Round one of the inaugural IOM East coast championship got underway on the 3^rd February with competitors traveling from as far afield as Illawarra in NSW to Gladstone in Qld’s north.

The event was hosted by Lake Macquarie radio yacht club at the Grahamstown dam site in beautiful fresh water. At 10am the Eighteen competitors were summoned to the briefing by RO Mark Long with a promising 10 knot east northeast breeze.

The skippers were separated into two fleets with the winners of the seeding races being a recuperating from a stint in hospital Paul Jones With his Venti  & the ever improving Ben Taylor with his bright green V11.

Once the fleets were separated into A & B fleet race one was taken out by Brad Quiggin with his V10. The racing all day was very close with six different winners in the remaining eight races. Ten heats were completed on day one with Aaron Farrar coming home strong with two wins a second and a fifth in the final four races. Aaron & the consistent Greg Torpy were the leaders after day one.

Day two provided high temperatures & light winds with racing being postponed and the opportunity taken for an early lunch. Racing resumed mid afternoon with a white hot Gordon Maguire posting a first, second & fourth in the light south westerly. Around Two oclock the much anticipated cooling easterly breeze finally arriving with just over an hour of racing remaining.

In the end it was Queenslander Greg Torpy eventually taking out the event to an equal second Paul Jones & Aaron Farrar. The top three skippers all competing with the popular Venti design.

Greg Torpy now leads the two regatta event with round two to be staged in June at the Eagleby venue in conjunction with the Coomera Cup.

A special thanks (+ Hero of the free world badges for giving their time) goes out to Mark & Suzie Long, Ann walker, Linda Murdock, Rob Gower, Jeff Harris, Greg Mence, Chris Purkiss & Ian Craig.