Report and Results for BPYC Autumn Race 1, 1 March 2020
/Skippers, Crew, Club Members and Supporters
The forecast was for a warm, sunny day with a nor’easter at around 12-15 knots and little swell coming through the Heads – a perfect Sydney Harbour sailing day. When the reality followed the forecast, it seemed all there was to do was to enjoy a beautiful sail.
Then at 1115hrs, Starter John phoned to say the start boat had no steering, so no start boat available. No problem, Commodore Chris was prepared with a radio start script, all boats were notified and happy with this late change to starting procedure (thanks, everyone!).
All boats expected to sail did so, and some reported their start had been perfect, crossing the starting line exactly on time. How strange it is that this only happens when there’s no start boat.
It was great to see Clonnie racing again with the fleet – let’s hope she’s a more regular competitor, with Cap’ns Ian and Jeri. And though she wasn’t racing, Celete was also out, accompanying our fleet. Always a good competitor, let’s also hope Cap’n Alan can soon have her in racing form.
On this day, Martela was in the capable hands of Cap’n Michael and crew. Results show that they were only 50 seconds slower than Blue Sky in elapsed time. Yes, they should perhaps have been faster, but they didn’t employ the special sail set used by Blue Sky.
Course 3 had been chosen, so Manly West and Manly East were the top marks. Etesian had an Oops moment and took the Bradleys Head Safe Water Mark to Starboard rather than Port, before realising their mistake, re-tracking, and taking the SWM to Port. There were a number of dices between G-Whizz and Etesian on the way to Manly which made for an interesting passage.
Manly Yacht Club (I think) had set the start line for their dinghy races directly across the rhumb line from the Harbour to the Manly West mark. Within their rights to do so of course, but dodging dinghies added to the challenge for our skippers.
Megisti had a good race, leading from the start and never passed. Cap’n Hugh and only crew, Sam, did a great job, including flying their spinnaker.
Ah, spinnakers, now there’s a mystery. It turns out that on a J/109, the asymmetric spinnaker can be flown upside down yet still fills and gives good boat speed, so good in fact that Cap’n Carl did not politely request that it be reset, as one might have expected. How lucky he was that another club member who wasn’t even in the race happened to be on the Harbour and captured the image for posterity.
The final result was that the race was won by the smallest boat. The boat that had navigation problems with the SWM came second, and the boat that came third sailed with an upside-down spinnaker. Naturally, it was presented with its bottle of wine in the same orientation!
What a great day!
