9 November 2014
By Elly Pugh
It was rough waters for the sailing competitors at Paradise Point yesterday, after swarms of jellyfish wreaked havoc and ruined the chances of many competitors.
Due to prevailing wind conditions and lack of rain, swarms of stingers invaded the races and broke seven boats.
Sailor Kelvin Holdt had the unfortunate experience of having both of his rudders become unusable due to the jellies.
“They are a pain in the behind,” Kevin said.
“They shatter carbon fibre, so now I have two rudders to repair.”
Kevin admits he was one of the luckier ones, being able to sail the seas yet again after receiving a lending hand from another competitor who had succumbed to the evil of the jellies.
“One guy cleaned out a channel marker because of them, but I was able to use one of his parts today,” he said.
“We should bring a scoop next time and fish them out.”
Sailing coach and umpire Ashley Lloyd said that the blubbers were a huge annoyance in operating the races.
“The problem is the jellyfish collide with the rudder and cause it to pop up and thus destroy the carbon fibre rod in it,” Ashley said.
“This causes more problems, because that means you can’t steer and boats end up running into each other.”
Ultimately, the hardened sailors were able to power through, with the sailing competition wrapping up today in good spirits.
The new system was born here and filagra this is not something that we would like to see. Caverta although better in some elements but not important for us.
