An exciting series finale is looming for Race 8 of Sailing the Bay , Winter Series of the Batemans Bay Sailing Club, to be sailed on Saturday 4 August.
Above: “ Attitude “ winner of Race 7
After an emphatic win in Race 7 by “Attitude” an Adams 10.6 Off Shore , the placings for the series are wide open to five yachts all vying for first place and with it the Club’s Winners Shield and the Batemans Bay Marina Management prize. This eight race series has so far produced five different winners with all races closely contested.
Last Saturday Race 7, attracted seven of the ten registered boats with “Hobo” a trimaran , skippered by Peter Withington joining the race and an additional two Club boats “Farreal” and “ Aminee 3” shadowing the fleet and adding to this series increasing popularity.
The Bay delivered the weather forecast of a fine sunny day with light winds from the south west then moving in an easterly direction. At noon the horn blast saw “Horizon” cross the start line with Michelle at the helm and crew John, Jane and Pam keen to take advantage of the course and her handicap start.
The course to be sailed was Caseys Beach to Square Head to Yellow Rock to Toll Gate then finish at Caseys Beach within the 4:30pm time limit. The idea of the handicap starts is to produce a close and exciting finish for all boats. However in a light breeze where the wind vane often did a 360 degrees spin all boats were converging at the same time on the first rounding mark at Square Head. At this stage with boats laying the mark from different angles , crew were seen delving into the Rules :“right of way” !
“Eirene” and “North Star” were first around the Square Head mark then sailed to opposite sides of the course to reach the wind change from the north east that was spreading down the bay. At this point “Attitude” settled into a good beating run to Yellow Rock with “Xanthia” and “Ghoster” close astern. As the Yellow Rock rounding mark was not reached within the time limit the course was shortened. The final leg of the race was now Yellow Rock to Caseys Beach.
Above: Yachts rounding Square Head buoy.
The Bay became a colourful scene of spinnakers and gennakers as the fleet sailed the final leg. “Hobo” with new sails held off “Eirene” the previous race winner and “Horizon” battling with an oversized spinnaker while the front runners positions stayed the same with “Attitude” in the lead from the back marker “Xanthia” then “Ghoster” and “North Star”.
The winning boat “Attitude” superbly sailed in the challenging wind conditions by skipper Patrice de Caritat with crew John Reed and Jonathan “Peter” Claoue-Long won the JJs – at the Marina, prize and put their boat in contention for a series win. But there is an X-factor and a spirit to deal with !!
The next and final race of the Series is on 4 August with a pre-race Briefing at 10am at the Batemans Bay Marina . People wanting to crew are to attend this Briefing when a position will be allocated on a boat if available.
Boat entry for a single race is offered and visiting skippers and crew are most welcome. For further details please go to www.bbsc.org.au or the Notice Board at the Marina.
