to push right or be on the outside of a massive pinwheel and takes transoms to push a skiny lane left. You should sail in this direction?"

Ding!!!

"Andrew"

"What is right?"

"It seems our judges are checking your answer. No, I'm sorry, the correct answer was "ah hell let's go left!".

"We have run out of time, our contestants are out of money and our contestants have used all their "go right" tickets. Thanks for playing. Try again Thursday."

A Typical Day

Hello All,

Thought I'd try to send an email with an update, although the Blog www.perthworlds.blogspot.com has the most up to date info.

So the routine day here is to wake up, drink coffee, and make the guys lunch so long as they don't have to weigh in. The guys walk, ride bikes or run about 2 miles around the harbour to the boat, depending on how late they are, or again, what their weight is. We go with them or stay here, depending on how devoted we are, or how good the book is that we are reading.

When the guys leave the dock, the good wives/partners that went with them wave them off. Then, when they sail out the harbor to the mouth, I wave bye from the rocks that are 20 feet from our door because I've just been sitting on the rocks at the harbour mouth reading my really good book in the beautiful sunshine (Sun Screen and hat firmly in place.) Once I hoot and holler at them, we girls are free to spend the day as we choose.

Our apartment is very nice. The windows all open out onto the harbour, with a nice porch for drinking coffee, discussing the days sailing strategy, and watching the wind fill in. So yesterday, as we were sitting on our porch drinking coffee, a HUGE dolphin swims past. The water is really clear and clean. There is a guy who fishes for squid every am outside our porch. Andrew tried it, but kept on loosing his bait. Lots to look at over morning coffee.

We had great fun at the horse races a few days ago. As some of you know, I was planning on betting on The Black Pig. He came in 2nd, and I had him to win. O well. After that race, I figured out that in Australia, you could split your bet and bet 1 dollar to win and 1 to show or place, so I started betting that way. Some of you may laugh and say, "You can't win any money betting only $2 a race." Well, you also can't loose much. We had a great day watching the horses, a great buffet lunch, and a ton of fun watching the people. All the women wear hats at the races, and it is definitely a race to see who's hat is more flash. I ended up winning, thank you very much! So as they say here, "Winna's are Grinna's!"

Another day we took the ferry from Freemantle 45 minutes up the Swan River to Perth. Sort of like taking the ferry from San Francisco to Stockton. It was a beautiful ride, and since I had chatted up the driver and crew, they came out and talked with us the whole way up the river and pointed out all sorts of interesting sites on the river bank. Perth is a beautiful city, with lots of Parks, gardens, and cool old buildings and churches. We spent the day there shopping and site seeing, then came home on the Ferry in time to meet the guys at the dock.

About 3:00, we girls end up back at the yacht club to greet our sailors back from the sea. Actually, it is a beautiful sight to see 70 boats all racing to the Yacht Club with their colorful spinnakers up. Then, everyone douses the spinnakers, and plays bumper cars while trying to fit all the boats neatly along the dock. It is 10 minutes of controlled pandimonium. Then cocktails, a sausage sizzle, and an hours worth of dissecting each tack and mark rounding.

Then walk, ride or run back to the apartment, change, and go out to dinner. Fall into bed, and start again the next day! Life is tough!

I am having a great time, but miss you all and the animals. How are Pan and -Ita doing? I know the big dogs are in the kennel for the week, so they are fine, but wanting to come home.

Have a great Thanksgiving! We are trying to find some turkeys to cook, but they are ridiculously small. We have had to settle for 4 8lb turkeys to serve all the American boats!

