Day 2
A ridge racing task today with hard points to the north and south. 280km for the Club Class and 317km for the Open Class. The cloud base started off at 4,000 but lowered to 3,000' by mid afternoon as more moisture was feed into the area by an approaching warm front. This lead to considerable cloud development and very little sun on the ground that made the 'off ridge' turn points a significant challenge, especially to the south which claimed two victims in the club class and five in the open class.
Day 3
Too much cloud yesterday but not enough today. The warm front went through overnight and despite an overcast start to the day by launch time most of the cloud had burned off and apart from the odd wisp the day went blue as predicted. 10 - 15kts onto the ridge and lots of sunshine meant thermal assisted ridge lift was available and blue thermals were to be had off the ridge. An AAT task was set with the northern turn point as Maramarua with a 20km circle and the southern Tokoroa with a 20km circle. The sparseness of the off ridge blue thermals proved too much for six of the club class (although Sandy in her trusty ASW20 did make it around but a flight computer set to 25km instead of 20km resulted in a missed turn point and virtual outlanding in the South for her). Four of the Open Class guys got around making it a good day for finishers but not so good for the outlanders.
Word on the street is much sacrificing to the weather gods will be required if tomorrow is to be flyable. We shall see...
Steve Wallace
