While Port Macquarie Sailing Club members rigged up in a light westerly breeze on Sunday morning for the first of two races, the weather had other ideas. Minutes before the race start the wind dropped. All three groups started 3 minutes apart, but with no wind, boats were tightly packed and there was much boat-to-boat chatter about the dangers of "drift" racing. 

Fortunately the tide had only started to run out and eventually the fleet rounded the first marker and made better time for the downwind leg as the breeze came in. To keep everyone on their toes, the wind turned SSE during the race, but improved to 8-9 knots for a much more pleasant sail.

In the catamaran division, yardstick results saw Frank O'Rourke on Dino take the win from Tony Kuhn on Stella, Rob Barwick on Drift and Grady and Alice McNee on Captain Jack. Applying handicaps shuffled the results with Stella leading Dino, Drift and Captain Jack.

Warren Sykes on Runamuck was closely shadowed by Martina Holt on Spellbound for the entire race, with both Roger Shipton on Zazoo and Terry Howard on Ratz not far behind. Further back was Steve Couch on Lazybuoy followed by Max Hachtmann and Warwick Morrow on Britannia, Adam Pilcher and Khy Kovacs on Red Star, Andrew and Zoe Copeland on Puffin. David Makin on Puddy and Stuart Symons on Elmo did not finish. In the monohull division, both yardstick and handicap results were the same. 

Two juniors took part in the race with Simon Gandy and Kieran Copeland coming in first on Sail Fish, and Bridgette Taylor and new sailor Hugh Robertson on Dorado coming second. Again, yardstick and handicap results were the same.

After lunch the forecast promised better winds, but it seemed like a repeat of the morning race with the wind dropping and everyone struggling against the tide to get from the start line to the first marker for the 2nd Club Championship. That is everyone except Frank O'Rourke who seemed to arrange his own personal weather system! It was so calm, Zazoo was able to flag down a passing powerboat and negotiate to take onboard some "refreshments".

Dino had a convincing win followed by Stella, Drift and Captain Jack. On handicap, Dino was still way out in front followed by Drift, Stella and Captain Jack.

In the monohull division, Jim Kerrison and Deb Stening on Death Defying made great use of the spinnaker to keep Runamuck in second place. Spellbound followed next and raised a protest that Runamuck started with the wrong group. Next was Zazoo (well hydrated), Ratz, Elmo (now with Max Hachtmann as crew), and Puffin (now with Kieran as crew). Again, yardstick and handicap results were the same.

Sail Fish was the only junior team to compete in the afternoon race with Zoe at the helm with Simon. Well done!

Next week will be races 6-10 in the Sprint Series. Jeff Walsh is rostered on duty.

Steve Couch - Publicity Officer 
0417 667 879
publicityofficerpmsc@gmail.com