Keep checking the blog at http://www.blogger.com/www.perthworlds.blogspot.com
See You all soon.
YLS/F/M
Deb

Race 5 Morning

Good morning Blog.
We enjoyed a nice dinner with new friends last night from AUS 1117 - 7 P's.
"Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance"
We are heading to the boat shortly to enjoy another beautiful day here in Perth and incredibly good racing against a very strong fleet of Etchell sailors. We are compensating for a full bottom section on the new mainsail and consequently sailing with more lower tension than we would normally feel comfortable with. With the holes around the race course we are occassionally starved for power but enjoy the ability to hold a lane and point - unlike race 1 and 2. It looks like we will have similar breeze today with the "Fremantle Doctor" expected to come in and build around 11:30am. We may need to put the running shoes on after racing as we have a weigh in tomorrow morning. The price we must pay for all of the good food and festivities we have enjoyed while at this regatta. All in all we are feeling good and have a great time. To the boat...

Team Down Under

Maybe a day on the water isn't so bad...

Liz and Susu were unsure this morning about whether or not they wanted to spend a day on the water watching sailboats.

Not sure how much of the sailing they actually watched, but they did appear to be having a good time....

Boatspeed and a bit of luck makes everything better

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
— Ferris Bueller

The sailing at this regatta is fantastic!!

Everyday we leave the dock in 5-10 knots of breeze at about 9:45. The starting line is a quick 20 minutes sail outside the harbor. By the time the scheduled 11:00am start time has rolled around the breeze has built to about 15 knots and once it settles down we are off and racing. Temperatures are in the high 70's or low 80's. Sunshine is the norm, and the water is warm and CLEAR!! We are sailing around in 40 to 60 feet of water and can clearly see the bottom almost all the time. We need some more photo's taken from the air. The water color is amazing and hopefully we'll be able to capture some shots and show you.

We ended up with a finish of 32nd today which we were especially happy with because we made some good progress through the fleet at every mark. Earlier in the regatta we seemed to start well, and fall back at every mark of the race.

Perhaps we've turned a corner?? Perhaps not. Either way, we are still working hard to put in a good showing and we'll see how things turn out.

a better day...

Woke up bleary eyed and in desperate search of coffee.
I knew it - we just had to revert to normal behavioral patterns.
Just like normal - and we did much better on the race course !!!
Had a great start, kept a lane with the leaders and stayed in phaze - what a concept.
Had many tweeners on board and drank a few on the ride in. Even got an honorable mentioned at the presentation awards. So, moving in the right direction and looking for a equal or better result tomorrow. Stay tuned for more updates. Alcohol being applied currently !!!

Day 2... Looking forward to Day 3.

Hmmmm.... Left paid 50% more than the right !
Couldn't buy a shift and got shafted many times. Felt like a rented Gerbal.
Won the race back to the dock with a case of icy cold VB beer !
Wish we had many more SF Etchells out here in W.A. we like having mates sailing with us.
Healy OCS today. Chris Busch did really well today and yesterday and consequently slightly ahead of us in third place. We have him in our sights and is toast tomorrow.
Going to the Sunday session tonight and plan to get all %$#@ed up - just like normal... and plan on doing better tomorrow. So, look for us on the front page. Hello, to all the folks reading this blog - you should have better things to do !!!

Racing of another kind

Deb, Liz and a couple others headed to the horse track yesterday while we were racing.

Beat SC!!

Sitting in Fremantle, Australia at 8:30am listening to KGO Radio and the Cal Pregame broadcast online. The internet is great!!

Will only be able to listen to the first 15 min of the game, and then Deb will yell the score to me as we sail by the breakwater in another 45 min.

Hope the Bears are strong out of the blocks!!!

ROSE BOWL!!!!

Etchells Worlds - Race #1

Today was a wonderful day on the water. Sunny, warm, 12 - 17 knots of breeze, and lots of pretty sailboats.

Opening Party - Guided Tour!!

By any measure, last evening was pretty special. It was the opening night of the Etchells Worlds with a party hosted at the Fremantle Sailing Museum. The Museum is the home of Australia II the boat that we all know took the America’s Cup from the NYYC after so many years.

Well, as our crew was walking out of our apartment and starting towards the party, out walks John Bertrand and his crew on the way to the same party. One thing leads to another and we all introduce ourselves and start chatting during the walk. When we arrived, Bertrand asks the museum staff if he can take us on a walk around Australia II.

