It was a great day for sailing when Batemans Bay Sailing Club held a Bay Cup race on Saturday. After several cancelled races due to lockdowns and bad weather, this was only the second Bay Cup race of the season.
Six yachts went out to greet race officer Terry Paton and his trusty sidekick Steve Masterton aboard the committee vessel "Dave Magill".
They set a boat end favoured line which led to some crowding at the start, but the fleet got away without any major argy bargy. From the start line near Square Head, the boats worked up to the Wimbie Beach mark and then ran back to a laid mark near Square Head via a wing mark at the Toll Gates. The second lap was a windward and return leg to the Wimbie Beach mark and back. This turned out to be a true course for the 8 to 12 knot southerly breeze.
"Accolade" (Lachlan Brown) got the best start and showed some good upwind speed and height to lead from start to finish. "Moonmist" (Tony Sutton) and "Wishful Thinking" (John Tracey) had a close tussle until "Wishful" had some spinnaker trouble at the Toll Gates mark and dropped back. James Gardiner and the "Xanthia" crew were cautious about deploying her big asymmetric spinnaker so she didn't do as well as her last outing. The predominantly Canberra based crew aboard "Attitude" made a welcome comeback, but they were still looking for their mojo and finished well back. At the finish the smallest boat in the fleet, the S80 "Avior", (below) was close behind the Adams 10.6 "Attitude". This was a terrific effort by Peter Paterson who was sailing "Avior" single handed. After nearly three hours sailing, "Avior" ended up winning on PHS by 10 seconds from "Accolade" with "Moonmist" a further 50 seconds back. Full results are up on the BBSC website www.bbsc.org.au .
The next BBSC keelboat race will be the 3 Bays coastal race on April 9th.
