Perhaps because there was a strong wind warning (in actuality about 15kn), OK’s are still in Queensland and Sabres were doing other things, but we had only 5 boats on Saturday. Actually the true reason is probably that it was your scribe’s turn to set the course and act as Race Officer. In the past this has led to practising different sorts of starts, like the Rabbit start and the infinite starting line start, but this year your scribe wanted something practical and useful to him. He has noticed that he can keep up on works but all seem to run away on reaches. Accordingly, so he could practice, a short course was set that featured a couple of hundred yards of beating and then a reach and then another reach with a short beat to the finish. Most of you will have realised that this was a useless occupation as your scribe couldn’t run and sail the race at the same time.

The fleet consisted of Radials sailed by Dave Kershaw, John Walters, Clive Humphris and Peter Creak. Division 2 was Andrew Grant and Llewellen Wishart on the 420. Andrew and Llewellen were untroubled in winning 6 Div 2 races and were usually within couple of minutes of the last Radial.

In Division 1 Peter C again proved the worth of a training session at Australian titles as he again showed the way around the course winning 5 out of the six races. His only blemish came in race 4 when he started early, had to re-start, which he did quickly, but not quick enough to catch John W and Dave K who beat him in by 13 and 1 seconds respectively. John W had a good day, coming in second in the other 5 races usually only 30 seconds behind Peter C. Clive did three races (retiring with a lost bolt at the end of the boom in race 4) with thirds in races 1, 2 & 3 and never more than 45 seconds behind the second place getter and only 4 seconds in race 2. Dave K trailed in all races (not race 3 when he bashed his arm and sat it out and race 4 when he beat Peter into second by 1 second) but never by much more than half a minute (save race 2).All in all the races were close run events as shown in the handicap adjusted results which featured a draw in race 5 between Peter and John (with Dave 3 seconds after them).

Thanks go to Anne’s brother Peter who assisted the scribe by dropping markers and pulling them up again and putting up flags and taking them down as your RO did serious thinking stuff (and got the flags wrong for race 1). Glen and Peter Viney were on Dennis Jones and put the RO’s thoughts into practical solutions. Alex and Anne kept a watch and times from the tower and passed sarcastic comments to the incredibly hard working race officers.

Coming up:

Saturday 9 March 2024
Junior L2S commences 0900-1100
Senior L2S commences 1130-1330
Club Racing 1400 Matthew Flinders Series continues

Saturday 16 March 2024
Junior L2S commences 0900-1100
Senior L2S commences 1130-1330
Club Racing 1400 Lady Nelson Cup commences