RM State Championship

Well, what a great weekend of RM sailing.
Sailed at Montrose Bay Yacht Club, on the “Nationals” course, 27 races were held across the two days. Saturday started with light A Rig conditions, and by the time we resumed from lunch, the A’s were well and truly packed away, and the C and C2 rigs came out to play. The wind on the course was fantastic. Nice and consistent, and enabled the setup of a great course for racing nice and close to the shore. Day 1 closed out with 16 races completed. Ray Joyce had a very firm hold on the event, with just 13 points, with second place tied between Mike Hickman and John Hall on 37 points.
Sunday started out a little lighter than Saturday, with the point of difference being that the sea breeze didn’t make an appearance, and we were left with light to very light winds throughout the day. Less races overall on the day with 11 completed, but that was due to the much longer times between races, given the much lighter conditions.
In all, it was a thorough test for the sailors, in all conditions. Light wind, heavy wind, tidal influences (wasn’t that a challenge after passing the windward mark when it was really light), and even the fun of surfing some of the Mona Roma waves (well, I enjoyed it).
As expected, the cream rose to the surface, and Ray put in another consistent performance with his Grunge, easily winning the championship on 27 points. Mike Hickman was also very consistent, breaking the deadlock from the previous day, to run comfortably seaocn on 68 points. The battle for third heated right up, with 3rd place winner, John Hall (80 points), just holding out a fast finishing Lisa Blackwood (82 points), and yours truly keeping them honest just a few more points back (85). Lisa possibly ruing the lack of spares yesterday afternoon when the receiver had a bit of a bath and decided to shut down completely on her. That said, fantastic effort John Hall, in bringing the Fuzzy Logic home in third.
Massive thankyou’s must also go out to the pro’s of the weekend. Stuart Harris for acting as Pro on Saturday, and assisting on Sunday. Andrew Wardrop for PRO’ing on Sunday, our rescue boat crew of Tony Brewer and Don Ash (Saturday) and Mike Holbrook and Phil Turnbull (Sunday). Without people offering their time and help, these events would not get off the ground. As wonderful as Montrose is to sail at – as well as the extra facilities that we get to enjoy, we do need an extra level of volunteers to help us out in order hold such successful events. The club is indebted to you all for your volunteer work.

Next week, as previously mentioned, we have our annual end of year presentations at MBYC (Saturday 15th from 1230pm). I have had a really good response for people coming along, which is important, so we can get the catering for the day right. If you are considering coming along, and have not yet let me know, please do so as soon as possible, so we can organise things. We will be having a BBQ at $5 per head and will likely be running a few giveaways during the afternoon. If possible, salads etc brought along will also be a tremendous help and will be really appreciated by all who come along, for what I believe will be a really great way to close out the 2018 year for the club.

​Kyle