By Ross Chisholm
THE FINAL twilight race for the 2023 sailing season was billed as a lady skippers’ race, being also the final race of the 6 race lady skippers’ series for 2023.
Commencing back on International Women’s Day in March, this year has been the most successful women’s series run by the club.
For the final race, every one of the 14 boats competing in the twilight race had a female skipper.
In the first event away, Bobby’s Girl (Nichole Towers) powered away from the fleet, while QMS Ponyo (Wendy Galloway) soon retired with equipment damage.
At the first rounding mark, newcomer to the fleet Little Black Jack (Karen Evans / Darlene King) held a small lead over Bobby’s Girl, with that lead stretching to 2 minutes at the finish.
After a slow start, Smooth Criminal (Katrina Wood) worked through the fleet to finish third across the line, with Reignition (Sara Schreurs), Wide Load (Talia Hilton) and Twister (Tania Jarvis) finishing in that order.
On corrected time, Bobby’s Girl took the honours over Twister and Smooth Criminal.
The second start, for Division 3, saw Lama (Maz Weatherburn) briefly leading the fleet before being overtaken by Matchless (Lisa McCubbin), then Shiraz (Karen Cable).
Lighthorse (Anne Ross) worked their way up to third on the water, with Riff Raff, skippered by 12-year-old Airlie Frisch, close behind.
Rossgo (Mariya Koval) and Lama took the final positions on the water. On corrected time, Lama took the honours over Shiraz and Riff Raff.
With a separate set of results calculated for the Lady Skippers Series, a combined fleet result was calculated with separate handicaps deduced throughout the series, and based on the elapsed time for each boat.
Using this method, Shiraz came out on top with Smooth Criminal second and Lama third. Matchless finished fourth, giving them sufficient points to take the overall prize.
Next Wednesday sees the first race in the 2024 season, with racing commencing at 4:30. Limited crewing positions may be available.
Those wishing to participate as crew need to be at the club by 2:30 pm (limited spots available). Full results are available at https://app.sailsys.com.au/club/85/profile?tab=results.
