As far as weather goes, Saturday was probably the worst we have experienced so far this season. With rain and a 20 to 28 knot south-south easterly breeze blowing, it was not the sort of day to attract a lot of starters. The Sound area was very choppy with wave rebounds from North and South head, so the course was set in Middle Harbour. The format being two races, the first consisting of two windward leewards, the second, four windward leewards and finish downhill off the club. Out of the eight starters Mike Quirk and David Porter elected to carry their large spinnakers.

The race was a very close affair between Quirk/Lange and Porter/Robinson. Porter/Robinson went on to win after taking the lead 300 metres from the finishing line when Quirk/Lange capsized gybing to lay the line. Edwards/Krueger finished third followed by Tompson/Neilson fourth, with the remainder of the starters retiring after sustaining damage. Chris Quirk broke a mast, John Bagshaw tore a spinnaker in half, and Geoff Holden suffered a killer capsize. The Payn team had a bad capsize with Michelle practicing a swallow dive into the main, and after righting the boat, discovered they only had half a mainsail.

With only four boats remaining, Edwards/Krueger the pathfinder, got away to a great start, and led around every mark to record a well deserved win. It was Billy's best performance of the year to date, with the bet collection in the club afterwards best described as huge. Both Quirk and Porter self destructed under gybing pressure down wind with big kites. Andrew Tompson showed again why he received the encouragement award last season, by sailing the course in 25 knots and finishing fourth. Billy's comment after the race was, "Who needs a big kite? - I do! I was just blown away by Mike Quirk on the first run."

(DP)

Today was the first time that I have used the larger spinnaker. I was very apprehensive about sailing today with this kite, but with a windward - leeward course I thought the runs would be a little easier. Other things going through my mind were, how is the mast going to react, is the boat going to nose dive, how much centreboard will I pull up, etc, etc.

I have been sailing 505's for 20 years now, and my sailing background is unrestricted 12ft and 18ft skiffs. I can honestly say that I have never had so much fun downhill in a 505 as I did today. Both Michael and I tacked down wind on every run, and sure we got into trouble on the gybes, but that is easily fixed by changing one's technique. The boat reached speeds that I have never experienced in a 505 before. The hull performed and reacted superbly. What a magic shape these boats are; the faster the boat went, the better it felt. In fresh conditions with this spinnaker, a 505 will give a 16ft skiff a run for its money. The biggest problem now is going back to the standard size spinnaker.

Points of interest.

• The runs will now turn into a major tactical leg of the course, with opportunities to make large gains.

• The description of the 505 should now be a high speed two person adult dinghy.

• If the course reaching angles are eased a little, the boat will be easier and a lot more fun to sail across wind.

• There is no need to add more support to the upper mast in the higher wind strengths.

• The height of the spinnaker pole fitting needs to be lowered.

• Topping lift height needs to be approx. 250mm lower than normal.

• When tight reaching I found that I only needed to release approx. 800mm of tweaker. Also, in strong winds the centreboard only needs to be half up. This is because the boat is going much faster and needs a bit of stability.

• The spinnaker sheet position aft needs to be moved forward to accommodate the new sheeting angle.

My costs to date: AUS$190 to cut a standard spinnaker in half and add 1 metre to the luff length, plus another pulley in the mast, and a new spinnaker halyard.

In the weeks ahead I will try and do a large spinnaker report on a regular basis.

(DP)