Wednesday Sailing 26th Aug 2015

What a glorious day to be sailing at Risdon Brook. All the times we curse the place, today saw her in one of her best moods with a steady mid-top end A rig breeze coming down the dam from the WNW, a few shifts and puffs, the sun shining and snow-capped mountains as the backdrop, awesome!

I had the pleasure of PRO duties and got racing under way with 10 skippers facing the starting line for Race 1. Wayne Turner sailing Andrews boat #60, Don Macleod and Rob Cooney were off scratch, Bruce Rose and Pete Sylvester of 20 seconds and the rest off 40 seconds. Rob held them off for the 1 lap race to take 1st, Bruce Rose 2nd and Ray Joyce, off 40 seconds, 3rd. Race 2 was a long distance with a 50% addition to handicaps. The scratch boats managed to hold off the backmarkers again but only just with Don Macleod taking it out from Rob Cooney and Stuart Harris for 3rd. Peter Sylvester stepped up to the podium in Race 3 with Stuart Harris 2nd and Ray Joyce for 3rd after he saw the western leeward gate the place to be for the last leg and stole quite a few spots in doing so. Bruce Rose took the gun for Race 4 with David Jones 2nd and Don Macleod 3rd. The finish here was interesting with two boats fetching the committee end of the finish line, the windward boat calling for bouy room and the leeward boat trying to head the windward boat above the finish mark. Contact was made literally 1 boat length from the line. In the after math the leeward boat thought they had the same rights as at the start, i.e. luffing up to protect the lane, but after checking with the rules, the windward boat does have the right to claim bouy room when fetching the finish line. Yet another winner in Race 5 with Ray up to the same trick on the right hand gate again and he masterfully stole it from Rob Cooney and Peter Sylvester. Race 6 was the final race for the series with the wind easing with a bit of westerly. John Banks slipped in first, the Commodore in second and Don Macleod on the podium again with 3rd.

Winner of the Plonk Trophy was Rob Cooney on 10 points on countback from the ever competitive backmarker Ray Joyce and Don Macleod in 3rd place. With a win two weeks ago, I think Rob has earned relegation from scratch in future handicap races. Well done Rob. Overall it was an enjoyable day in near perfect conditions, sailed in a competitive yet relaxed manner.

Next Sunday is the Marblehead State Regatta with racing from 10:30 AM. I hear the forecast is for 25 knots plus from the southeast which will make setting a course a bit of a headache. The following Sundays is Father’s Day and is scheduled as Long Distance. Six skippers indicated they would sail so there will be racing but there will not be any BBQ lunch.

Wets Sails

Stuart Dawes