WHAT was to be the season’s first Sprint Races for Port Macquarie Sailing Club’s Spring 2026 season was changed to Spring Series Race 5 when only three Arrow catamaran skippers rigged up on Sunday.
While some club monohulls were travelling for the Impulse East Coast Challenge at Big River Sailing Club at Harwood on the Clarence River, others were perhaps deterred by a fresh nor’easter that combined with an outgoing tide to promise a choppy and uncomfortable afternoon on the Hastings River.
Duty officer, Rob Barwick, set a course with three port buoys. The first towards Settlement Point just north of Stevens Street, then back up river to the northern shore opposite the clubhouse, and the third sending sailors towards the McInherney boat ramp.
After having just competed at the Phil Johnston Memorial Regatta, the cats voted for just three laps.
The three crews were all well positioned for the start, but Scott Witchard on ‘Lukim Yu’ seemed to have some trouble that took a moment to sort out, allowing Tony Kuhn on ‘Stella’ to make the best of the start followed by Frank O’Rouke on ‘Zero’.
Working into the wind to the first buoy, ‘Zero’ was able to point higher, saving an extra tack that meant ‘Stella’ slid back to second place.
After completing one full lap ‘Stella’ retired, avoiding injury in the rough conditions and saving energy for an upcoming holiday.
Half-way through the second lap, ‘Lukim Yu’s’ skipper noticed that his rigging ritual omitted the installation of one of the hull hatch covers and, given the choppy conditions, a sensible decision to retire left the course open for ‘Zero’ to complete the race alone.
Two of the Club’s Impulses defied Fridays’ rain and travelled to Big River Sailing Club at Harwood on the Clarence River to take part in the Impulse Eastern States Challenge, which was being held in conjunction with their Single Handed regatta.
Jeff Walsh in ‘Serenity’ and Germain Corthals in Aeolus’ sailed three back-to-back races on Saturday and two back-to-back races Sunday morning, and a final sixth race after lunch on Sunday.
The promised strong north-easter wasn’t as strong as predicted, and the rain stayed away, leading to a great weekend of sailing.
‘Serenity’ was 14th and ‘Aeolus’ was 16th in the 20-boat fleet. T
he challenge was won by Dave Harrison in ‘Future Shock’ from Darling Point sailing Club in Queensland.
Next Sunday will be race 2 of the Handicap Start Series starting 2pm with Terry Howard on duty.
Port Macquarie Sailing Club
By Jeff WALSH and Phil COUCH
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