John Emms Memorial Marblehead Regatta

20/7/2025

Much nicer breeze than the 100km/hr winds we experienced yesterday, causing the cancellation of the Southern Tasmanian RM Regatta for the second time - ultimately passing in that event for this year.
PRO for the day, Ian Hey got us away right on the scheduled start time with the standard course 3/4 - 7, 8, 3, 4, 7, 8, 1-2 Gate and 3/4 finish.
Ray jumped right out of the blocks from the first race - keen to regain the coveted memorial this year - and thoroughly dominated most of the day, racking up a very impressive 9 wins from the 15 races. Some of htem by an extraordinary margin.

The rest of the fleet had a real tough contest amongst themselves, with many races decided within th efinal beat to the finish line. Some very interesting racing with many possible racing lines used, and heaps of opportunity to make up ground if you were in synch with the wind patterns and likewise to lose ground when you have found a not-so-good spot to sail in to. The mantra was to never give up as opportunity could come knocking.

Although earlier said that Ray was dominant, there were still 5 skippers taking a race win during the day, so we all had good opportunities and made a good go of if when presented.

After lunch, the breeze seemed to drop a bit, and Lisa decided to go for the swing rig, while everyone else kept the B on. Didn;t seem to make too much difference to start with, but on her second A Rig race, she comfortably won by a good 100m to second place. This brought about a rig change call, but half way though the change, the wind picked right up again, damaging Stuart's rig and causing all but Lisa to go back to their B Rigs.

Unfortunately, we had lost Stuart and John Cole-Cook a few races early, but the final four battled out the last few races to finish with 15 completed by the close of play.

In the end, Ray was a well deserved winner of the 2025 John Emms Memorial with just 18 points from the 15 races. Congratulations Ray.

Second place went to Kyle Stewart on 37 points. Might be a bit more dangerous if he got that first beat sorted out better and relied less on catching up throughout the races.

Third place was the very consistent John Hall on 44 points. The F-6 was flying today and well deserved with his consistency throughout the day.

Big thanks to Bodge for his excellent PRO work today. It's really appreciated when you get tot he dam in cold conditions just to officiate our race day.

Also, well done to the competitors for some very close, exciting and extremely well mannered sailing.
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