Another picture-perfect day greeted sailors for Port Macquarie Sailing Club’s Sprint Series Races 16-20 on Sunday. Two single-lap races before lunch started with nor’easterly winds of 13-15 knots, with some stronger gusts, and the tide approaching high. After lunch, a slightly longer course was set for the catamaran division and ominous-looking clouds over the mountains sapped some of the strength from the wind for the remaining 3 races, the last planned to be a two-lap race.
It was great to see a good number of Juniors on the water including Charlie and Aiden Nosworthy in a Flying Ant uniquely named “Raccoonicorn”. The duo performed well with two wins and two seconds for an equal first place overall for the day. Elsa Gandy and Zoe Copeland in Sail Fish also sailed well trading first and second places with Raccoonicorn. Drake Houghton in Yang, and Oliver Houghton in Yin followed in 3rd and 4th place overall.
In the monohull division Terry Howard in Ratz performed best over the day followed by Warren Sykes in Runamuck who was seen to take a rare swim in one race. Tony Walker in Deep Purple followed next after some mainsheet problems in race 1. Next was Martina Holt who came to grief in the fourth race and was unable to right Spellbound and get back inboard. Runamuck and Ratz didn’t finish that race as they tried to assist. In fact, it was a surprise to see Spellbound and Runamuck return to the beach with different skippers. Simon Gandy and Kieran Copeland in Flying Fish were 5th overall and took the win in race 4, celebrating with a capsize right on the finish line. Rounding out the fleet were Andrew and Kate Copeland in Puffin and Baerin, Harriet and Joey Houghton in Britannia.
Frank O’Rouke on Dino had a clean sweep of the day with 5 first place finishes in the catamaran division. Jack Corthals on Harpic was second overall followed by Tony Kuhn on Stella. Rohan Nosworthy on Return missed the first race and in the last broke a trapeze to end up overboard with Return totally inverted. Fortunately, Return was back at the beach when the port rudder pin totally fell out avoiding any further disasters. Dave Winter on Spica and Grady and Kathryn McNee on Captain Jack brought home 5th and 6th places respectively.
Next week will be the WT Cup, held over two races starting at 11am and 2pm with a barbecue lunch in between. Frank O’Rourke is rostered on duty.
Steve Couch – Publicity Officer
0417 667 879
publicityofficerpmsc@gmail.com
