It was a great day for sailing when Batemans Bay Sailing Club held the annual Kosciuszko Cup on Saturday. True there were periods of precipitation but these did not dampen the spirits of the four crews competing nor those of the committee boat crew consisting of race
officer Andrew Bain and his trusty offsiders Terry Paton and Steve Masterton.
From a start/finish line near Snapper Island the boats ran downwind to the Square Head mark before a fetch out to the Toll Gates mark, a run down to the Yellow Rock mark and a port tack reach back to the finish. The SSE breeze was gusting up to 20 knots at times but then dropped out to less than five knots for a while in the middle of the race, testing everybody's patience.
"Moonmist" (Tony Sutton) sailed a clean race to claim line honours while "Accolade" (Lachlan Brown) fluffed it due to being unable to find the first mark. "Xanthia" (James Gardiner) was close behind, sailing well after being up on the slip during the week. The best performed on the day was "Avior" whose skipper Peter Paterson had Commodore Simon Dunlop crewing. She hung in well with the bigger boats to score a popular victory.
The next BBSC keelboat race will be the inaugural Beneteau Cup on Saturday 26th Feb. This event will hopefully include some of the cruising yachts which predominate in Batemans Bay.
