After several weeks with sailing flooded out, it was a small but very keen fleet that hit the muddy Hastings River for Port Macquarie Sailing Club’s Easter Cup.
A light 5-6 knot, mostly north-easterly, breeze and low incoming tide didn’t promise much excitement, but was sufficient to complete the course and safely dodge the driftwood.
In the Monohull division, Elsa Gandy and Simon Gandy in Up Beat and Roger Shipton in Zazoo put on quite an entertaining dual for spectators. With less than a metre separating the two at the finish line, Zazoo crossed in the lead. Stuart Symons in Gift and Steve Couch in Lazybuoy were the only other monohull competitors. While Lazybuoy seemed to have a good lead on Gift for most of the race, the last couple hundred metres saw experience take over as Gift found the better breeze and took 3rd place.
Only two boats contested in the Catamaran division: Tony Kuhn on Stella and Dave Winter on Spica. Stella finished first, but positions were irrelevant as both were happy to be back on the river instead of hosing it out of the clubhouse.
Next week will be Race 6 of the Summer Series starting at 1pm. Paul Robertson is rostered on duty.
