Sailing Report 15/12/07, Bay Cup 5
Batemans Bay Sailing Club keelboat sailing is going from strength to strength. A fleet of 17 yachts competed in the Bay Cup race on 15/12/07. The breeze did not arrive on schedule however, necessitating a delayed start. Race officer Peter Connell set an excellent start line off Snapper Island with a hint of pin end bias. This had the effect of spreading the fleet down the line. Yachting guru Peter Walsh got a great start at the helm of “Black Velvet”. This turned out to be the highlight of the day for the Walshie crew. They headed off to the right hand side of the course on the work out to the Toll Gates mark. Several other yachts including “Periwinkle” and “Shot in the Dark” followed the master. This turned out to be a disastrous leg for them as the breeze remorselessly went left.
Those boats that went left
including most spectacularly “Totally Mild”,
“Fractious” and “Apostrophe” were lifted right up to
the mark as they came in on port tack. “Totally Mild” led around
the Toll Gates mark. It was high fives all round for Gus McDonald and his crew.
The breeze then faded to under 5 knots making the run down to the Wimbie Beach
mark a very slow one. It paid to concentrate a lot on spinnaker trim and
steering the boat to the apparent wind to keep moving. “Totally
Mild” retained the lead at the Wimbie Beach rounding but then ran into a
dead patch close to the Denhams Beach shore. “Ghoster” ghosted past
to windward while all Gus and his crew could do was look on in frustration.
Connell sensibly shortened the course at the bottom mark enabling
“Ghoster” to claim line honours.
On performance handicap the smaller boats dominated as would be expected with such a slow leg in the middle of the race. “Sandpiper” (Roger Freney) hung in with some much bigger yachts to take a deserved victory. Second was the well managed Bonbridge “Vital Spark” (James Levy). Third was “Fractious” (Tim Devlin) showing that even cyclists can sail. On IRC “Ghoster” (Lachlan Brown) had a clear win from “Sandpiper” and “Bob” (Simon Dunlop).
(below photo is of “Ghoster” going for the gybe)
