Changeable southerly wind conditions on Sunday and a tricky course caused some headaches for Port Macquarie Sailing Club members for the season’s first round of Sprint Races.
One competitor said that there was more luck than skill involved in the outcome of some races with the fleet repeatedly caught in a hole at one of the marks. A catamaran was also heard to complain about being “caught in a monohull parking lot”.
With sprints traditionally used as training for starts, a new point score system was introduced to reward good starts and penalise any crews who were caught OCS breaking the start. And the duty officer rigorously patrolled the start line with several races recalled as the run-in tide started pushing boats over the line prematurely.
In the Catamaran division, Scott Witchard on Hummer was the only competitor in the first four races, taking the wins uncontested. Tony Kuhn on a freshly repainted Stella put a stop to Hummer’s clean sweep by taking the win in the last two races of the day.
Simon Gandy, Chloe and Edward Smith in Voyager won the first race for the monohull division with Terry Howard in Flying Dragon sneaking in front of Warren Sykes on Runamuck, Stuart Symons, Adam and Samuel Smith in Elmo, Martina Holt in Spellbound and Tony Walker in Deep Purple.
In Race 2, Flying Dragon took a penalty and chose not to finish. Runamuck took the win followed by Jeff Walsh in Serenity, Spellbound, Elmo, Deep Purple and Voyager.
Race 3 was won by Runamuck with Flying Dragon, Serenity, Spellbound, Voyager, and Elmo following.
Results in Race 4 were: Runamuck, Voyager, Flying Dragon, Serenity, Spellbound, Elmo.
Spellbound was first across the line in Race 5 with Voyager, Runamuck, Flying Dragon, Serenity and Elmo in pursuit.
Runamuck was back in winning form for the last race of the day followed by Voyager, Flying Dragon, Elmo, Serenity and Spellbound.
Next week will be Spring Season Race 6 starting at 11am and 2nd Club Championship Race starting at 2pm. A barbecue lunch will be available in between races. Paul Robertson is rostered on duty.
