2011 Batemans Bay Regatta

The 2011 Batemans Bay Regatta will be held on April 9th and 10th.  Traditionally the Batemans Bay Regatta is held on the weekend closest to ANZAC Day. However, in 2011 ANZAC Day will be on Easter Monday. Holding the regatta over Easter would clash with NSW Championships in several classes so the regatta will instead be held two weekends earlier. NSW schools break up on April 8th, giving NSW based sailors the opportunity to have an extended family break in Batemans Bay.
Home » Sailing Report - 3 Bays Race

Sailing Report - 3 Bays Race

“Last Saturday Batemans Bay Sailing Club held the 3 Bays race, so called because the yachts traverse Batemans Bay, Beagle Bay and Broulee Bay. This year the course went from a start off Snapper Island to a mark off Durras, down the coast to a mark off North Broulee and back to a finish line at the marine park middle mark on Batemans Bay. This is a long course at around 30 nautical miles. The light sea breeze of 5 to 10 knots made it seem even longer, with the fleet taking nearly 7 hours to finish.
 
Race Officer Peter Connell set the familiar boat end favoured start line. “Black Velvet” (Peter and Matty Walsh) was over the start line early but managed to dip back behind the line quickly. She was soon back in the lead with excellent upwind speed and height on the work up to Durras. Commodore Bain had just returned from sailing the Port Lincoln regatta to helm “Wishful Thinking” and was coming a clear second. “The Shed” (Ron Spelman), “Ghoster” (Lachlan Brown) and “Periwinkle” (Tony Sutton) had a close race happening as they rock hopped up the coast to Durras trying to stay out of the southerly current. This represented an attack of the slows for “Ghoster” and after rounding the Durras mark a quick inspection revealed weed around the rudder and the propellor stuck half open, which were soon rectified.
 
Meanwhile “Totally Mild” (Gus McDonald) had her masthead kite happening and was making up big ground on the run down to Broulee. “Black Velvet” threw away some of her lead by heading towards Moruya Heads before eventually having to gybe to get back to the mark at Broulee. She then inexplicably attempted to carry a spinnaker back to Burrewarra Head but had to drop it when she was heading into Tomakin instead. The run back to Black Rock was particularly tedious as the breeze dwindled and sails slatted noisily in a lumpy seaway. Hanging clouds and an offshore waterspout heralded the coming change.
 
The south’easterly change was not dramatic when it came but it was enough to bring “Periwinkle”, “The Shed” and the hitherto unsighted “Apostrophe” (Tim Davis and David McNicol) back up to the remainder of the fleet. “Totally Mild” even had a round up in a fifteen knot gust which forced her crew to drop the spinnaker just short of the finish line. Despite this Gus McDonald and his crew had done enough to win on performance handicap from “The Shed” and “Periwinkle”. Less than a minute separated the first three boats on performance handicap. IRC calculations resulted in a rather more emphatic victory for “Periwinkle” from “Ghoster” and “The Shed”.”