Another northerly breeze, prevalent during this time of the year, faced the 12 competing yachts in last Wednesday’s twilight race conducted by Whitsunday Sailing Club. With an average 8 knots of breeze and relatively flat seas, it was champagne sailing for those involved.
First away was division 2, where Bobby’s Girl (Mark Beale) cleared the starting line at speed while the rest of the fleet were squabbling at the far end of the line. This gave Bobby’s Girl an immediate advantage of light weather specialist, Smooth Criminal (Leo Rodriguez / Iyas Shaheen) and QMS Ponyo (John Galloway). Joining the competition at the front was Reignition (Charles Wallis). As the race progressed, Bobby’s Girl controlled the race from the front, with Smooth Criminal maintaining the pressure. Ultimately QMS Ponyo joined the party, finishing just 18 seconds behind Smooth Criminal, who in turn were 37 seconds behind Bobby’s Girl. On corrected time, the honours went to QMS Ponyo.
Division 3 saw a close start, with Rossgo (Greg Hammon) just pipping Shiraz (John Cable) to take the Doyle Sails sponsored best start prize. Once the race was underway, Rossgo cleared out from the fleet to take line honours by over 2 minutes from Shiraz, with Masquerade (Tom Vujasinovic) finishing third. On corrected time, Rossgo still came out on top, with Shiraz and Norbert G (Ghigo Casalini) third.
Races continue every Wednesday from 4:30pm, apart from the Wednesday between Christmas and New Year, so 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.
By Ross Chisholm
