Results from Port Macquarie Yacht Club’s River ‘B’ event

A HANDKERCHIEF would easily have covered the podium from the recent Port Macquarie Yacht Club River ‘B’ event, but the same could not be said about the Northern Territory Women’s Keelboat Regatta.

Port Macquarie’s Fiona McManus won six of the eight individual Regatta races. Regatta rules which allowed her to drop her worst result from her overall score seemed largely irrelevant.

Port Macquarie Yacht Club’s second participant, Barbara Dworak-Bahan, sailed with a cracked rib sustained half way through day two, while sailing an unfamiliar boat, and managed fourth in her division.

Barbara Dworak-Bahan will return to local sailing in time for this weekend’s two-day offshore regatta, while Fiona McManus will return in October.

Port Macquarie Yacht Club’s  River ‘B’ course runs between the Settlement Point and Hibbard Ferries, with two laps of the east to west course nominated last Sunday.

Five of the current first six yachts on the pointscore standings started last Sunday, with series leader Tribal Wave, Cool Change, Galene, Ninja and Third Man all starting in a light, variable, generally south westerly breeze.

With conditions difficult due to a patchy breeze at the start it appeared Ninja, sailing with only one regular crew, crossed the start line in advance of Galene, then Cool Change, Tribal Wave and Third Man in close company.

The variability and unpredictability of the light wind turned out to be a major influence on the race result.

On leg 1 of the race, after taking the lead from Ninja, Galene found breeze and sailed away from the rest of the competing yachts.

On the second return leg from Hibbard to Settlement Point, Cool Change briefly took second place  before being overtaken by both Tribal Wave and Ninja.

She then found breeze again and retook second place behind Galene – all within the same leg.

On the third of the five legs, Galene while still leading sailed into a corner of the course where the wind dropped completely away. All yachts except Third Man observed her predicament and sailed past. Cool Change then took the lead, but was being pressed hard by Ninja, which had sailed away from Tribal Wave.

The penultimate leg saw Cool Change hold her breeze,, while being chased by Ninja, with further back Galene making up much of the ground lost earlier.

After rounding the final mark, on the short dash to the finish, Cool Change held her nerve and finished with the day’s line honours.

Ninja chased hard and appeared certain to be second across the finish line several minutes clear of following yachts. Unfortunately for her crew, some 20 metres from the line Ninja found herself becalmed where there was no breeze, but breeze all around, and with the outgoing tide river current defeating every manoeuver her crew attempted, they watched helplessly as all but one of the yachts following sailed past and were able to finish only metres away from the unfortunate crew.

Over the line, the order was Cool Change, Galene, Tribal Wave, Ninja, then Third Man.

Corrected times gave the event to Tribal Wave 1 hour 20 mins 56 secs ahead of Cool Change 1 hour 20mins 59 secs while the unfortunate Ninja claimed third place on corrected time of 1 hour 22 mins 53 secs, with those three yachts, in that order leading the PMYC river series pointscore.

Next weekend sees the return of both Commodore Andrew Walmsley’s Enticer and Kevin Brown’s evergreen Razzamataz 2, while in-form Kookaburra 2 will be absent undergoing repair in Newcastle.