We had 18 sailors arrive at DAC to be greeted by a westerly breeze that was looking bit lively, but with a few lulls between gusts – it had to be a C sail rather than the D; and that is how it turned out – there was one D appear later in the day, but we persevered with the C; and got some good sailing in.

Trevor Bowden was put upon to set a course, and for the handicap racing it turned out to be pretty much “bang on”.  First of all it had to be set so that our resident RO Mick Costa could have a chair in the middle of the deck, so the start/finish line had to be straight out in front and close in so he could see the numbers crossing the line.  It was an east west course – right out in front of the deck; then a shortish run up to the top marks; then the bottom marks were set back further than normal so we had to really work on the run up to the finish line. Good course Trevor.

I want to thank everyone who helped out on the day – it ran with a minimum of fuss, and the benefit was that we got in 10 handicap races.

I think everyone enjoyed the day’s sailing.  

We had a decent breeze for a change, so fast close racing was the order of the day.  The course you sailed got to be rather strategic – do you go out wide or sail in close?  Which of the bottom marks did you go to?  

We had a number of “come togethers” mainly at the top mark, but also down the course.  The top mark was relatively close in, and I thought we would have had better separation.  Unless you are on your own, there is no point in trying to shave the mark.  I think we all need to have a think about that as well as port and starboards in the approach to the marks in particular.

The race winners were shared around the fleet – Martin Thearle and Tim Alexander took 2 each, then Karen Paterson, Phil Stevenson, Trevor Bowden, Lew Verdon, Rob Widders and Bruce Paterson had 1 each – well done to you all.

Looking at the score sheet, I am blown away by the closeness of the points of the different groups down the sheet, with 1 point separating many of the sailors. Every finish place mattered.

Martin Thearle was the top sailor on the day finishing with 36 points

Noel McPherson was second with 37 points, 

Karen Paterson third with 38 points.

Phil Stevenson deserves a special mention coming 4th with 39 points.  Phil was/is the back marker with a really considerable handicap, but always managed to be near to the front finishers.

Rob Lowndes and Narelle Derwent unfortunately had misfortunes with their boats, and were not able to continue.

Overall, it was a good day’s sailing wasn’t it….  such a change in conditions.

Looking forward to next week!

Our next sailing day will be Thursday 10 September, and will be a scratch event.

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