The summer seems to be looking up with a second sailing day in a row held in summer conditions with a breeze not too much and not too little but just right. Actually I am cheating a little here and not counting the intervening weekend sail to the White Lady which some did while the scribe visited the Otways and contracted leaches. (Anne and Andrew did, the rest missed the experience).

A total of 15 sailed with Div 1 consisting of OK’s sailed by Mike W, Mike H, Jamie and Richard, Laser’s sailed by John W and Manfred with Aidan in a Radial and the Tasar Committee. Division 2 had Callum in the Laser 4.7, Sabres sailed by Ollie and Tony, and Andrew and Llewellen on the 420, Steve C on the Impulse and James Dott in his Moth skiff. The racing was tight all day with the Tasar committee managing to draw ahead of the Impulse on the last leg to the finish of Div 2 race 1 and, with some neat blanketing moves, give the 420 a run for its money to the finish. Unfortunately the 420 and Impulse were doing Div 2 and the Tasar had another lap to go, but we did threaten.

The middle of the Div 1 fleet was also tight with Manfred 45.31, Mike H 45.45, John W 45.49 and Jamie 45.55 in Race 1. In race 2 John W got over Jamie by 6 seconds.

But the overall best results this week came from Aidan and Callum Simmons with Aidan leading both Div 1 races and Callum Div 2.

In Div 1 race 1 Aidan was minute up on Mike W who was a minute up on Manfred, Mike H, John W and Jamie. Richard trailed Jamie by 2 minutes with the Tasar 3 minutes behind. In race 2 Aidan was a minute up on Manfred with Mike W 11 seconds back followed by John W and Mike H. Richard was a minute and a third behind with Jamie a further minute back.

There was a similar story in Div 2 with Callum winning both races. In race 1 he was a minute up on Ollie with Tony 15 seconds behind and the 420 half a minute later 33 seconds ahead of the Impulse. Callum was again ahead in Race 2 nearly a minute up on the Impulse which was 45 seconds ahead of Ollie who led Tony by nearly four minutes. The 420 trailed by about half a minute. There was some tight racing in both races with even the normally placid Ollie suggesting that that Tony should not have tacked on his bow while they were in the zone with Ollie fetching the mark (Rule 18(3)).Tony argues that it was accidental as he slipped and even 10 years ago it would have been no problem.

All results are on the Stack Team App.

Thanks go to Race Officer Lucy who was unfortunately unable to sail so did RO instead. She was assisted by Anne’s visiting brother, Peter, while Glen was on the crash boat. Anne kept a watch and times from the tower where she was pleased to see Heather Jones and Gerhard while Julie did necessary stuff in the kitchen and began to sort out Rosters for the swim which is not far away. Oscar creak lent his expertise with computer stuff.

Coming up:

Saturday 10 February 2024
Wreck2Reef swim
Please put up your hand to assist. We will be erecting from about 8.00 in the morning on Saturday and hope to have packed up by 2.00 ish.
Later that evening will be the Bellarine Sunset Run which we support by manning a drink station. (The Sunset Run helps us out by supplying the finishing gantry and fencing so it is good to support them). We will probably run a BBQ for those supporting.

Saturday 17 February 2024
Junior L2S commences 0900-1100
Senior L2S commences 1130-1330
Club Racing 1400 Matthew Flinders Series continues