It was a great day for sailing last Saturday when Batemans Bay conducted the final coastal race of the season. A fine day with a moderate sea breeze greeted the fleet of 7 yachts as they headed out. The course consisted of a work to the waverider mark 3 nautical miles off Yellow Rock via the Marine Park middle mark, a run down to the Marine Park mark off Black Rock, an upwind leg around the outside of the Tollgates, then a reach to the finish line at Caseys Beach again via the Marine Park middle mark.
Race officer Dave Magill and his trusty crew of Terry Paton and Roger Rowe set an excellent start line allowing the fleet to get away to an even start. The fleet headed left over towards Acheron Ledge before going offshore. There “Wishful Thinking” (Andrew Bain) gained a lot of ground by tacking over to Yellow Rock while the other boats went straight out to sea. It turned out that there was a strong southerly set offshore which “Wishful” was able to stay out of for longer. She led around the top mark from “Attitude” (Simon Byrne) and “Accolade” (Lachlan Brown).
Down the run positions were unchanged although “Accolade” was held up when the spinnaker fell into the water on the drop. Some unscheduled trawling ensued. “Wishful” stayed away for the win on line honours and AMS. “Attitude” was able to hold off “Accolade” by 1 second on the run in to the finish. This was a much improved performance by the “Attitude” crew giving them the win on PHS. Further back in the fleet James Gardiner and his crew had a comfortable voyage aboard “Xanthia”. “Ghoster” (Dion Perrins) had a close battle with “North Star” (John Drummond) all the way around the course to finish less than a minute ahead. In Division 2 Deb Keeley steered “Lollipop” to a convincing win. Full results are up on the BBSC website www.bbsc.org.au .
Above: the PHS winner “Attitude” (L) and AMS winner “Wishful Thinking” (R) (photo credits Terry Paton).
