I look forward to this race every year. It’s a great opportunity for us old farts to share the joy of a different type of sailing with the juniors, give them a taste of sailboat teamwork racing plus give them a view of the Lake beyond the sailing club. The weather forecast, storms and up to 25 knots, made me very nervous about taking less experienced young people out. I don’t know if anyone else shared my anxiety.
Thanks to Nicholas and Frank for looking out for setting the course and looking out for us in the duty boat and Deno and his crew aboard Puffer looking out for the MJ’s.
To the race, and a very exciting one it was. Just before the start the wind veered more to the west just before the start and Frou Frou took the port tack option at the pin end of the line to cross ahead of the rest of the fleet. Now, you would imagine that the person who organises the course and who explained the course at the sailors briefing would know which way to take the first mark. So the good advantage gained at the start was squandered by Frou Frou’s skipper heading in the wrong direction around the reef mark. It did make for some fun speedy change of direction manoeuvres and a position swap.
To see Rosstered Off and Momentum ahead under spinnaker after rounding the reef mark made for a wonderful site. In fact spinnakers were flying all around us to the pleasure of our guest junior crew of Rebecca, Rachael and Aron. Rachael and Aron showed Alan, Rebecca and me how much they had learned from their year of junior sailing training. Their contribution added to Frou Frou’s successful race. I am sure there were similar stories of the juniors aboard the other TYs, monos and cats.
Thanks to all the TYs that turned up to race today including, Digger and Andrew aboard Grey Fox, Arthur and Frank aboard Bluhart and Lachlan, Tim and Maddy aboard Day 7, for making the afternoon a memorable one for our junior sailors.
Luckily the nasty weather stuff stayed away until the whole fleet was safe ashore. Hayden Sellers took some shots of a water spout that came close to the finish line that made me glad we were all off the water, unrigged and mostly under cover for the worst of it.
Results for Championship Race 6
Long Course
Place Boat Name Corrected Time
First Rosstered Off 69.35
Second Frou Frou 69.42
Third Momentum 72.99
Forth Grey Fox 77.32
Short Course
First Day 7 68.52
Second Bluhart 73.45
See you all next Saturday.
The end Trev.