Home » SAILING REPORT - 2010 Anzac Weekend Regatta SAILING REPORT - 2010 Anzac Weekend Regatta
| Batemans Bay Sailing Club hosted a successful sailing regatta over the ANZAC day weekend. A fleet of 104 boats dinghies, catamarans and trailerable yachts assembled. Competitors came from the length of the South Coast, the ACT, central coast, Sydney, Illawarra, even Victoria and South Australia thanks in part to the assistance of Eurobodalla Tourism in promoting the event. The weather can do anything at this time of the year. On Saturday there was a north westerly gradient breeze which shifted widely in force and direction. The fleet did two races around a triangular course. A rare and unfortunate incident occurred at the start of one of the catamaran races where a young sailor was injured (now recovering well) and her dad's boat was holed. The crew were taken ashore aboard a race management boat. The Batemans Bay Coastal Patrol was contacted and had two boats out very quickly to effect the difficult task of towing the catamaran in with one hull underwater.
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A southerly change came through overnight making conditions on Sunday morning quite rough. Racing was delayed to allow the worst of the weather to pass overhead. The trailerable yachts did a long race around Batemans Bay utilising permanent BBSC marks. The dinghies and catamarans did two shorter races. Just before the start of the first race the windward mark came adrift forcing a hasty postponement. The mark was retrieved and re anchored using improvised ground tackle. The new anchor rope was not weighted so the first boat around snagged the mark and towed it off towards the wing mark, pursued by the rest of the fleet. After 200m the mark became disentangled. The boats gave the mark a wide berth for the remainder of the race. It was re set between races. The breeze moderated contrary to all forecasts and it turned into a beautiful day on the water.
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| The local sailors had mixed fortunes with Peter Schwarz 4th and Robert Saunders 5th in the Lasers. Rob and Nicole Douglass scored a hard fought win in the Tasars. BBSC members Matt Craig and Gary Foley won a Tasar race on Saturday. Bad luck struck on Sunday when they had to retire from both races after their rudder bolt broke. Rob Currall didn't trouble the leaders in his catamaran division but kept a wide smile on his dial all weekend. The feedback from the competitors was overwhelmingly positive.
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Staging this event was a real team effort. Thanks must go to Principal Race Officer Peter Connell and his crew aboard "Cape Fear" who were assisted by Anne McAsh, Lynn Connell, James Levy, Lachlan Brown and David Magill. Andrew Bain, James Gardiner, Lee Forster, Simon Lowth, Tony Sutton and Celia Davey skippered their own boats as race management boats. Their crews included Robin Davey, Warren Jones, John Keeling, Ross Hayward and Howard Staples. Richard Dunne did an admirable job coordinating the catering, assisted as he was by Peter Smith, Bev Dunne, Lynne Bain, Libby Gardiner, Imogen Brown and Sandra Davey. Rob Currall ran the clubhouse cleanup. Terry Paton and Rob Douglass took entries. Judy Brown crunched the numbers. Sponsorship provided by Woolworths and Bidgebong wines was most appreciated.
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| Next year ANZAC Day and Easter coincide so the regatta will be held a little earlier in April. The dates will be finalised within the next two weeks. Once decided, they will be posted on this website and emailed out to this year's competitors." |
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