It was a great day for sailing last Saturday (March 14th) when Batemans Bay Sailing Club held the final Coastal race of the season. A race to Broulee and back was scheduled, but due to a forecast gale the course was shortened to a quadstar course sailed within Batemans Bay.
Race officer Dave Magill and his trusty team of Terry Paton and Roger Rowe set a start line near Square Head. From there the boats headed to the Middle Mark and hence to Chain Bay, Yellow Rock and Wimbie Beach, returning to the Middle Mark after each outbound leg before finishing at Casey’s Beach.
Six crews were brave enough to head out. Dion Perkins and Kathy Blankley aboard “Valhalla” decided discretion was the better part of valour and headed back in. At the start the light breeze was 25 knots less than forecast. However it soon came in forcing the sailors to change to smaller headsails or to tuck a reef in the mainsail.
“Accolade” (Lachlan Brown) got the early jump and was never headed, hitting 12.5 knots at one stage on her way to a race win on AMS. “Moonmist” (Tony Sutton) had plenty of weight on the rail with 8 on board. She powered around the course to finish second on AMS ahead of “Wishful Thinking” (Simon Dunlop).
On PHS “North Star” (John Drummond) took the win after a much improved performance. “Attitude” had a lacklustre day which failed to reward the commitment of her Canberra based crew.
Full results are up on the BBSC website wwwbbsc.org.au
