It was a great day for sailing when Batemans Bay Sailing Club held their second coastal race of the season. The course featured a work out to the waverider mark 5 nautical miles off the coast followed by a run down to the Marine Park mark near Black Rock, a work back around the outside of the Toll Gates and a reach to the finish off Caseys Beach. There were only three yachts racing in Division 1 being the Adams 10.6 sister ships “Accolade” (Lachlan Brown), “Attitude” (Simon Byne) and “Wishful Thinking” (Andrew Bain). The Division 2 yachts sailed a shorter course inside Batemans Bay. Deb Keeley and her crew aboard “Lollipop” scored a convincing win.
Race officer Terry Paton and his trusty crew of Rob Currall and Roger Rowe set a boat end favoured start line in the middle of the Bay. “Accolade” got the best of the start but was soon passed on either side by “Attitude” and “Wishful Thinking”. “Accolade” was well off the pace all afternoon possibly due to the prop not feathering properly. The boats had a slow work out to the waverider in a light sea breeze. Two knots of southerly current offshore did not help. Bain deployed his A game and judged the layline to the mark perfectly, while “Attitude” lost ground having to take a short hitch to round the mark. “Attitude” has been going quickly this season. She gradually wore into the lead established by “Wishful”. A couple of round ups under spinnaker near the finish proved costly. “Wishful” held on to win by 12 seconds over the line from “Attitude” with “Accolade” third some 5 minutes behind. The finishing order was the same on both AMS and PHS calculations.
The scariest part of the day was the sail from Caseys back into the marina during a thunderstorm with lightning strikes all around. The fleet all got back to the marina safely. Several of the sailors were later spotted enjoying Christmas dinner at the BBSC clubhouse
Above: “Wishful Thinking” (photo by Alastair Brown)
