16-11-25
A RAINY start to the day on Sunday led to very light conditions and much debate among Port Macquarie sailors about the sense of holding a race. As the tide was nearing dead low, a 25 minute delay was decided to allow the forecast afternoon breeze to arrive and for a short course to be set by duty officer Scott Witchard. What was planned to be Handicap Series Race 2 was changed to a regular Spring Series Race 5 due the absence of the Handicap Race Coordinator, and a lack of competitors.
Just two catamaran and three monohull sailors launched into a patchy 8-10 knot nor’easter that had several patches that swung more easterly but steadily improved throughout the afternoon as the day warmed up and the sun came out.
In the Arrow catamaran division, Tony Kuhn got off to a good start on ‘Stella’ but at the first mark, halfway down river to Settlement Point, got his port and starboard shoes confused. A point Jack Corthals on ‘Crackerjack’ was happy to point out as they next passed. Despite the confusion, the rest of the race, a short reach across the river and back upriver to the canals for four laps, proceeded with ‘Crackerjack’ unable to close the gap leaving ‘Stella’ to take the win on both scratch and handicap.
Terry Howard in the Impulse ‘Flying Dragon’ led the monohull fleet from the start line for their three lap race. Steve Couch in his Laser ‘Lazybuoy’ followed, but slowly lost ground on the downwind legs. A last lap attempt to dice with the shallows to gain a little in the upwind by staying out of the tide failed for ‘Lazybuoy’ with two groundings and dropping the main sheet with dolphins nearby and surely laughing. Gary Herbert in his Laser ‘Allegro’ competed in his first race and performed well getting back up quickly after a capsize on the second lap. Looking forward to seeing ‘Allegro’ in more races during the season. The handicap results were also ‘Flying Dragon’, ‘Lazybuoy’, and ‘Allegro’.
Next Sunday is a double header with race 6 of the Spring Series at 11am and the 3rd Club Championship at 2pm. Jack Corthals is rostered on duty.
In 2 weeks’ time (November 29th), the Port Macquarie Sailing Club, the Port Macquarie Yacht Club, and Sailability Port Macquarie are combining to host a ‘Discover Sailing Day’ on the Saturday from 11am to 3pm. Anyone interested in finding out and trying sailing in dingys or yachts is welcome to attend McInherney Park (The Regatta Grounds) and find out just how much fun it is.
By Jeff WALSH
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