Spring Series Race and Club Championship at Port Macquarie Sailing Club

THE Port Macquarie Sailing Club’s first double header for the season on Sunday consisted of race one of the Spring Series in the morning following the race being aborted last week, a BBQ lunch, and the first Club Championship race in the afternoon.

The morning race was delayed 15 minutes waiting for more of the flukey North Easter just starting to trickle in so they could sail against the strong run in tide, and a short course had been set.

It very gradually built during the race and was quite sailable by the time the fleet finished and came in for the BBQ.

By the time the afternoon race started, the North Easter was just lovely, and the tide became slower as the race progressed, so the course was extended.

Tony Kuhn filled in doing the morning duty as the scheduled duty officer, Jeff Walsh, had snapped an achilles tendon.

Dave Winter filled in for the afternoon race duty.

In the morning’s race 1 of the Spring Series, Scott Witchard on ‘Lukim Yu’ was the lone Arrow Cat and took 20 minutes to get enough breeze to clear the start line against the tide and sail the course for the points in the catamaran division.

The monohulls’ morning race was led from start to finish by Steve Bohlsen in his MG14 ‘Interceptor’ when he got enough puff to cross the start line only five minutes after the start, whereas the rest of the monohulls were more around the 15 minutes after start before they could sneak across the line.

However, despite the huge lead in time, once the yardsticks were applied, Rob Barwick in ‘Drift’ took the placing win by 46 seconds ahead of ‘Interceptor’.

Stuart Symons in ‘Elmo’ finished three seconds after ‘Drift’ on the water, but the yardstick corrected that to over five minutes.

Terry Howard in his Impulse ‘Flying Dragon’ was at the back of the fleet when the swiveller on his mainsheet ratchet block exploded in a shower of ball bearings, ending his race and his day on the water.

The first Club Championship race for catamarans in the afternoon saw three Arrow Cats contest the race.

Scott Witchard on ‘Lukim Yu’ thought he had the start nailed this time but was OCS (broke the start) by a fraction of a second, making him go around the pin and re-start – last.

Jack Corthals on ‘Crackerjack’ was the first legal starter and never looked back, taking the win. Tony Kuhn on ‘Stella’ was the next starter, but ‘Lukim Yu’s quick re-start and a well sailed first leg saw ‘Stella’ overtaken on the first lap.

Stella’s woes continued near the end of the third lap when a broken tiller extension caused a capsize and retirement.

Finish line confusion ensued when ‘Crackerjack’ finished and returned to the beach and ‘Lukim Yu’ continued racing.

A quick enquiry to the starter who was distracted by the other events on the course indicated that he had only completed three of the four laps.

He raced off to chase ‘Lukim Yu’ who was onto his fifth lap and nearly caught him by the end of the lap.

Of course, this extra lap did not count, the starter was most apologetic, and the fourth lap placings stood – ‘Crackerjack’ first and ‘Lukim Yu’ second.

The monohulls first Club Championship Race was quite a battle between the three monohulls racing.

In the end, ‘Drift’ crossed the line first for the yardstick win ahead of ‘Interceptor’.

Elmo capsized at the C mark near the end of the second lap and took a while to get upright and underway again to get the third place points.

Next Sunday is race one of the Handicap Start series starting at 1 pm.

At this stage, no one is rostered on duty.

By Jeff WALSH