It was a great weekend for sailing when Batemans Bay Sailing Club held the Platinum Blinds and Awnings Regatta on January 6th and 7th. This is the club’s main keelboat regatta for the year, so it was pleasing that a fleet of 9 yachts were entered. On Saturday there were two short races over a windward/leeward course while on Sunday the fleet completed one long race around the club’s popular “Pentastar” course. The short races represented a great test of teamwork aboard the yachts with no chance to recover if any sailing manoeuvres went wrong. The Pentastar course was more of an endurance test for crews.
On the Saturday race officer Dave Magill and his trusty sidekicks Terry Paton and Roger Rowe aboard the committee boat “Clarence the Clocker” set a true course with a pin end favoured line. “Wishful Thinking” (Andrew Bain) started at the pin but her Adams sister ship “Accolade” (Lachlan Brown) was able to hold her out beyond the port tack layline to round the top mark in the lead. “Attitude” (Simon Byrne) looked threatening until her crew was unable to get the spinnaker down in time for the leeward mark rounding. “Avior”, skippered by occasional racer Tony Sutton, had a blinder to finish close behind the much bigger Adams yachts.
In the second race “Wishful Thinking” got a great start and tacked away early so as to be on the right of way starboard tack approaching the top mark. However the left side of the course was favoured so “Accolade” and “Attitude” got around the top mark ahead of her and finished in that order. “Ghoster” (Dion Perrins) put in a much improved performance to turn the tables on “North Star” (John Drummond) despite sailing short-handed all day. In Divison 2 the trailerable trimaran “Hobo” (Peter Withington) sailed consistently while Deb Keeley’s Serendipity 29 “Lollipop” made more stately progress. “Vital Spark” (Richard Dunne) was ahead of the other Div 2 boats but only did one lap instead of two. Sometimes it pays to read the Sailing Instructions.
On Sunday “Wishful Thinking” and “Accolade” had more close racing with several lead changes around the course. On the final leg “Accolade” got her spinnaker set well before “Wishful” to pull away. “Avior” had a day to forget with multiple foredeck snafus including an upside down spinnaker hoist. The Div 2 yachts “Lollipop” and “Hobo” had an even closer race including a coming together at one stage.
At the presentation afterward the consensus was that it was such a nice day that everyone who had been out sailing was a winner. Full results are up on the BBSC website www.bbsc.org.au.
Above photos of Peter Withington’s trimaran “Hobo” and the Adams 10.6 “Accolade” (photos Alastair Brown)