So...there we were getting a guided tour of the boat by the skipper that won the America’s Cup. What a really down to earth nice guy he seems to be. It seemed to be very nostalgic for him and from a historic point of view we were all pretty impressed to see her.

Pretty cool!!

PS> I'd have a picture here as proof, but as you know my phone died!!!

PSS> Oh yes, did I mention that I was awarded three bottles of wine after the practice race in recognition of my "dumb move of the day"???? Yes, I won for going for a swim the day before....

Practice Day

Sorry for the late post here. Of course if my phone was still working, I could have sent it from there. But, as we all know that's not a possibility any more. (As you can tell, I'm over it now!)

Good day yesterday, although it started with a bit of a challenge.

As you may remember, we weighed in for the Nationals about a week ago with 10 pounds to spare. Unfortunately, a series of sausage sizzles, trips to the wine country, and lots of meals out changed things a bit for us and we were 5lbs over when we first stood on the scales yesterday. A 45 minute run/bike had us all set and we cleared the limit with 3 lbs to spare!!

Beautiful day for a practice race. Clear skies, warm, and steady breeze of about 15 knots. We started well just below the middle boat, held our lane off the line for a couple of minutes and then were forced to tack away. Eventually we rounded the top mark about mid-fleet and picked off a couple on the run prior to heading in and calling it a successful practice. You can probably check http://www.etchellsworlds2006.org/ for the results.

After the race, I (Jim) took off for a great kitesurfing session off the beach just to the south of the yacht club, while the remainder of the crew/support team enjoyed their first adult beverages in a few days! The breeze built to 20+ and it was great!!

Let's see how the racing goes today!! Overcast skies and light air. I'm off to the YC!!

BTW - Go Bears!!! Beat SC!! I'm going to the ROSE BOWL!!!

My phone is an ex-phone

Today was the last day prior to racing, so we needed to get the boat back in the water. Andrew and I went over to the club at about 1pm. They had two huge mobile cranes set up and in no time we were in the water and heading towards our assigned spot.

It's an interesting set-up, where the club has sunk a mooring anchor for every two boats. You are basically supposed to grab one of the two mooring lines and then back in to the dock. We are happy with our spot (right in front of the bar!), but not happy with today's docking process.

As we were lining up the boat and working our way into our spot, the guy on the boat next to us decided to "help" by giving the bow a shove with both feet!! Well...I was standing on the bow at the time and guess what happens to someone standing on the bow of an etchells when someone decides to shove it 2 feet sideways!!! Right....I went swimming....with my phone in my pocket.

No more phone....I am NOT happy!!

Random Day Before Worlds

Today was an off-day for the sailors so we all took off in different directions. JC /Susu went to Rottnest Island, Jim/Deb toured Fremantle and Andrew/Liz worked on the boat and then to a Christening.

JC in his efforts to make Friday's weigh-in went on a 10 mile walkabout around the island. The island is the only place in the world that has Quokkas (a marsupial that is a cross between a miniture kangaroo, a NYC rat, and a squirrel). They are friendly and unshy. They came right up to us and begged for food... just like Kevlar! The beaches were some of the most beautiful beaches that we have seen. We are looking forward to diving tomorrow in the waters off the island.

With the exception of the weigh-in, 1283 is ready to start the World's practice race on Friday!

Wine Country Tour

We rented a mini van yesterday and headed south to the Margaret River Region. Seems we are not the only Etchells crew with this idea. Ran into another crew from Perth last night at dinner and that turned into a long night at the hotel bar!!

Now at noon on Tuesday we are at the Leeuwin Winery, one of seemingly hundreds to choose from in a relatively small area. I am the designated driver. The limit is .05 here so we are taking no chances.

What the heck happened in the world of college football last weekend?? Cal lost and Stanford won??? Huge game with USC this coming weekend. Go BEARS!!! I want to go to the Rose Bowl!!!

Jim Gregory

Some good, some bad...

Today we sailed our best and worst races of the series.

