It was a great day for sailing on Easter Saturday when Batemans Bay Sailing Club held the final keelboat race of the summer season. This race was held on the Pentastar course which features a scenic excursion to all five corners of Batemans Bay. Three Jervis Bay Cruising Yacht Club boats sailed down for the race. These were the Bavaria 39 “Out of the Blue” (Paul Gooey), the Seawind 1000 catamaran “Tranquillity” (Alan Leach) and the Masrm 9.2 “Element” (Rod Chittenden).
“Tranquillity” - Photos by Terry Paton and Dave Magill.
Above: Element and Out of the Blue. Photos by Terry Paton and Dave Magill.
They were joined by six BBSC yachts ranging from the Serendipity 29 “Lollipop” (Deb Keeley) to the mighty X45 “Xanthia” (James Gardiner). It was a beautiful afternoon with a moderate sea breeze.
Race officer Dave Magill set a slightly pin end weighted start line aboard the committee vessel “Clarence the Clocker”. Most of the boats wanted to hang back at the start, allowing Dion Perrins and Kathie Blanklie’s Farr 38 “Valhalla”, which had guest helm Lachlan Brown and trimmer Steve Masterton on board, to start cleanly and lead up the first short work to the marine park middle mark. From there the boats went out to Chain Bay, Yellow Rock, Toll Gates, Wimbie Beach and Caseys Beach returning to the middle mark after each outward leg before finishing near Snapper Island. “Attitude” (Simon Byrne) tried to get past “Valhalla” on the reach back from Chain Bay but couldn’t break through to leeward. Meanwhile “Tranquillity” was going to windward surprisingly well and getting some good speed up under spinnaker on the running legs. “Out of the Blue”, “Element” and “The Shed” (Ron Spelman) had a close race all the way around the course with “North Star” (John Drummond) not far behind.
Click image for larger and caption - Photos by Terry Paton and Dave Magill.
“Valhalla” scored a convincing line honours/PHS win. “Attitude” was first on AMS while in Division 2 it was “Lollipop” all the way. Full results are up on the BBSC website www.bbsc.org.au .
