Don Deller Weekend Report - great sailing and great camaraderie!
/Dear Members and Friends,
Last Saturday was the annual BPYC Don Deller offshore race to Pittwater which was a very successful event.
At close to midnight Friday, the Vice Commodore and Commodore were on the phone pondering the likelihood of the Strong Wind Warning remaining current at the advertised start time. With four boats entered to start the race at 1030hrs, all were very keen for the warning to be cancelled.
The Commodore set up a Skippers Briefing (by phone conference) for 0730hrs and all skippers attended, glad to hear that the warning was indeed cancelled for both Sydney Enclosed Waters and Sydney Coastal Waters.
The Starter had a minor mishap (distracted, I believe) such that the 10 minute warning was "botched" although correctly called the 5 minute warning and 1030hrs start signal. Starfire crossed the line approximately 10 seconds after the signal followed by Blue Sky, Samphire (SASC) and G-Whizz.
Strangely, as is often the way, after a Strong Wind Warning which was current all Friday and Friday night, the breeze was rather light offshore and from the SE. All boats did a great job in the conditions to complete the race in less than 3hrs 40mins.
Coming around Barrenjoey Head, there was some spinnaker work that was both "beautiful" and "challenging" as the boats headed towards the finish line of Lion Island / Barrenjoey "transit". The starter was not able to get down to water level on the western edge of Barrenjoey so a vantage point was found on a rock shelf, approx 70m due North of the Lighthouse was used to line up Lion Island to take the finish times.
The delta between first and last on scratch were within 12m 30s after nearly 4 hours.
The crews had a pleasant sail down Pittwater to the RMYC marina followed by a beer and shower before socialising in the bar. A jovial dinner began around 1900hrs in the Brasserie with a great selection from the menu.
At the end of the main course, the Commodore made the presentation to the boats with the following results:
On Scratch:
1st G-Whizz
2nd Samphire
3rd Blue Sky
4th Starfire
On Corrected Time:
1st: G-Whizz
2nd Starfire
3rd Samphire
4th Blue Sky
There was one prize that is loathed. The paddle which goes to the boat most in need of some extra energy (it may come in handy one day). Carl (Blue Sky) was able to delegate the receipt of the "paddle" to his daughter Ali. I later heard that she was going to treasure it, even frame it, but there may be conflicting versions of this one...
It was a great event with the crews overnighting at RMYC before heading back to Sydney the following morning, in similar conditions although the wind freshened later in the afternoon and was from the NE rather than the prior day's SW.
In the spirit of camaraderie between clubs we warmly welcomed Chris and his crew on Samphire (SASC) join us - it was fantastic to have you with us! We hope to see more boats next year from SASC, GFS and other clubs so tell your friends to check our 2022-2023 Calendar which will be published on this after the July AGM and plan for the Don Deller 2023.
Finally, check out some more pictures from this amazing sail in our Gallery.
Regards,
Michael Jansen (Commodore)
Blues Point Yacht Club
