Port Macquarie Yacht Club ocean buoy yachts tested in near-gale offshore

HEAVY-weather sailing can generate fear, weaken resolve and lead to rash decisions.

With offshore wind gusts topping out at close to 28 knots (officially ‘Near Gale’ rating), the crews competing in last Sunday’s Port Macquarie Yacht Club ocean buoy event did well to contain these concerns.

Indeed, due to the conditions, Officer of the Day, Andrew McLeod decided that laying buoys was impractical, so skippers were advised to retain their GPS tracks in case there was any dispute regarding the rounding of GPS virtual marks set for the day.

Notwithstanding the wind was from the south, a northerly triangular course was set with the usual Bird Rock start line used as the start/finish, sailing to a north-easterly sea mark, then in a westerly direction towards the beach, before returning to the finish line.

With a steady 20-knot breeze and messy seas, sails on all yachts were reefed, testing each skipper’s skills in the downwind start.

The three yachts crossed the start in close proximity, with Andrew Walmsley’s Enticer appearing to cross in front of Teddy Clausen’s Cool Change and the Andrew McLeod-helmed Razzamataz 2 difficult to separate.

In running conditions, the skippers considered it imprudent to run spinnakers; however, it was a leg that allowed skipper and crew to demonstrate their surfing skills, with their vessels performing like Malibu surfboards, surfing down swells towards the first virtual mark.

Enticer reached the mark well ahead of other yachts, where it appeared her skipper, having second place in the ocean point score all but locked up, elected to make the most of the conditions.

Instead of gybing at the virtual mark onto a beam reach, he gybed onto a broad reach only, and set a course to well north of the beach mark, continuing to surf down the swells.

Well behind Enticer, Razzamataz 2 reached the virtual mark and turned westward directly towards the beach mark onto a beam reach, a course with considerably less swell-surfing opportunity, a decision also followed by ocean series leader Cool Change.

As a result of the decisions made at the sea mark Razamatazz 2 reached the beach mark well ahead of Enticer, which had travelled well north of the beach mark before tacking southwards towards the mark to take advantage of a slight lee area created by the boat’s proximity to the shore.

Razzamatazz 2 arrived at the virtual beach mark well in advance of Enticer, and set off for the Bird Rock finish well clear of both Enticer, which had still managed to arrive at the virtual beach mark ahead of Cool Change despite sailing a much longer distance.

In working conditions on the final leg of the triangle course, Enticer made up ground on Razzamatz 2 while the smaller Cool Change gave no more of the lead built by the two larger yachts on the two previous legs.

Although she was gaining on the similar-length Razzamataz 2 on the final leg, Enticer fell short of taking line honours on the day, finishing some two and a half minutes behind.

Cool Change crossed the finish line a further 10 minutes back.

After handicaps were applied to the finishing times, it was no surprise Razzamataz 2 was in first place with a corrected time of 35mins 33 secs, sailing exactly to her handicap.

With a corrected time of 39 mins 30 secs, Cool Change took second place.

The decision made onboard Enticer at the sea mark, which may have provided an exhilarating ride, relegated her to third place on a corrected time of 45 mins 02 seconds.

By Captain SLIPPERY