A strong seabreeze last Saturday created almost perfect sailing conditions for the eighteen competitors racing on course one in the first serious race of the summer season. Spinnakers were flown (and wrapped and broached) and close racing was enjoyed in all the fleets.
Four boats raced in Division One (the fleet was depleted by some of the offshore boats participating in the Geraldton Race). John Palmer and Jaye Martin’s Witchy Woman took first on TCF handicap a mere 20 seconds ahead of Roger Passmore’s Aquila when the handicaps were applied. Peter Kennington’s The Cro Connection was third. In the two boat IRC fleet the first and second places were reversed with Aquila taking first from Witchy Woman. Aquila was the fastest Division One boat.
There was plenty of drama in the seven boat Division Two fleet. Eufarria found their kite had mysteriously tied itself in knots during the break following the winter series and took a lot of the leg from H to M to untangle it. Venustus flew a kite on both downwind sections but had an attack of the broaches, they didn’t give in and finished, albeit under main only. Peter Williams Pipedream III (skippered by Martin Graville) was first on TCF ahead of Steve Delfos’s Minke with Ernie Delfos’s Windswept third. The Delfos sibling rivalry played out on the water with Minke only eighteen seconds ahead of Windswept on the water. Windswept was first in the five boat IRC fleet ahead of Lance Wood’s Impulse with Minke third. Minke was fastest in both fleets. Windswept now has next generation crew in Justin Delfos – who will be competing against his cousins on Minke,
Seven boats headed out to race in the JAM fleet. Unluckiest boat of the day was Winston Scotney’s Corniche which was stuck behind the start with a problem in their roller furling main and, consequently, scored a DNS. Steve Kerr’s Polaris took first by one second(!) from Myra Stanbury’s Sami, with Franco Pieri’s Medusa in third place. Ole Otness’s The Longboat was fastest.
Thanks go, as always, to our race control crew on stand-in start boat Kanyana. Presentations were made in the club by Inshore Captain Brian Cooper. A curated set of photos from Frances Hammond and Chris Bender can be found on One Drive. A full set of Chris’s photo’s are also on OneDrive. Results are available on www.sportspage.com.au. Racing continues next week with Consistency Race 2 / Championship Race 1.
Race Report by Frances Hammond