Above: Mongoose (03) and Dark Horse (335) enjoying the sunny spring day.
It was a quiet start to the 2018-9 season of sailing off the beach at Coila Lake, with only two boats competing. Veteran Quickcat Bulgoo Racer also came out of retirement, but her new skipper Deb Keeley postponed her debut due to injury and kindly helped out instead with race management.
The competitors enjoyed beautiful sailing conditions with sunshine and light-to-moderate easterly winds, and sailed two simple triangular courses, avoiding capsizes into the still chilly water. Both races followed the same script. The F14 Mongoose (Rick Marsden) won the start and progressively pulled away from the Taipan Dark Horse (Mark Barraclough) over each leg of the course. So the results were simple:
Race 1 on Yardstick: (1) Mongoose (2) Dark Horse
Race 2 on Yardstick: (1) Mongoose (2) Dark Horse
Race 1 on Performance Handicap: (1) Mongoose (2) Dark Horse
Race 2 on Performance Handicap: (1) Mongoose (2) Dark Horse
Next racing day will be on Sunday 14 October, competitors should be ready for a briefing at 11:30am and a start at 12:00 noon. For more information, see website https://www.bbsc.org.au/Off-the-Beach.
