Sunday saw a good turnout of eight boats including the Terminator (Peter Schwarz) and the grand lady Tradewind (Allan Rees and Dave Gibson). Terminator was back from service at the Taipan nationals, while Tradewind had missed a few weeks due to an injury. Unfortunately the weather did not oblige, a nice morning deteriorated rapidly into an ugly north-westerly wind whipping up a nasty chop on the surface of the lake, with gusts above 20 knots.
A simple windward-leeward course was set in the most sheltered part of the lake, in front of the Kyla Park hall. Even there, conditions were such that KoolKat, Mongoose and Dark Horse retired during the race rather than risk damage or injury. Tradewind was probably the most stable place to be in these conditions, she aced the start and was probably leading on Yardstick before losing time on an unfortunate excursion into the high-wind part of the lake. At the other end of the scale, the little Laser Lily (Richard Dreverman) did a great job of remaining upright in the conditions, and finished in a time that would have beaten all the catamarans if they were in the same Division. Of the Taipans, Terminator avoided any capsizes while Knockout (Rob Currall) did not, so Terminator was first over the line. However, the real triumph of the day went to the courageous crew of the Maricat Chili (Lucy and Ben Woolnough), who sailed faultlessly to be second over the line and win the race on both Yardstick and Performance Handicap.
Above: The Terminator was first over the line on Sunday
As there was no sign of conditions improving and a rain squall was approaching, an early BBQ under shelter was chosen as a better option than a second race.
Summary results were:
Race 1 on Yardstick: (1) Chili (2) Tradewind (3) Terminator
Race 1 on Performance Handicap: (1) Chili (2) Tradewind (3) Terminator
Two racing days remain to finish the season: Sunday 8 April and Sunday 15 April; briefing scheduled for 11:30am in front of the Kyla Park hall.
