What a gorgeous day for an Australia Day Race. A few residual clouds left over from last night’s storms cleared to a perfectly clear Summer’s Day with a steady North Easterly Breeze, just what we wanted for today’s racing.
Ralph, Caroline, Barry, Ivan, David, Jim, Ken, Jack, Helene, Jackie, Denis, Jackie, Jay, Peter, Michael, Tony arrived early to get the boats rigged for today’s adventure. All rigging done to the personal satisfaction of the skippers, Ralph rowed across to pick up Charlie’s Chariot and put the buoys in so that he, Ken and Barry could be the Support people, while Pam and Bruce were carried across to pick up the Starter Boat, being the Race Starters. In the meantime, sailors Alan, Adam and Grace arrived, ready to hop into the boats when the time was right.
Sailing across to Reef Beach, where the race start was set up were: Tony and Michael in Dolly Wallis, Denis and Ivan in Woody, Grace and Jim in Alex, Juliette and Peter in ING, Adam and Helene in Vin, David and Jay in Black Swan, Jackie and Caroline in Eli D, and Alan in Clea.
This was the most exciting race we have ever had. A perfect start saw Woody fly over the start line, then choose the unpopular way to go, resulting in a 1st place for ING, a 2nd for Woody, and 3rd for Black Swan. In the second race, there was a complete change of positions, with a 1st for Eli D, a 2nd for Black Swan and a 3rd for Woody, with the rest of the boats bringing up the fleet. A count back for time taken to sail the course resulted in a series 1st for ING, a 2nd for Black Swan, and 3rd for Woody.
By the time the boats arrived back at the pontoon, were de-rigged, washed and packed away, lunch was prepared on the veranda and it was time for a debrief. Thank you so much to Pam and Bruce, Race Officers, to Caroline for organising the race, wonderful Mum’s Sally and Barbara for the fabulous lunch, and to our Support Boat Staff. Each time we race, we are more competitive, and the racing gets closer, while all of our sailors benefit from the skills learned during racing.
