Yesterday, eighteen DAC Sailors equalled a Club record, what a great turnout for our Scratch Event.

We sailed on a cool and overcast day with a developing “black Nor’ Easter”, as we used to call it.

The wind speed called for “C” sails and as the strength increased from 27 Km/Hr to a gust of 47, (14 to 24 Knots), all but one or two changed to “D” ‘s. It reached its peak about halfway through the Racing and the chop increased to waves, up to 40cm high.

Tacking was a challenge and judging leeway for the windward mark had many turning short. This caused multi pile-ups on the first leg and made or broke many good finishes.

The day belonged to Noel McPherson. Noel has always been able to control his nosediving better than most and so stayed with his “C” sail. Despite the conditions he had 3 wins and 3 places to comfortably win the day. Not too far behind Noel, Robin Tickner also had a successful day with no scores lower than fifth. This included 3 second places. Graham Brown came third. With 2 wins and similar scoring to Robin, just one Race and 1 point was the difference between them. There was a gap to the rest with Rob Lowndes laying a solid base with 2 wins and 2 places. A couple of finishes down the page left him in fourth place, not too bad in a large Fleet and in those conditions

The next group was headed by Phillip Hetherington. Following were Geoff Lucas and Peter Close with a win each and Terry Hey, having all his finishes in the top half.

Congratulations to Brendan Hones who has joined the sailing Fleet and celebrated Race 4 with his first win. I can see more to follow there.

Race winners were Noel McPherson 3, Graham Brown 2, Rob Lowndes 2, Geoff Lucas 1, Peter Close 1, and Brendan Hones 1.

Noel McPherson took the honours for the day to win 1st place on 22 points.

Robin Tickner finished in 2nd place on 26 points.

Graham Brown finished in 3rd place with 27 points.

 The Club Championship now has Graham Brown in front from Phil Stevenson and Peter Close. Our next Sail day is Thursday 15th for a Scratch Event.

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