With the weather gods on our side last weekend, the twenty-four power yachts competing in the Navigator-Skippers’ time trial could not have asked for a better day on the Swan River. There were some pretty fancy scores out there too – enough to suggest that some of the navigators are just as good on the helm as their regular skippers and maybe they should swap seats once in a while!
Full credit to our General Manager, who was able to get the fuel pumps working again after condensation to the electronics following recent heavy rains stopped the system in its tracks. Drew Kenney heaved a sigh of relief when the controller finally dried out enough to deliver the fuel desperately needed by Sukmiwake. The day was even better later on when Drew’s son Tristan guided the boat to a second place.
A runaway choice for the Bent Prop award was Chilly Mussel after a 180 degree turn at Waterstrom before correcting and speeding off to get to the next mark on time. As navigator, Steve accepted full responsibility and collected the award.
Tina Smith had a good day, showing that she can keep the points down just as well as husband Brian. Jared Tickle and Mark Hayman shared a 13 point scoreline with Justin Taylor and Anton Jennings, but the fleet allocation made a world of difference. Magnifique Too, in the starboard fleet, took home a first-place pennant, but in the port fleet, it was only good enough for second place.
Showing the benefit of a trial circuit before the event, Lynne Cooper kept up Purrfect’s winning credentials with twelve points lost, winning the Seafarer’s Measure.
A few weeks ago I made the mistake of making a tongue-in-cheek observation inferring that someone earned a wooden spoon due to their inability to come to terms with their new time trialling app, a comment inspired by a throwaway line I heard during the evening.
Having had the opportunity to look at the app in question, there is no doubt at all that it is a very sophisticated yet simple to operate piece of software, specifically tailored to our competition and with some really natty features like the ability to share stuff and also to tally up the points you THINK you may have lost as you travelled around the course. It will run on Android or iPhones, is easy to synchronise with the official clock in the foyer and really takes all the hard work out of preparing for a time trial.
Anybody interested in a demo should contact the developer, David Markham.
