This is my last blog for 2020, but it could be as well my first blog of 2021. We did a test race yesterday with the Bandit 22LTE on our new course “St AR – B22LTE – 1” with wind from South West with the new special race line of Lalia at our new racing base Saint Aubrey.
I sent out invitations and 11 sailors followed my call, Lisa, Adeli, Nicole, Lucy, Nicci, Morna, Lalia, Rolo, Moon, Rugger and Juicy came to help me with this test. Bull, Kess, Agatha, Victoria and maybe some more who i cant remember (sorry for that) watched the start and finish from the stand for spectators. Hakiria followed the race in her helicopter. For next races we are thinking of a zeppelin run for spectators.

What is new with our Bandit 22LTE race:
1. Our St AR – B22LTE – 1 course is no full circle anymore. The startline will register you in both directions, which means you need to go around of one of the start line buoys to start again, when you are overearly.
2. Our race line is new and very special. The line is rezzed from St Aubrey in Conwy and that means our start line buoys are phantom. You wont be stopped when you hit them, but you need to stay between them to make sure you cross the line and get registered. And you have to be in Conwy to get the start signal for the prestart.
3. The winds in this area varies a little. If you know what V2 in combination with Boss wind means you will know we will have only light wind variations. The ones of you who sail hotlaps will be used to these little variants.
4. The race wind has to be caught after you rezzed your boat in St Aubrey.

And then we started the race:

The raceline is in the middle of Conwy, which helps everyone to see their boat after the crossing back to Conwy during the prestart and to find their place to cross the line.

The first upwind leg to buoy CS saw them all pretty close together.

The downwind leg to buoy OE seperated the fleet a bit in two groups. 4 in the front having an exciting duell for the lead and 4 a little behind but also having nice duells.

The buoy ON in the north is a bit tricky, because while the first are going south already again on the upwind leg the following boats crossing their path still on their upwind leg. All watched each others and all passed each others fair.

The long upwind leg to buoy OW seperated the leading 4 in two exciting duells.

Only Juicy and Lalia crashed during the race. So in the end we had 9 finisher out of 11 starters, exciting duells on the course and a perfect working race line. The feedback for this race was very positive and all enjoyed it.

And here is the result of yesterdays test race:
Race Results:
1: Lisa Hyandi BS2145 – Race Time: 0:28:51
2: Adeli Panthar BSb673 – Race Time: 0:28:51
3: RoloTomari Resident BS1714 – Race Time: 0:29:10
4: moonglownight Resident BSbf2e – Race Time: 0:29:18
5: Nicole Myhre BS8754 – Race Time: 0:30:13
6: ruggeromare Resident BSf78d – Race Time: 0:30:29
7: LucyInTheSky Afarensis BS3536 – Race Time: 0:30:56
8: Nicci Neox BSa594 – Race Time: 0:31:17
9: Morna McCaw BS7e76 – Race Time: 0:32:13
10: LaliaCasau Resident BSb609 – Not Finished
11: juice651 Resident BS1cc4 – Not Finished

Lap Times:
Lisa Hyandi BS2145 – Start: 0:00:13 – Last lap: 0:28:38
Adeli Panthar BSb673 – Start: 0:00:02 – Last lap: 0:28:49
RoloTomari Resident BS1714 – Start: 0:00:04 – Last lap: 0:29:06
moonglownight Resident BSbf2e – Start: 0:00:08 – Last lap: 0:29:10
Nicole Myhre BS8754 – Start: 0:00:09 – Last lap: 0:30:04
ruggeromare Resident BSf78d – Start: 0:00:03 – Last lap: 0:30:26
LucyInTheSky Afarensis BS3536 – Start: 0:00:05 – Last lap: 0:30:51
Nicci Neox BSa594 – Start: 0:00:15 – Last lap: 0:31:02
Morna McCaw BS7e76 – Start: 0:01:31 – Last lap: 0:30:42
LaliaCasau Resident BSb609 – Start: 0:00:35 – Last lap: Not Finished
juice651 Resident BS1cc4 – Start: 0:02:21 – Last lap: Not Finished

Big thank to all who came and did this final test of our new race, big thank to our new hosts, the OGrady family at Saint Aubrey and to all who helped me to get the races back into sl racing calendar.

We will start our races next week:
Bandit 22LTE: Tuesday, 2021-01-05, 01:30PM SLT
Sea Boss Rider: Thursday, 2021-01-07, 01:30PM SLT
Bandit 25R: Saturday, 2021-01-09, 10AM SLT

and i hope i will see many of you then again for more exciting racing fun.

Happy New Year and stay all safe and healthy.

hugs and kisses
Bianca