Hi all,
last weekend Wildcat regatta was run in Australia. 80+ cats attended. A number of Vics. made the trip north, some 12 hrs. drive time each way. Included was 3 F16 one ups. Mosquito's, "Imunity" (Neil) and "Karma Cat" (Tim) plus myself on "Altered".
F16's raced in mixed fleet against 3 x Tornado's, 2 x Taipan 5.7 with spin. Modified Taipan 5.7 (10'wide, carbon wing mast lots of sail), Nacra 5.8 no spin, Taipan 4.9 cat rig no spin. The Taipan 4.9 sloops where on same start but scored seperatly and the 6 F18's had a seperate start 10 mins. earlier in thier own division. The largest fleet was Hobie 16's and A class who had a seperate course sailing N.S.W. state titles.
Mixed fleet VYC Yardstick results where.
First, "Imunity" Mosquito with spin.
Second, Taipan 5.7 with spin.
Third, "Karma Cat" Mosquito with spin.
Fourth, Tornado.
Fifth, Modified Taipan 5.7 with spin.
Sixth, F16 "Altered"
Full results and Pics, will be posted soon?
Winds where variable through out the weekend, between 5-25 kts. with the stronger winds seeing many capsizes, even the Mossies but not Altered, 6 races where run in total.
The Mossies spent most of the time in the middle of the fleet well ahead of their Yardstick position and not far behind Altered. Altered never looked at the front of the fleet much, with poor first beats leaving me back in the pack, battling to gain ground downwind. Altered's best result was on Sunday afternoon, when consistent light winds where prevalant, resulting in 4th over the line and 2nd. on Yardstick.
The new Ashby 800mm square top used by Altered definetly helped in the 5-12kt. wind range, allowing Altered to power up earlier than before and keep pace with the sloop rigs. The sail looks fantastic and depowers very well. A word of advice when using these big square tops, you don't need as much sheet tension downwind, as the head oversheets stalling telltales very easily which pushes the bows down, until you stall the sail completly, at which point it stops pushing the bows down. 
A top weekend, in a great location, rigging amongst the cabbage tree palms with Kookaburras landing on the spin. pole and 4' long Goannas climbing the palms around you is a different regatta experience. Totaly Wild!!!!!!! 
Regards Gary.
Sounds like you had yourself a really good time Gary! But, 12 HOURS driving each way?!!! Blow that for a game of soldiers!
Nice to hear that the 'small' cats are on the pace. How did you work out against the earlier starting F18's? Catch any?
Some very fast F-18s at Forster..... And the hot topic of the regatta this year and last was the favorable yardstick of the Spinnaker Mozzies.
Forster is perhaps Australia's number 1 mix cat regatta and in it's hey day, attracted upto 300 boats. In recent years we have been seeing 110 + boats. This year was down after 2 consecutive years of flooding.
Attached is a pic along the beach at Forster.
My Club Marine Tornado in amoungst F-18s 2 seasons ago.
Actually the hot topic I heard discussed at the Wildcat Regatta was how the F18s managed to swing their own division and their own separate start with only 7 boats (five on the first day). Didn't they want to sail with anyone else? ![[Linked Image]](http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/icons/smirk.gif){kind=icon}
Actually I personaly would have prefered a mass start like we had last few years sailing our T. I believe one year we had a start with atleast 60 boats in the same division.
The Mozzie was not the only boat with a questionable yardstick there...... I think Macca's Taipan is potentialy quicker than a new carbon rig T when they get it sorted. However you run with what ever yardstick you are given. The T had a good few years when they adopted the kite and you wouldn't have heard a word from us
Photo from the Wildcat regatta.
A good use for an F18.
Another of the misc and Taipan 4.9 fleets starting. What is your Capricorn's number Stephen? I may have some photos.
Great pics mate....
My boat is AUS 43
Hi all,
photo of my new Ashby main sail at Wildcat. I think it looks awesome and can't wait to get more time with it to UNLEASH it's FULL POTENTIAL!!!!!!!!!!!
Regards Gary. 
and another one.
I've found some photos of your boat Stephen including this interesting sequence of 5 photos.
It starts with you following a Tiger to the leeward mark.
Then you seem to have found the wind (or got the apparent working better) and have closed the gap.
After the gybe you seem to still be moving faster and sailing lower.
Now pulling clear ahead - but still pointing lower.
Forgot the attachment on that one.
Finally reaching the leeward mark with a comfortable margin. You must have enjoyed that!
Gary's son Ben Maskiell took the photos from one of the crash boats.
Just to restore the balance (this is the F16 forum after all) I'd better include a photo of those pesky Mozzies ![[Linked Image]](http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/icons/cool.gif){kind=icon}
Wow my first pics of the new boat.... and capturing a fine move on film too Please pass on my thanxs to young Ben.
Cheers
Hi Tim,
did those photos of Mossie on top of Altered on Trailer at Wildcat come out alright. Could you post here if OK. Have just recieved a PM asking for pictures of trailer they may do the job.
Actualy got Tim to take these photo's so you all could see how little difference in hull dimensions there is between Altered and Mossies.
Regards Gary.
This one is clear enough. It looks like Neil has his doubts about the setup ![[Linked Image]](http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/icons/wink.gif){kind=icon}
This one from the side didn't come out too good. ![[Linked Image]](http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/icons/frown.gif){kind=icon}
Hey Gary ,
Love looking at pics. of Altered ! Quick question - in the pick attached in an earlier post to this thread, you're bookin, w/in a boat length or so of the mark w/ the kite still set and no postural evidence of preparations for a douse! Jill Poulsen took some video of me dousing in about 15kts. - took about 10+ seconds to douse and maybe 5 or so more to round,cross and wire...How are you doing the same in such a short amount of time/distance (maybe dousing and rounding at the same time ?)?
Paul
Quiet a few pics of Altered here as well as James Cole on 2 man Taipan F-16 and other cats.
http:/
Hi Paul,
yeah I do leave it a bit late some times. Wildcat got realy messy at times on mark roundings. But that said my priority at mark roundings is, 1. Getting kite down (not neccesarily in chute), 2. Steering around mark. 3. Getting main on heading back upwind. If this leaves kite dragging in water under chute so be it, I will pull it in while heading back upwind before going back out on trap, the chute mouth we use gets it in 99% of the time, even from underneath.
I figure time with out kite and going past marks is the slowest thing you can do. But idealy a clean drop at the mark is best, but often other circumstances don't allow this, boats in way, calling starboard gybing inside other boats etc.
Regards Gary. 
More photos. This one a visitor to the rigging/camping area.
And one more.