Port Macquarie Sailing Club

30-11-25

THE Port Macquarie Sailing Club held race 7 of the spring series on Sunday in a nice easy North Easter that increased somewhat as the afternoon progressed and combined with an increasing run in tide, gave quite flat conditions. The scattered cloud took the edge off the warm temperatures. Jeff Walsh set a longish course starting with a work to a Starboard mark up in the mouth of Limeburners Creek, a reach across to another Starboard mark off Stevens Street, a run down to a Port mark opposite the Club house, another reach across to a Starboard mark off the Sailability pontoon, a broad reach up to a Starboard mark on the North side of the river towards the Hibbard Ferry, then a work back to the Start-Finish line.

The catamaran division only had Frank O’Rourke on his Arrow Cat ‘Zero’. He could have done 4 laps but had caught most of the monohulls by the end of his 3rd lap (they were finishing their 2nd lap), so with no one to chase, he finished after the 3 laps.

In the Monohull division, the Impulses of Rob Barwick’s ‘Drift’ and Terry Howard’s ‘Flying Dragon’ had a race long battle, ‘Drift’ leading most of the way and ‘Flying Dragon’ closing in then dropping back again all throughout the race. The final work to the finish saw ‘Flying Dragon’ make another charge as they approached the line, but ‘Drift’ held him off to take the win by 2 seconds after almost 2 hours of racing. Steve Couch in his Laser Radial ‘Lazybuoy’ had a few problems in the first work and dropped back from the 2 Impulses but then stayed about the same distance back for the rest of the race to take 3rd. Dave McNeill sailed with younger son Hudson in their Tasar ‘Toy of Joy’ and were staying with ‘Lazybuoy’ for the first lap, but a capsize early in the 2nd lap saw them retire as the breeze increased.

Next week is our second round of 5 races of the Sprint series starting at 11.30am. Steve Bohlsen is on duty.

By Jeff WALSH