It was a great day for sailing last Saturday when Batemans Bay Sailing Club conducted the annual Bengello Property Services 2 Bays Race. What an epic race it turned out to be, as a stronger than forecast 25 to 30 knot sea breeze caused plenty of difficulties for the 6 strong fleet of yachts.
Race officer Terry Paton and his trusty offsider Michelle Grybaitis set a well balanced start line off Sunshine Bay. "Wishful Thinking" with guest skipper John Tracey at the helm got the best of the start but it was "Accolade" (Lachlan Brown) which led narrowly after a short work up to the Marine Park Middle Mark. From there the boats headed off on a broad reach to Black Rock followed by a run to a turning mark off South Broulee.
The "Accolade" crew were the only ones brave enough to set a spinnaker and after a few round ups got the boat travelling at up to 16.4 knots to surge past "Wishful", which was sailing more sensibly under a poled out headsail. "Wishful" headed off towards Moruya seemingly unaware of the supplied GPS coordinates of the South Broulee mark, allowing "Accolade" to take a substantial lead, although she gave two minutes back when a headsail sheet became undone.
The fleet then sailed around Broulee Island to a second turning mark off North Broulee before starting the long work back to the finish line off Caseys Beach. "Wishful", well steered by former Australian Flying 15 Champion Tracey, gradually wore down Accolade's lead particularly when the latter took a lot of water on board and became very overpowered under reefed main and #3 headsail. At Black Rock "Wishful" tacked inside "Accolade", clearing the rocks by the proverbial biscuit toss and went on to claim line honours (and the AMS win) by 15 seconds after nearly 4 hours of racing.
"Attitude" (Simon Byrne) on her first coastal race in nearly 3 years finished well back but still ahead of the Farr 1020 "Moonmist" (Tony Sutton). The conditions were more suited to the three BBSC Adams 10.6 sister ships than the more all round Farr designed yacht. "Sail La Vie" (John Drummond) finished over an hour behind the leaders but still won on PHS from "Accolade" and "Wishful Thinking" thanks to her continued improvement. Meanwhile the crew on "Cool Change" (Richard Dunne) wisely called it a day approaching Broulee and motored back.
Thanks must go to Andrew Bain for setting the Broulee turning marks and to long term race sponsor Simon Lowth of Bengello Property Services.
Wishful Thinking steaming down the coast (photo taken from aboard Accolade by Lara Phillips)
Sail La Vie and Moonmist (photo Terry Paton
Cool Change (photo Terry Paton)
Attitude and Wishful Thinking (photo Terry Paton)
The Attitude crew before the race (photo Lara Phillips)
Accolade just crosses Wishful Thinking approaching Black Rock (photo Greg Robson).
