2016/17 Club Marine Series Day 1 at Hobson's Bay Yacht Club
by Kate Lathouras, Yachting Victoria 6 Nov 2016 08:16 NZDT
5 November 2016
Despite winds gusting up to 30 knots, racing continued today, 5 November 2016, for Day 2 of the Club Marine Series on Port Phillip Bay. After the Race Committee received notice from the Bureau of Meteorology that the gale warning would be lifted the final notice that racing would go ahead was released.
The Race Committee were on the front foot of the conditions, reducing the scheduled two races to one, postponing the start time by half an hour and combining all division on to the one race course.
With strong winds blowing, a large swell built making the race conditions quite testing for competitors. These conditions saw only half the fleet across the combined fleets compete in today's race. The approach to racing was seen differently across the various winners in the white division.
Bruce McCraken's 'IKON' took line honours in Division 1 today along with a win in all the three divisions IRC, AMS and YV Handicapping,
"Our boat responds well to a bit a wind! We kept the full main, used a number four jib and just sailed conservatively. We were able to maintain good height and speed on the upwind enabling us to get ahead of the pack and work the shifts. We popped the kite but reduced our downwind to only one gybe" said McCraken.
Division 2 winner of today's race in both IRC and AMS, Robert Date's 'Scarlett Runner', had a number of new crew members on board so took a different approach to the conditions,
"Of seven crew members, four of them are new to the boat so safety was our top priority today. We practiced a man overboard prior to the start and when we were happy with all the safety points we focused in on the racing. We had a strong start, a good upwind and, after seeing a number of boats having trouble with their kite, chose not to use ours. We played it conservative on the downwind and it payed off!" remarked Date.
With only one boat on the water in Division 3's IRC, Bill Feore's Skipjack, won by default. They also took out second place in AMS and third in YV Handicapping and took the lead in IRC overall.
"As Hobsons Bay Yacht Club were the host we decided to support our home Club and get out sailing today. It was a great day on the water with plenty of action! Although we're racing in a mixed fleet we have a number of other S80s on the water that provide a good perspective of how we're actually doing. This wind is the top range that our boats can sail in so we took a fairly careful approach by having a reef and more than enough crew on board. This allowed us to enjoy our time on the water more. David LeRoy (PRO) made a good call to put all the racing on one course and to get us out there today – we loved it!"
The Blue Series had a similar on- water turnout with eight of the thirty boats competing on the race course. Elizabeth Meyer's 'Next Moment' took line honours six minutes ahead of the second finisher, 'Summer Wind' with Leo Cantwell's 'Magic Bullet' taking out the PHS win overall.
Overall it seemed the conversative approach paid off for most in this fiery weather. Focus now turns to race day three hosted by Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron on December 3, 2016.
Results can be found here.
For more information on the Club Marine Series visit www.clubmarineseries.com.au or follow the series on Facebook: www.facebook.com/clubmarineseries.