Port Macquarie Sailing Club

7-12-25

PORT Macquarie Sailing Club held the 2nd round of the sprint series on Sunday, races 6 – 10. The forecast was for a Northerly in the morning and a Southerly change in the middle of the day, with different weather sites giving different opinions about how this would happen. The day was overcast but warm and the big tide was due to peak just after midday at the Clubhouse. Steve and Lucy Bohlsen did the duty, setting a short course with a downriver start to a Port buoy just past the anchorage canal, a tight reach across to another Port buoy just up from the end of King Point, then a loose reach to a pair of gate buoys across the river from the Governors Way canal, and a work to the finish line.

The plan was to run 2 or 3 races before lunch if conditions allowed, then run the last 2 or 3 races after lunch to get a total of 5 races. However, the wind died away as the last of the boats were finishing the first race, race 6 of the series, so it was decided to call lunch early and hope the change would bring some wind for the afternoon so the remaining 4 races could be sailed. This proved to be a fortuitus decision, as the Southerly bowled through with gusts up to 30 knots just as most of the fleet were on shore. The decision was then made to not continue racing for the afternoon in the rather extreme conditions.

In race 1 for the Arrow Catamaran division the 3 starters were running late getting on the water, although Frank O’Rouke on ‘Zero’ made the start just in time and zapped around the course for the win. Scott Witchard on ‘Lukim Yu’ was late to the start and was well behind ‘Zero’ to take the 2nd place. Stuart Symons had a change from his Tasar and elected to have his first try of an Arrow Cat, the re-furbished ‘Spica’ that Dave Winter sailed for many years, re-named ‘Phoenix’. He was the last Arrow on the water, and once he sorted it and got it going he went well despite falling into a lot of wind holes as the Northerly started to die out. By the time he got through the gate, the wind had died right away and Steve the duty officer was calling a lunch break then the change came through as ‘Phoenix’ was still struggling to get to the line. The last 150m were his fastest of the race as he finished in the first puffs of the change and he then struggled to control the first very strong bullets but made it safely back to shore.

The monohull division race 1 saw Simon Gandy sailing single handed in his NS14 ‘Upbeat’ blitz around the course for the win, with Terry Howard in his Impulse ‘Flying Dragon’ not too far behind. Dave and Hudson McNeill were next in their Tasar ‘Toy of Joy’ and finally Gary Herbert in his Laser ‘Allegro’ who got a slow start and was well behind when the wind was dying off and elected to pull out of the first race so he would be well placed to start the 2nd race, which in hindsight, ended up being a poor decision when the weather stopped further racing.

There is a Sailing Club meeting on Tuesday evening at 6.30pm.

Next Sunday is Race 4 of the Handicap Start series starting at 2 pm and Frank O’Rourke is rostered on duty.

After next weeks race, once the boats are packed away, the club are having their Christmas get together with platters in the Clubhouse, probably around 4pm.

By Jeff WALSH