Boats racing on Saturday had to make their way through a large red algae bloom in and outside Batemans Bay Skippers reported boats slowed as they moved through the thick soup-like water. Instead of the usual burbling sound of water running along the hull, crews heard a distinctive 'glug, glug, glug'. Still, it was a good day for Xanthia (PHC) and Attitude (AMS) sailing the first Coastal Cup of the summer. Hobo sailed the Tollgates Classic course solo so deserved her points.
Sunday saw four catamarans sailing off-the-beach at Coila Lake. We had good (if variable) winds building through the day just as BOM had forecast. In the first race, No Name yet (Maricat 4.3) mastered the wind shifts to win from Dark Horse (Taipan 4.9) and Tradewind (Windrush 600). Bulgoo Racer (Quick Cat), with its novice crew, was in with a chance until it decided to take some core samples of Coila mud with its masthead. In the second race of the day, Tradewind had a great spinnaker run and took the race. The day finished with a warming gourmet sausage sandwich
