Race 6 Spring Series 2017 - Report and Results

There’s no doubt that this is a beautiful time of the year to be racing on Sydney Harbour.  Last Sunday we had sun, fair winds at around 12 knots (with a couple of holes to test skippers and crews), and few other fleets to dodge.  An exception to the latter was a fleet of Lasers near the Manly West mark, and one particular gambler on Port tack who chose to pass across the bow of One Mo’ Time that was on Starboard tack with what must have been only about a metre to spare.

I guess the only downside was that in Race 6 spinnakers weren’t set by anyone due to the course and wind direction, but those with reduced crew numbers were even grateful for that!

Yachts on sub-20 minute handicaps (Celete, Megisti Blue, Breva, Sapphire and Crooz) cleared out early and most were around Manly East mark before the bigger boats (One Mo’ Time, Blue Sky and Martela in that order) even had a chance to catch them.  This is, of course, how it should be in a pursuit race. 

The downhill leg proved more challenging with different boats in the lead at different times.  Sadly, I can’t report in detail on this, as I wasn’t on one of them, but I understand the two challengers for first place had a particularly gripping final few metres.

The results for the first four yachts finishing tell the story of the closeness:

Megisti Blue (handicap 9 mins) came in first, beating Celete (handicap 0 mins) by 10 secs;

Celete beat Crooz (handicap 16 mins) by 1 min 46 secs;

and Crooz beat Blue Sky (handicap 33 mins) by 1 min 40 secs.

So in summary: a great day, close racing, and as usual, a good post-race get together at our “clubhouse”, the Blues Point Hotel.