Race #1 we started in less than perfect shape, but hung in and worked hard to get to the left side of the course where we found some good shift and better pressure. We rounded the first mark in the top 20 and then passed a few more by the finish to end up 15th!!

Race #2 was not quite as successful. We started at the favored end of the line, but with very little company. What did we miss?? Unfortunately, we suffered from that common problem of being convinced that we knew something that the others were missing. As usual, it turns out that the locals and others that sailed more conservatively knew what they were doing and we ended up quite a ways down in the standings.

We are looking forward to the next few days, and the chance to see some more of Australia. We'll head south tomorrow to the Margaret River Wine Country for two days of touring, and then have a couple more days after that to do things other than sailing.

Updates may be a bit slow over the next few days....

-Jim

Final Day of Australian National Championships

Good morning!!

The crew of Down Under are happy to report that we are still the top American boat!!

Looks like today will be a different day from the past two. Forecast is for light to moderate winds as opposed to the medium to very heavy winds that we've been sailing in the past couple of days. We've been very consistent. However, its not really the level of consistency that we were hoping for. Finishes of 27, 33, 28, 33, ugh.

Very shifty with big squall clouds blowing through the course. As soon as we figure this out, things will change.

Lot's of fun!!

Knackered

Great first day of the Australian Championships. Windy conditions were obvious when we woke up at 5AM (the jetlag is still hanging in there) and we all could hear the wind whistling through the windows of the condo. Storm fronts rolling in from the Indian Ocean brought waves of squalls and pretty good breeze. Race 1 we had white out conditions on the second beat of the race with torrential downpours and lots of wind. The runs were very exciting under large black clouds that brought more and more wind. Our San Francisco Bay experience came in handy and those without big breeze experience showed why it's important.

Race Chairman said the breeze topped out at 35 knots. We don't really know but the continuous administration of ibufrofen and Australian beer is helping the aches and pains.

As of right now, we are the top American team. Saturday looking to have lighter breezes. Stay tuned.

Tied for first!!!

Yes... it is ours to lose from here !
First race of the Nationals commences in 2 hours.
It is an impressive fleet of local and international Etchell sailors. It's a who's who of America's Cup and Olympic rock stars.
We are all hopped up on Peets coffee and going in search of some breakfast before heading to the YC for a very windy day in the Indian Ocean. Stay tuned for race reports at http://www.etchellsworlds2006.org/newsfeed.aspx

Andrew has relatives!!

We returned to the club yesterday afternoon after a successful tuning session happy with our speed and were soon greeted by Andrews entire family!! Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother in law, and three nieces and newphews!! They are all far nicer than Andrew!!

The boat was re-christened by Andrews Mom, can you pick her out in the pictures above?? We are beginning to see where Andrew gets some of his behavior characteristics!!

Boat Prep & Touring

Spent yesterday getting the boat/sails measured. The organizers have things pretty well set up and all went smoothly. Picked JC up at the airport, did a bit of touring. The beaches are great, but the wind was light yesterday so no kiteboarding...

We all ate salads for dinner last night as we are working to shed about 5 lbs prior to weigh-ins this afternoon.

We plan to get the boat weighed this morning and then get out on the water for a couple hours of practice prior to standing on the scale. Should be fine...

-Jim

Breakfast

All is well here in Freemantle! Deb and I are almost adjusted to local time, JC arrives in a few hours. Boat projects and some kitesurfing to dominate the day!!!

We are in perth!!!

Arrival in Sydney

So far so good! 17 hours travel behind us, only 7 more to go...
...Jim

Welcome

Well, it's Sunday, Nov 5th - Departure Day!!

Andrew Whittome, John Callahan, and Jim Gregory are sailing together for this one. As usual we enter the regatta with great expectations. Regardless, we will do our best, and expect to have more fun than most!!

Our ride to the airport showed up this morning at 7am!!! We arranged for a 7pm pickup. Interesting start...what does it mean??

Stand-by for updates, and check out http://www.etchellsworlds2006.org/ during the regatta!