It was a great day for sailing when Batemans Bay Sailing Club held the second Bay Cup race of the season last Saturday. After a run of ordinary weather Saturday was a gorgeous sunny day promoting a light to moderate sea breeze. Six yachts went out including Bev and Dickie Dunne's newly acquired North Shore 33 "Cool Change" and John Drummond's Hanse "Sail La Vie" which was making a return to competitive sailing after a cruising hiatus.
Race officer Terry Paton and his trusty offsider Andrew Bain placed the startline near Yellow Rock. This brought some of the yachts competing in the CYCA's Tollgate Islands Race out of Sydney Harbour into view as they rounded the Tollgates. Representing BBSC in this race was Tony Sutton who was sailing the J/99 "Rum Rebellion" with Shane Connelly in the 2 handed fleet. They went on to finish a commendable third in their division.
"Attitude" (Simon Byrne) got the best start just ahead of "Accolade" (Lachlan Brown) at the boat end. A backing shift on the short work to the Yellow Rock allowed "Attitude" to tack onto port and cross ahead of "Accolade" and lead around the top mark. Meanwhile, the remainder of the fleet was tightly bunched to the extent that when "Wishful Thinking" (Simon Dunlop) tried to tack away she came into contact with "Moonmist" (Robin Davey) and then "Sail La Vie". "Wishful" damaged her bow prodder but fortunately the other boats were unscathed. "Wishful" acknowledged fault and did her penalty turns as required by the Racing Rules of Sailing.
Meanwhile "Attitude" led on the reach to the Tollgates Mark, got her spinnaker up first and held the lead to the leeward mark at Denhams Beach. On the second work to Yellow Rock, "Attitude" made a couple of small navigational errors allowing "Accolade" to get past. Meanwhile "Wishful" was able to fly her asymmetrical spinnaker off the bow roller and keep pace with the leaders on the downwind legs.
"Accolade" went on to finish 50 seconds ahead of "Attitude" with "Wishful" a further 3 minutes back. On PHS it was all about "Attitude" showing a welcome return to form. Second was "Sail La Vie", which also scored a convincing win in the non spinnaker division. Third was "Cool Change". Full results are up on the BBSC website www.bbsc.org.au
Above: Sail La Vie
Above: Cool Change
Above: Attitude
Above: Accolade Photos by Terry Paton
