Sailing Report - Bay Cup 9
It was another glorious day for sailing on Saturday when, fortuitously, Batemans Bay Sailing Club was scheduled to hold the 9th Bay Cup Race of the season. Fourteen yachts started the race. The sea breeze came at 15 to 20 knots before the start which fooled many crews into setting number 3 headsails. The wind eased progressively during the race. Race officer Peter Connell set a slightly boat end biased start line. This did not stop “Apostrophe”, skippered on the day by Tim Davis, from charging off from towards the pin end to the left of the course, hooking into a backing shift and jumping to an early lead.
The fleet remained fairly bunched at the windward mark near Yellow Rock. Few boats set a spinnaker on the first reach to the Toll Gates mark. “Moon Mist”(Roger Whyte) which had half a football team on board put up the kite and gained some ground. They then went wide on the gybe and handed it all back. The wind continued to back on the next work encouraging most of the fleet to the left of the course. Problem was the breeze was generally absent from the north side of the Bay so hard left did not pay. As the breeze dropped below 10 knots the ultra lightweight “Shot in the Dark” (Simon Byrne) seemed to pick up speed and zoomed through the fleet.
Meanwhile at the front of the fleet “Wishful Thinking” (Andrew Bain) and “Black Velvet”(Peter Walsh) were having a close tussle – too close at times resulting in a rules incident. The sea breeze was really dropping out on the run home producing a characteristic late veer in the wind direction. “Ghoster” (Lachlan Brown), “Periwinkle” (Robin Davey) and “Shot in the Dark” all gybed on the shift and kept their speed up. A tight gybe at the leeward mark before a reach to the finish produced a final challenge to the crews with results ranging from ordinary to poetry. Thanks must go to Peter Connell and his trusty sidekick George Shaw.
Results (provisional and subject to protest) – Performance Handicap 1st Apostrophe 2nd Wishful Thinking 3rd Periwinkle, IRC 1st Ghoster, 2nd Periwinkle 3rd Black Velvet.
