Simo “ Vaya Con Dios”

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Only five boats faced the starter for today’s Magnetic Island Race 4, with other competitors perhaps put off by the forecast of 15 to 20 knots from the east. Everyone got off the start line well for the short beat to a clearing buoy set to windward. A starboard rounding of the island had been set and, after rounding the clearing mark, the leaders, Zoe and Single Malt set spinnakers for the run to West Point. Fahrenheit had rounded the clearing mark just ahead of Vaya Con Dios and the two tussled all the way to West Point, with Vaya claiming a small lead. The breeze was generally around 15 to 18 knots but increased to the low twenties near West Point as the wind funnelled between the island and the mainland. Meanwhile Zen was sailing well, keeping up with the Farrs and cutting the corner around the West point sand bank.
Rounding the corner, boats tried to find their way through the usual “car park” which wasn’t at its worst. Even so, Vaya managed a gain over Fahrenheit, while Zen also caught up to Fahrenheit.
The starboard rounding of Magnetic Island gave the competitors a change in the usual conditions, with a long beat to windward across the top of the island. The fleet chose to tack in towards the shore once they could enjoy the shelter (and therefore flatter water and occasional lift) near Horseshoe Bay then Radical Bay. Zoe continued to stretch her lead, while Vaya pulled away from Fahrenheit while Zen continued to perform well in pursuit of the Farrs.
The conditions took their toll on some of the boats, with Zoe ripping out the head of their No. 3 jib and Vaya snapping a jib sheet.
After rounding Orchard Rocks the fleet enjoyed gradually easing sheets for a quick reach home. First home was Zoe with an elapsed time of just over 3 hours, followed by Single Malt 32 minutes later, then Vaya a further 25 minutes behind. On corrected time the win went to Zen, ahead of Single Malt 2nd and Vaya Con Dios 3rd. Full results are available in SailSys.
Thanks to Owen and the crew from Boudica for providing a team for the start boat today.
Meanwhile the race for the Commodore's Cup continues to be interesting, with Single Malt now back ahead of Zoe by 2 points and Vaya Con Dios now equal 3rd with Boudica.

A very good day on the water yesterday. The race started with a bet to Laun’s Beach Bouy, then to Q back around middle reef eastern cardinal and home.
With winds consistently 14 to 17 knots all afternoon boat and crew performed well resulting in VCD’ 2nd win of the season.
Another 2 races today, hoping for more of the same.

Results from last weekends racing. Our first 1st place for the season to go with our two 2nd’s from our first 7 races.

Making the most of a good breeze for a quick run to Nelly Bay and back. Maddie doing a great job on the tiller. ❤️⛵️

Great start to the season, we sailed well the whole race, unfortunately it was also a costly start to the season. Big shout out to Em&Em our awesome foredeck, who did a bareheaded change in record time.

2022 has been another successful year for Vaya thanks to a great crew. We’ve had a lot of fun. Now looking forward to some more leasurly sailing until we start again next year. 😊⛵️

Australia Day 2021. Great to see so many boats on the water for the sail along Townsville's strand.

Not getting the numbers out of the new No 1 I would like at the moment. Making sure I have a back up plan. Even though she is falling apart the No 1 still drags the boat along nicely.