One of my favourite sail race at Perth Flying Squadron Yacht Club, Parmelia Night Race. Of course, I jumped on my team boat, Sea Monkey!
The race starts at 7 pm, it was the incredible sunset. However, I was not allowed to take photos seriously that I chose. I was a crew on the boat because I love night sailing. In addition, some of my art photography is inspired by the experiences of night sailing.
The busiest time of the sailing race is before starting. I was reminding the sceneries into my memory and was grabbing winch handle as a crew.
The great sailing photography needs strong winds or gale. Perhaps, it needs a big championship. (researched by me)
Is it true? I disagree.
The passionate sailing photographs need passionate sailors who are probably you if you love sailing. As well as it needs enjoyable hearts on the sailboat.
Firstly, thank you for my modelling and I appreciate the people who accept to take photos in the racing on the sailboats.
I am keen on sailing although I love photographing. Even I know everyone is serious on the sailboats during the races.
I should be back to write about Permilia night race.
This night race was under the full moon. The moonlight is helpful to see.
At night, there are a few winds on the river, around 15 knots westerly. We were afraid about picking up the wind. Whereas weather forecast told the wind would be down cause of we chose big jib sail instead of using a spinnaker. Actually, the wind was dropped and rounded. Our choice was correct!
Next bouy was bricky A and B which are head of west from the start line. We decided starboard tack closed hold then tacking to the bouys. Although most keen sailboats did port tack closed hold. We are fun sailors so usually copy the way of serious sailors. By the way, sometimes, we got to win by some happens. This time, we did trust by our self. No one knows the winds, the key of win needs finding the wind then keeping sailing basically. Sea Monkey speeded 4.3 knots. After bricky A and B, she did only 1.2 knots by the weak wind. It was starting a long race. We imagined it so just had beers and talking. A serious point was checking the depth of the water during passing canal markers.
Recently, most sailors have electronic sea/river charts that Navionics or so. The sailboat doesn’t have depth mater. We had to check the depth with Navionics also had to find where is the wind from for trimming sail then check telltale by touch. The wind was changing, we did repeatedly. I felt the wind becomes a treasure box.
Anyway, we passed the finish line around 11 pm…
It was 4 hours voyaging without good winds. Yes, we were hectic whereas we felt such a sense of accomplishment after goal.
More images are on FB page ↓
Ayascape Phtography
Japanese;
夜のヨットレース。パースの夜は無風に近いため、夜長なレースになります。
幻想的で壮大な、素晴らしい夕焼けの中でレーススタート。(incredibleに近いワードが見つからない。）
スタート時は15knot前後の風も数十分後には凪の水面。そしてその風は角度を変え続けました。
このレースには、結構な賞金がかかっているので、風探し＝宝探しに近いです。みんな本気ですが、なんせ凪の風。我々もビールやピザやらで船上パーティー開始してました。笑 ちなみに、他のボートはダンスミュージックスタートしてました。笑 本気で遊ぶのがこのレースの醍醐味です。普段、飲酒禁止な本気レース艇もこの日ばかりは飲んでます。
ちなみに僕等は、凪の風でも燃えるタイプです。もはや、無風に近い中で帆走できないなんて自然に負けた気しかしません。そう、ただの負けず嫌いです。
ヨットレースは自分との戦いでもあり、常にエベレスト登頂を目指すつもりで挑んでます。他のヨットマンも同じです。勝つことに意味がある。と、私は思いませんが、勝つとゆうのは誇らしく気高い。その勝利を手に入れることは嬉しいことです。そして賞金がかかってます。ちなみに、お金持ちのヨットマン艇が勝つと賞金はクルーとの酒場代、もしくはヨットチャリティーへ募金されます。そうでもないヨットマン艇が勝利すると、賞金はそのヨットの修繕費にあてがわれます。（僕らはこっち）今回は壊れたマスト灯の為に挑みました。
日が沈んだ後も撮影はしましたが、周りに他船がいなくなった頃、
僕のカメラはいつの間にか、ビールに変わってました。笑
レース中盤から後半は風を探し、セイルをトリムし、ビールを飲む、の繰り返し。
スタートから4時間後、疲労と達成感の中でゴールしました。
結果はまだ、誰もわかりません。
