About 100 boats sailing in nine divisions turned up  in Bussleton, Western Australia for Geographe Bay Race Week. They ranged from the huge TP62, Limit, down to the slightly smaller Viper.

You can't beat the venue - In between racing, there's the local vineyards and good surf at Yallingup so its got it all.

Winds were generally light - about 8 to 10 knots. Only race one got some gusts over 20knots. Unfortunately there was only 8 boats in the sports boats fleet.

The good part - six were Viper 640's - three of them brand new and out for their first sail.  A brand new Shaw 650 and a Melges 24 rounded out the fleet.

Before the first race there was nervous discussion amongst the Viper sailors and great confidence on the Shaw's part. It was going to be great to see how the Viper matched up against the Shaw 650.

What Did We See???

The Viper 640 more than held its own upwind,  matching the Shaw in a variety of conditions.  Even though the Shaw packs a lot of sail area, the Viper hull shape, being a little finer in the bow seemed better upwind,especially with slop around.

Downwind when it was not too tight or too light the Shaw was a lot quicker with it's huge kites. It won the first 20 mile passage race by ten minutes over the line but even this was not enough given their whopping SMS handicap - the Viper still won by ten seconds.

Surprisingly the bigger kite didn't seem to help it in up to 8 knots. The Shaw couldn't soak as deep as the Viper and when they sailed higher angles they went quick but the VMG's weren't as good.

The Shaw will win many races under SMS. Speaking from a Viper (biased) perspective, there has been a lot of hype surrounding the Shaw 650. One person on SA said the Shaw would lap a Viper so we were happy to see we were still competitive on SMS.

The owners of both  type of boats will have some great battles on the Swan River over the next year  and it won't be as one sided as many predicted.

While the Shaw was a brand new boat, barely sailed, the factory had flown a few people to WA to set it up and helped sail it during the week. They may have been inexperienced but the Vipers could claim the same.

As a  comparison,  John Parkes and his crew "Skid" and "Scotch Whiskey" sailed a brand new, unsailed Viper for the first time in race one. Unfamiliar crew and boat. A great effort to finish 4th overall.  Well done!!!

Murray Howson and his crew of Marco "The Magnificent" and Craig having never sailed a Viper before, sailed one of the older boats with well worn sails to a a great 5th.

Results

Rod Beurteaux  won the series with a race to spare and then on the way into the marina the  night before the last race,  perched his Viper on a lump inside the marina - now known as Beurteaux's Boulder. He decided not to sail the last race.

They are considering putting a lighthouse on the point to avoid future catastrophes.

The things some people do to avoid passage races in light winds !!!!

It was a tight tussle between Tim Reger and Chris O'Keefe for 2nd and 3rd place

Series results were:
Rod Beurteaux - Viper 640 - 1st
Tim Reger - Viper 640 - 2nd
Chris O'Keefe - Viper 640 - 3rd
John Parkes - Viper 640 - 4th
Murray Howson - Viper 640 - 5th
Terry Foster - Melges 24 - 6th
Peter Chalmers - Shaw 650 - 7th
Ken Begley - Viper 650 - 8th

Apart from the sailing

The Viper Pit

The Viper pit was a house on the canal in the marina complex. With the Viper chase boat/ taxi it was a great setup and thank god there were only afternoon races after too many late night "debrief sessions" at the pit. Jordo brought his large inflatable pool for cooling down on the humid nights.

The Viper Chase Boat

The Viper chase boat was put to good use during the regatta.

Each morning the crews were delivered to their boats in the marina.

At night the Viper "Taxi"  delivered crews back to the Viper pit avoiding the local constabulary after many sherbets. Although, if the water police had been out the other night, they might have stopped us - bit obvious reversing all the way home with a boat full of rowdy sailors.

Rod and his crew of Jon and Jim watched the last race in the Viper chase boat.  They also took orders and delivered 18 take away coffees,  3 to each Viper, half way through the passage race. -The Viper Bean

The boats that were two sail reaching were a bit easier than the two boats with their kites up.

Pucks on the bar

The "pucks on the bar' at the end of each day was great fun. Fastest speed for the day wins a bottle of Snake Charmer wine. The rules were a bit rubbery. Talk of people driving around with their puck in the carpark before the race were investigated. Fastest speed is meant to be anywhere/any time on the water so it was not unusual to see boats spearing off before or after the race to "get puck speed" After a particularly light afternoon Marco "The Magnificent" was even seen running along the dock with puck in hand. Unfortunately he is no Usain Bolt and only registered 8.1 k

Overall it was a terrific regatta and the Vipers had a great time on and off the water which increased the interest in sailing in the class.  We are aiming get to 10 or 12 Vipers down next year.

More detailed race by race results, individual results  including handicaps and times can be found at the linky thing below.

http://www.sportspage.com.au/yacht_clubs/gbyc/gbyc.htm