We seem to be going through the usual change of seasons weather at the moment.  I think we all turned up expecting some rain, but nothing eventuated.  Early on while we were setting up, there was a promise of a nice little breeze from the west, but that fizzed out, and we were left glassed out on the water, trying to figure out what movement we could generate in the boats….  not very much at all!

We had a lower than normal turnout, with 9 sailors daring to try their luck.

The course was set essentially in front of the deck in anticipation of the westerly breeze, but we had to wait for an hour or so for any sort of definite wind to appear.  Unfortunately it came directly from the south, straight over the top of the clubhouse, and bombing onto the water in front of us.  We decided to move the course to the western side of the deck, so we ended up with a more constant direction of the wind, but there were weird gaps and gusts in there, still with big changes in direction.  It slowly increased over the afternoon, so by the end of the day we had the wind up to 6 knots, with gusts to just over 14 knots.  I think it was a day of changing tacks without doing anything, both up and down wind.  Never take anything for granted!

We all stayed with the A sail, even though it became a bit of a gamble running downwind.  We saw the bottoms of many boats.  Probably should have changed down, but we tried to squeeze in more races.  Given the circumstances, we were able to get in 6 races.  That was really good, given the late start.

The top sailors showed their skills under the circumstances.

Phil Stevenson had 2 wins along with Graham Brown and Stephen Deane.  Well done to you all.

Narelle Derwent had a cracker of a day, although she did not come away with a win.  She commented that the smaller fleets suited her.  Big smile!

Phil Hetherington always seemed to be towards the front, then something happened to push him back a bit.

Lew Verdon is showing he has the boat speed to be competitive, as is Paula Reilly..  We had to fix Paula’s sail runner, and it seems to have given her a lift.

Trevor Bowden is sailing without luck at the moment – he seems to be having many gear problems which keep him out of the results.

Phil Stevenson was the sailor of the day with 8 points – well done Phil.

Graham Brown came in second with 13 points.

Narelle Derwent came in third with 17 points.

The Club Championship now has Martin Thearle in front from Noel McPherson and Phil Stevenson.

It was really good to see Brian Chapman back on deck, although he is not yet sailing. While we have one return from illness, I also have to report that Geoff Lucas is again back in hospital at Royal North Shore.  On behalf of everyone Geoff, I wish you a speedy recovery.

Our next event will be scratch racing next Thursday 18 June.

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