Seabirds Fly to Gladstone
PAGAN on the finish line by local councillor Darryl Brathwaite
After hearing that Scott Patrick was taking Wistari out for her 51st race we thought the legendary plywood 35fter deserved an appropriate escort of vintage timber yachts. It would be the 18th Gladstone for Pagan, my 1962 Tasman Seabird, and the first time Dan Deburiatte skippered 1959 Joanne Brodie in the race up the coast. Wistari sure as hell didn’t wait around for us though.
The week before Easter always needs a few more days in it. It was flat out at Deagon Slipways but we managed to get PAGAN and JOANNE BRODIE up to have their bottoms polished to 1000 grit finish and almost everything was finished by Thursday night.
Final preparation at Deagon Slipway
On Friday we had our traditional pre-race breakfast in the slipway where friends and past crew had bacon and eggs while current crew gulped down their Kwells.
Ross Anderson piping the two Seabirds down Cabbage Tree Creek-Photo Fiona Clarke
Our former navigator and resident piper Ross Anderson piped the two Seabirds down Cabbage Tree Creek to the yacht club before we headed to the start. We were greeted by 25 to 30 knots of soueaster which seemed to scare off a few of the go-fast boats as there were several withdrawals at the last minute. Pagan hit the line at what we thought was spot-on time but we were over early so it was down with the kite and back to the start to play catch-up in the dash to first mark. Our unenviable position at the back of the fleet did, however, provide a good view of Wistari’s clean white kite sprinting away from us. The old girl was up and running.
Joanne Brodie-Image thanks to Mitch Pearson www.surfsailkite.com
Most of the fleet had opted to not carry kites that leg and we gained back a fair bit of ground. Pagan rounded Garnet Rock with three boats behind and 31 ahead and managed to peg back one more on the cracked sheets leg across the bay as several yachts needed to tack to lay the mark in the fresh breeze. We popped the kite and blooper up again at Tangalooma for the run down to Spitfire and after an hour crawled past Joanne Brodie who were only flying a kite.
PAGAN with boom still intact-Image thanks to Mitch Pearson www.surfsailkite.com
It’s always fun to have a mini vintage match race but I was having a bit too much fun surfing away from Dan with the pole so far back. When we jibed we didn’t rest the blooper resulting in Pagan rolling harder than ever before and an accidental jibe. Just as I regained control of the helm one of the crew calmly said ‘Ah, Pete … the boom is broken.’ It was shattered.
It was the boat’s original boom and I’d patched fine cracks in the oregon a while back and had intended to make a new boom for this race. That was one of the things that would’ve been done if the week before Easter had some extra days and now you could stick your hand through the cracks. Bugger. Not to be deterred we put our faith in the Kevlar thread of the mainsail and one wrap on the roller furling reef system acted like a sling for the Seabird’s broken wing. Up with the ounce-and-a-half kite and off we went in freshening breeze.
PAGAN under kite. Image thanks to Mitch Pearson www.surfsailkite.com
We had a drama free hour before suddenly, without even a flap, the middle disappeared out of the kite and any chance of victory went with it. Sad faces all round knowing without another heavy-air kite we’d be under poled-out headsail for most of the race. After dodging around a container ship we stepped out from Caloundra astern of Joanne Brodie who had changed down but still had a kite.
The weather settled into an unusually easy sea state, decent swell and steady 30 gusting 40 which Pagan loved for the Friday night three-quarter reach up Fraser Island. The rest of the fleet didn’t like it as much and all but Wistari had elected to get their kites off. Dawn broke five miles short of Indian Head with Joanne Brodie three miles astern, you beauty! The morning sked told of 12 retirements including Black Jack who had spat the mast over the side at Elliott in the night while looking at a new race record.
We felt the lack of a heavy kite in the run down Breaksea Spit in 20 to 35 but rounded Elliot Island before sunset and were looking to getting in well before dawn which is good time for Pagan. We made the most of some chunky patches including a hard squall of heavy rain and 40 to 45 which saw Pagan surfing up to 15 knots for 45 minutes under a poled-out number three and main. Luckily this dropped back before having to harden up for the short windward leg at the harbour entrance but it was clearly one wave too many.
Aboard WISTARI-Photo Andy Patrick
I thought someone was standing on one of the empty water bottles strewn about but that noise was the boom completely collapsing just short of the bear away. We finished under kite at 4am with Joanne Brodie nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately she’d also sustained damage, had retired and was limping in with a shredded main and split boom. After one of those world’s-best-feeling hot showers we were all glad to see Wistari tied up safe and sound in front of the Port Curtis Yacht Club. They’d ripped out one of the winches and the skipper put his head through a window but they also surfed across the paddock at 25 knots to finish at 9pm Saturday and took out the cup by 90 mins on corrected time.
We chalked another one up for vintage timber boats because even with a broken wing the Tasman Seabird flies and Pagan came second in all her divisions and fourth overall. Not bad for a few stuffed old boats and the best was yet to come as the community came out of the woodwork to help and we had a new oregon boom installed by Monday afternoon.
By Peter Kerr // Edited by Fiona Clarke
