Another day of light winds from a myriad of directions greeted Port Macquarie Sailing Club members on Sunday for Summer Season Races 6 and 7. Fortunately, the tide was easing to a low, so there was no repeat of last week’s frustration.

For the first race, a short course was laid out with buoys near the canals where there appeared to be better wind. But whenever there were two or more boats at a mark, tactics in the light conditions played a large part in who got the breeze and who didn’t.

Monohull yardstick results showed that Terry Howard in Flying Dragon made the best of the conditions finishing just in front of Martina Holt in Spellbound. Andrew Richards in Impulsive was next followed by Steve Couch in Lazybuoy. With handicaps applied, Spellbound edged in front of Flying Dragon, Lazybuoy and Impulsive.

Only two catamarans took to the water: Tony Kuhn on Stella took the win from Scott Witchard on Hummer on both yardstick and handicap.

After lunch a few more competitors arrived. The course was reversed, and another buoy added. As the race progressed the wind increased a couple of knots, so officials extended the race to five laps making a pleasant afternoon of sailing despite the change of wind direction with every passing cloud.

From the start, Simon Gandy and Chelsea Copeland in Voyager kept the pressure on Paul Robertson and Cate Copeland in Flembouyant, but in the end just couldn’t edge in front.

Despite a bad start, Warren Sykes in Runamuck, caught up with Flying Dragon and Spellbound to have an entertaining race with positions changing several times depending on who got the right gust at the right time.

Yardstick results for the monohulls: Spellbound, Flembouyant, Voyager, Flying Dragon, Runamuck, Impulsive, Lazybuoy, Roger Shipton in Zazoo, Elsa Gandy and Zoe Copeland in Up Beat, and Andrew and Kieran Copeland in Big Bang.

With handicaps applied, top three positions were unchanged, but there was some shuffling in the rest of the fleet: Spellbound, Flembouyant, Voyager, Impulsive, Lazybuoy, Flying Dragon, Zazoo, Runamuck, Up Beat, and Big Bang.

For the catamarans, Stella was too good for Hummer and Rob Barwick on Drift who was having such a great afternoon he decided to take a 6th lap. Again, the same result on handicap.

Next week will be another double-header consisting of Summer Season Race 8 starting at 11am and the 6^th Club Championships starting at 1pm. A barbecue lunch will be available in between races. A volunteer is required for duty. Also, remember to allow extra time to get to the clubhouse with the Ironman event being run on the same day there will be some street closures and resulting confusion and delays.