Sunday brought a variety of weather to Coila, none of which resembled the forecast. Just before the scheduled start of the first race, a change blew in from the South-east, with gusts above 25 knots, which caused the race to be delayed about an hour.
We were pleased to see Alison Philip back on Koolkat for the first time this season, also Allan Rees and Dave Gibson on Tradewind, who had been honing their skills at the Wangi Wangi regatta on Lake Macquarie. Richard Dreverman on Lucy was also getting in some practice before his trip to the Laser Nationals off Devonport early in the New Year.
The nimble Laser aced the start of the race while Koolkat, dusting off a few cobwebs, gave the others a bit of a start. However she was soon duelling with Tradewind over the legs of the first triangle before pulling away by a minute or two over the later stages of the race. Meanwhile Rick Marsden on Nonameyet had taken the lead and was pulling away from everyone until a gear failure deposited him in the water to find how much it has warmed up over the past few weeks. He righted OK and continued to take line honours, but his lead over Tradewind was reduced enough for Tradewind to take the race after Yardstick adjustment, with Koolkat close in third place. The monohull Laser Lucy sailed the same course as the multi-hulls and finished in an excellent time which would have given her the Yardstick win if they were competing in the same Division.
Above: Tradewind making good use of her big red spinnaker
Above: Koolkat leads Tradewind around the bottom mark, with Lucy in the background
By the end of the race thunder was heard, the wind was dying, and it looked like a storm was rolling in, so no second race was sailed.
Division 1 Race 1 on Yardstick: (1) Tradewind (2) Nonameyet (3) Koolkat
Division 1 Race 1 on Performance Handicap: (1) Tradewind (2) Koolkat (3) Nonameyet
Division 2 Race 1 on Yardstick: (1) Lucy
Division 2 Race 1 on Performance Handicap: (1) Lucy
The next scheduled sailing day on 23 December will not take place as most folk have travel or family commitments so close to Christmas. Sailing will resume on Sunday 27 January 2019. For more information, see website https://www.bbsc.org.au/Off-the-Beach.
