Sights of the Nullabor

You never know what you are going to see on the Nullabor but while on our way across towing the sharpie we noticed a slightly familiar sight on the back of a truck. Two fireballs being sent to MOFSC by the Fireball association in preparation for the fireball worlds. The truck pulled up for refueling at the Nullabor Roadhouse.

 

Hope they arrive safely... 

 

Cheers

 

Rhyss Edwards

Vita Brevis Blog

Prep for road trip

This weekend the Vita Brevis team are going on a road trip to represent WA Sharpies at the Port Lincoln frostbite series in SA. The Plan is to Drive the boat over the Nullabor taking somewhere around 30 hours to complete. In order to do this we have added a storage box to the trailer to protect the boat from any stones (it also has a full boat cover). It also allows us to remove weight from the boat for traveling and hopefully will give a a smoother ride from more weight ben added to the trailer.

Work is nearly complete as well as a bearing service. We are departing Thursday lunchtime and hope to be home Monday night.

I will post photos and updates of the trip as long as i can get www.

Huck Scott Winter Series

Saturday was the first 2 heats of the Fremantle Sailing Club Huck Scott Winter Series. The Cold morning saw Brendon rock up in a pair of UGG boots then complaining about his cold wetsuit.

There was a northerly breeze of about 10 Knots and the 2 heats went smoothly. Our focus was more on technique than racing with the team focusing on weight movement during the lulls and puffs. We are waiting for Impact to come out from the repair shop so we can have another boat to train against.

Upwind the Tasar 'unleashed' was fairly competitive with us proving that the upwind planing ability of the Tasar Hull. Downwind however Brendon was able to trapeze in the puffs and Vita was off.

Next race is a road trip to Port Lincoln for the SA frostbite series on the 12th & 13th of June. The team is setting off on the 10th and Due back on the 15th. Updates of the trip will be posted.

Cheers

Vita

The Road Ahead

As winter begins a lot of sailors go into hibernation (or play golf). However the Vita Brevis crew will only be taking a short break before continuing our development program.

Our Goal is Simple: Top 5 at Melbourne

To do this we are focusing on all aspects of our sailing to achieve a the goal.
From personal development, training, racing and boat development.

Upcoming Series Regattas we will be participating in:
Huck Scott Winter Series FSC
Port Lincoln Frostbite Series 5&6th June (road trip)

Cheers

Vita Brevis Team

State Championship heats

The weekend of the State championship was upon us and we had a convincing lead going into the last of the heats. Unfortunately we choked slightly and couldn’t seem to get a wind shift in our favor. The breeze was a NE 8-12 knots which had some big shifts in it. Our result for the day was 3rd and 5th. This give away our lead and we were dead level with Craig Mann’s Impact. A lot of thinking was done that night on what we had done wrong with a big day ahead of us on the Sunday.

On Sunday we definitely improved on our performance from the day before with a massive gain in boat handling and tactics. We consistently put the boat in the right position on the course picking pressure and lifts. The breeze was still out of the NE and shifty but there was less remanent swell around. Our result was 2, 1, 2 which was enough to claim the state championship. We were very happy with this result and hope to build on this in the future.

Getting back to normal

After competing in a national title there was a bit of a relaxed preparation for the State championships at MOFSC. Especially with the results obtained so far in the championship. In the lead up to the states Vita Brevis was sailed twice at MOFSC.

Out first time back in the boat at MOFSC saw us competing against Trevor Date and the OTB classes in 3 short windward leeward’s. The races were extremely short lasting just over 10 minutes for the sharpie but much longer for smaller boats like the Optimists. The breeze was an 8-12knt South Westerly. The race was good to shake the cobwebs out as there was a lot of boat handling required in such short races. Our Results were 1, OCS, 1 after we broke the start in race 2 and chose to keep sailing.

The last time we sailed before the states we sailed in a championship heat with the MOFSC OTB class including some 505’s sailed by very experienced keelboat sailors. After breaking the start we quickly gybed and restarted the race. This gybe proved to be a winner sending us off to the beach with pressure. We managed to carry the last of the fading land breeze halfway to the first wing mark where until the sea breeze set in closing the door for downwind sailing for the rest of the fleet. This allowed us to hold a convincing lead for the rest of the race and Win. We were satisfied with the performance and were confident in our preparation for the state championship heats to come

Youtube Summary

View the action from thr 67th Sharpie Nationals on youtube