ARYA Australian DF65 Championship Day 2 of 3

An interesting, very fun, bloody frustrating and enjoyable day today for the second day of the National Championship.

The volunteers were on the job nice and early, and set a course for us, for the wind to change right as we were starting (on course B). After a short delay, and concerns over the large amount of weed being pushed through with the northerly 15 knot or so wind, we decamped and moved to competition course C.

Launching options were quite limited given the low tide, but our faithful volunteers again had the solution and had a person at the waters edge for the sailors to pass the yachts to for launch and retrieval.

Today, we got about 5 races in before lunch, starting with B rigs and considering the need for C's as well, before the wind died off and we changed back to A+ for the last two before lunch.

Lisa Blackwood, by this stage had overtaken Phil Burgess for the lead and started to distance herself from second place.

After lunch, the breeze varied considerably for us, with northerlies interspersed with westerly and southerlies.

The sea breeze tried to come in, but was overruled by the prevailing nor-wester for the day. Unfortunately, towards the end of the day, the weed reappeared, and did affect some races, but we all took it in our stride and continued sailing some weed affected - and some brilliant races till our alloted 5pm finish.

Over the two days, we have so far completed 26 races, 12 yesterday and 14 today, giving us a maximum of 14 races remaining tomorrow.

Lisa Blackwood, is our clubhouse leader after day two, with just 56 points from the 26 races, bulding a handy lead over Phil Burgess, in second, 16 points adrift in second place. John Wyatt surprised himself to hold third spot with 93 points, with Mathew Gray in 4th on 102 points.

Not only is there hot competition up the top, but there are also some real close results so far a bit further down the order with 6th through to 10th place separated by just 13 points, so the action is quite hot there as well.

Two big things to note from the first two days, which is a credit to the entire Nationals fleet.

We have had 9 different winners amongst the twelve competitors, showing how close the racing actually is.

Secondly, as with all racing, there have been an amount of incidents across the event so far. That will always happen. However, there has not been a bad word spoken, and all competitors have quickly completed penalty turns when due, and on multiple occasions - I can recall four times - where the competitor who fouled up another, has gone over to the affected sailor and personally apologised for the infraction/mistake. Something that should be modelled from. It is fantastic to see this occuring while competing in a national competition.

Thankyou needs to go to our volunteers, who have been quick in all assistance required, in launching the boats, rescue efforts, recording finishes, running the races, catering and all general assistance. It has been really appreciated.

It was also great to see our friends from other clubs close by, coming over to watch some of the racing today (and yesterday). We really appreciate the effort in coming over to watch this event.

​Sailing resumes tomorrow from 1030 for the last day of the DF65 Nationals.