The Beagle
Apr 12, 2018
While numbers were down in Div 1 on Sunday due to other commitments for a couple of our regular sailors, Div 2 attracted the Spiral Humbug (Lachlan Brown). Humbug has just returned from loan to another colleague to win the Spiral Nationals.
The course for the first race was a scenic one into the back lake, starting in a gentle SE breeze. However a shift to the NE turned it into a boring course, and the race was shortened. Humbug won the start, but by the first mark she had been overtaken by the faster catamarans with Mongoose (Rick Marsden) in the lead. Over the first lap, Knockout (Rob Currall) drew level but then became engaged with the top mark with unfortunate consequences which put paid to her challenge. So Mongoose took line honours, but KoolKat (Alison Philip) had been travelling very well and won the race on both Yardstick and Performance Handicap.
The second race was a conventional triangle-and-sausage course, with the breeze still light and easing further, so it was pretty slow. Again the nimble Humbug aced the start, but amongst the catamarans it was Mongoose all the way.
Summary results were:
Div 1 Race 1 on Yardstick: (1) KoolKat (2) Mongoose (3) Knockout
Div 1 Race 1 on Performance Handicap: (1) KoolKat (2) Mongoose (3) Knockout
Div 2 Race 1: Humbug
Div 1 Race 2 on Yardstick: (1) Mongoose (2) KoolKat (3) Knockout
Div 1 Race 2 on Performance Handicap: (1) Mongoose (2) KoolKat (3) Knockout
Div 2 Race 2: Humbug
The last racing day of the season will be Sunday 15 April, and it will decide the series placings. Chili needs only to start one race to take out the Yardstick competition, but the Performance Handicap will go down to the wire, as only half a point separates Knockout and Chili.
Above: Benign conditions on Sunday meant that the Support Boat (Dave Magill and James Gardiner) was not troubled by sailors needing assistance