Those sailors who remembered to wind their clocks forward an hour were able to enjoy a nice afternoon on the water at Port Macquarie Sailing Club on Sunday. Originally planned as the Spring Marathon, some sailors were a bit cautious of the recent changeable conditions, and instead a regular spring series race was held instead.

The race started on the inbound tide with about 10 knots of mostly southerly wind. Some stronger gusts bolting out of the canals and direction changes around trees and buildings kept things interesting especially while dodging debris in the river from recent rains.

The catamaran division saw some thrills and spills as the conditions combined with early season, rusty competitors. Frank O’Rourke on Turbo led the fleet followed by Jack Corthals on Crackerjack, Tony Kuhn on Stella and Stuart Symons and Alex Eglon on Rainbow. With handicaps applied, the results were identical.

Warren Sykes in Runamuck continued his winning form in the monohull division with Simon Gandy and Harrison Eglon in UpBeat being the only crew to put any pressure on Runamuck. The rest of the fleet was remarkably close for the first 2 laps. As the last lap progressed, Martina Holt in Spellbound found another gear leaving Rob Barwick in Impulsive, Roger Shipton in Zazoo and Steve Couch in Lazybuoy to round the last few marks in close succession. Not far behind was Tony Walker in Deep Purple. Again, with handicaps applied, the results were the same.

Next week will be Sprint Races 1-5 starting 12:30pm. A volunteer is required for duty.