Above: Tradewind (Allan Rees and Thomas Schild) made good use of their bright spinnaker.
The new season brought a few changes to the fleet enjoying sailing off-the-beach at Coila on Sunday. Rick Marsden reverted to his weapon of choice, sailing the Maricat SuperSloop Nonameyet. Graceful lady Tradewind, now equipped with an espresso machine, made her first appearance of the season. James Gardiner loaned his Quickcat Bulgoo Racer to new skipper Deb Keeley, who sailed her competitively with Tradewind until a gust ended her day with a capsize and a swim.
For the first race, the breeze started gentle and easterly, and Tradewind aced the start and the first windward leg, but the lighter and faster Nonameyet and Dark Horse (Mark Barraclough) caught her and pulled away on the next two reaching legs. From there on, there was no stopping Nonameyet, who increased her lead on every leg to take line honours from Dark Horse.
By the start of the next race, the breeze had moved to the north-east, so the same course was sailed counter-clockwise until shortened by race officer Terry Paton after about an hour. The three competitors achieved almost a blanket start, but again Tradewind made the best decisions on the windward leg to the first mark. From there on, this time it was Dark Horse who led Nonameyet around the course to get the hooter. However, the caffeine had kicked in on Tradewind, and she sailed excellently to kept close order with the speedsters, finishing sufficiently close to win the race on both Yardstick and Performance Handicap. Results were:
Race 1 on Yardstick: (1) Nonameyet (2) Tradewind (3) Dark Horse
Race 1 on Performance Handicap: (1) Nonameyet (2) Dark Horse (3) Tradewind
Race 2 on Yardstick: (1) Tradewind (2) Nonameyet (3) Dark Horse
Race 2 on Performance Handicap: (1) Tradewind (2) Dark Horse (3) Nonameyet
Next racing day will be on Sunday 28 October, competitors should be ready for a briefing at 11:30am and a start at 12:00 noon. For more information, see website https://www.bbsc.org.au and more photos on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/batemansbaysailingclub.
