Port Macquarie Sailing Club

23-11-25

PORT Macquarie Sailing Club held their monthly double header on Sunday, consisting of Spring Series Race 6 at 11.00am and the 3rd Club Championship at 2pm. The overnight showers had cleared to a warm and mostly sunny day with the morning race starting in a light North Easter which came in nicely as the race progressed and stayed well for the afternoon race.

Jack Corthals was on duty, and the course for the morning race started with a downriver work against the last of the run in tide to a Port mark off Stevens Street, a reach across to another Port buoy on the North side of the river, a run up to yet another Port mark across the river from the Rowing Club, a short reach across to the final Port mark just off the Rowing Club, then a work back to the start line to complete the lap. There were no catamarans, and the monohulls did 3 laps.

The afternoon race was a similar start against the North Easter although the tide had just started to run out, and the downriver marks had been moved further down so the reach was a longer reach across to the mouth of Limeburners Creek. The upriver run went up to a Port mark opposite the Sailing Club, then a reach across to a Starboard mark off the Sailability pontoon, a loose reach up to another Starboard mark up past the Rowing Club on the North side, and a work back to the start line, once again, 3 laps.

Race 6 of the Spring Series in the morning for the Monohulls saw Terry Howard in his Impulse ‘Flying Dragon’ and Simon Gandy and Ezra Mert in their Tasar ‘Voyager’ get a good start on the fleet, leaving Rob Barwick in his Impulse ‘Drift’, Steve Couch in the Laser ‘Lazybuoy’, and Steve and Lucy Bohlsen in their MG14 ‘Interceptor’ a little way behind. The other 2 Tasars, Dave McNeill and Stuart Symons in ‘Elmo’ and Reid and Tyler Lucas in ‘Red Star’ lost a lot of ground on the fleet at the upwind marks as the breeze dropped out and the tide kept pushing them from the marks. By the end of the first lap, ‘Drift’ was about 500m behind ‘Flying Dragon’ but kept closing in from there as the race drew on to pip ‘Flying Dragon’ on the line by 2 seconds. The yardsticks pushed ‘Voyager’ back to 3rd, just 35 seconds ahead of ‘Lazybuoy’. ‘Interceptor’ and ‘Elmo’ were the last of the finishers as newcomers ‘Red Star’ pulled out after 2 laps.

The monohulls’ 3rd Club Championship in the afternoon was a 3 boat race where ‘Voyager’ was the first to finish followed by ‘Emo’, this time with Stuart on the helm, finishing 15 seconds ahead of ‘Drift’. However, once the yardsticks were applied, ‘Drift took a comfortable win over ‘Voyager’ and ‘Elmo’.

Next Saturday (November 29th), the Port Macquarie Sailing Club, the Port Macquarie Yacht Club, and Sailability Port Macquarie are combining to host a ‘Discover Sailing Day’ 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.

Next Sunday is race 7 of the Spring Series starting at 2pm. Jeff Walsh is on duty.

By Jeff WALSH