Tasmanian Marblehead State Regatta

Well, what can we say with this one. A phone call early, checking to see what my thoughts were with the rain predicted for the day. Obviously, to cancel the day due to the inclement weather, we should get the consensus of the skippers who turn up. All the entered skippers did turn up, but there was quite a negative vibe amongst the group initially. While it was pouring down, and all the skippers were sheltering in the boat shed, we took a vote and the option to sail won by the narrowest of margins, so we all got set up.
B rigs and wet weather pants/jackets were the order of the day. A wonderful 10 knot or so breeze from the south east gave us an opposite direction course to normal, but the permanent buoy placements were still more than adequate for the days sailing.
Mike Hickman, ably assisted by Les Hanson set the courses for us and we were soon under way. Stanza's of three races between breaks ensued, and by lunch time, we had seven races completed. Another eight were completed by the close of the day.
Surprisingly, we were rained on hard for the first few races, but then we were rewarded with a mostly rain free day with the exception of the second last race.
The racing was very close throughout, with a single bad tack being the difference between first and sixth place. In the end, there were two standouts with their consistency though, with Ray Joyce coming out the winner on the day with 21 points - of note was his worst counted race being a single third place, which shows the importance of consistency throughout a regatta.
Close at his heels was John Cole-Cook, with his brand new Red Ant F-6, a great result for its first competitive outing, having only hit the water for the first time yesterday. Ray and John were in a class of their own for much of the day.
Third place was Kyle Stewart, a good consistent performance in his home built Indie, narrowly edging out Rod Marshall, who had his best regatta performance to date. His Mantra 2 showing a lot of pace.
Justin Rogers sailed his first RM day, and acquitted himself very well with his borrowed Boogie. Still quite competitive, and with improvements to come with a bit more time on the water. Keep at it Justin, the rewards will not be far away.

Thanks again to Les Hanson and Mike Hickman, for taking on the PRO duties on the day.

​The vibe of the days racing when in the bar afterwards was very good, everyone having enjoyed some really good racing in some fantastic wind conditions. The competitiveness of the racing on the day was first rate and will surely see the fleet of RM's increase in both numbers and competitiveness as time goes on.