Port Macquarie Sailing Club’s Spring Marathon was held on Sunday with light to moderate sou’easterly winds that promised tricky conditions with holes and direction changes from obstacles on the southern shore of the Hastings River.
The race started with two catamaran division entrants and eight monohull boats heading down river towards the Town Green before heading back upriver, past both ferries to a mark about halfway between Maria River and Dennis Bridge then back to the finish line at the clubhouse.
Frank O’Rourke on Turbo hit the lead soon after the starters gun and didn’t relent until taking line honours less than 2 hours later. Dave Winter on Spica had some halyard problems having to jerry-rig a fix before the race started. But unfortunately, the fix failed before the Settlement Point ferry, forcing Spica to limp back to the clubhouse with the sail inching lower as time progressed and halving catamaran fleet to just one.
In the monohull division, it was a close competition with the Steve Bohlsen sailing solo in Interceptor doing battle with Simon Gandy and Zoe Copeland in Up Beat. Sudden wind direction changes around the Maria River entrance saw Up Beat’s crew take a quick swim that didn’t help the pursuit.
In the Impulse class competition, Warren Sykes in Runamuck took an early lead, but the long downwind leg in lightish winds against the tide saw Terry Howard in Flying Dragon, Martina Holt in Spellbound and Rob Barwick in Impulsive catch up a lot of ground and put the pressure on. But, the upwind run back to the clubhouse and finish line gave Runamuck the final word.
Two Tasers also enjoyed the afternoon event with Stuart Symons introducing Brad Watson to the art of dinghy sailing in Elmo, and Andrew, Kate and Chelsea Copeland fighting over seating positions in Big Bang.
Final yardstick results for the day saw Runamuck take the monohull division win followed by Flying Dragon, Spellbound, Interceptor, Up Beat, Impulsive, Big Bang and Elmo.
As the only catamaran to finish Turbo recorded the points.
Next Sunday the club will hold another double header featuring Spring Season Race 5 starting at 11am followed by the Ted Kuhn Cup starting at 2pm. Stuart Symons is rostered on duty. A barbecue lunch will be available in between races.
