GILBERT and Sullivan’s ode of woe, slightly modified as “When a Commodore’s duty’s to be done, taking one consideration with another, a Commodore’s lot is not a happy one”, seemed appropriate for last Thursday’s twilight event.
After the abandonment of the previous Sunday’s ocean event due to inclement conditions, skippers were keen to set sail on the Hastings River’s east course.
With forecast breezes of 5 to 10 knots, north-easterlies barely reached 8 knots and were concentrated on the southern (Town Green) end of the course.
Six yachts – Enticer, Galene, Ninja, Razzamataz 2, Salty and Tribal Wave – left the mid-course start line into runout tide maxing at 4 knots with barely 6 knots of breeze.
Skippers sought areas of the river with minimal tidal impact. Most yachts crowded the western edge of the course, and in the light air, the leading yachts created large areas of disturbed air for the following yachts to battle through.
Importantly, skipper of Razzamataz 2, Andrew McLeod won the start. Sailing in clean air, he was able to sail clear of the following pack, led by Enticer, with Galene and Salty next.
The combination of light breezes, a stronger-than-usual tidal flow and clean air allowed Razzamataz 2 to establish a lead of more than 100m on Enticer, which misjudged the breeze and tidal flow, briefly running aground.
Chasing those two yachts, Galene, Ninja and Salty were unable to round the top mark and invoked the mercy rule, pulled down sails and motored home in the remaining daylight.
River series leader Mike Schulzer on Tribal Wave showed extreme perseverance in chasing and was able to complete the course well after other starters were safely moored.
He was rewarded with second place, pipping the unfortunate Enticer by a mere 14 seconds.
Being able to sail in clean air all race, Razzamatazz 2 took first place by an embarrassingly large margin.
Last Sunday, 1 November, saw several additional yachts register for the second race in the Hastings River series.
At 9.20 am Port Macquarie Yacht Club Commodore Andrew Walmsley saw a grey rainy day with a thunder storm just passed and further rain and thunder forecast over the afternoon.
With the danger of a lightning strike and safety being a consideration, Commodore Walmsley postponed the event to a date to be fixed.
Quite reasonable, except for the fact that the day soon after cleared to a beautiful blue-skied, lightning-free afternoon.
Ahh, the joys of being the commodore.
Next Sunday’s event is the next river race in the series, sailed on the River A course from Town Green towards Settlement Point, with a start time of 1pm, making the green a good viewing point.
A good turnout of local yachts is expected.
By Captain SLIPPERY
Port Macquarie Yacht Club
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