While sailors were well rugged up at the start of last Sunday’s PMYC

offshore event, some skippers thoughts were further south where

Port Macquarie Sailors Fiona MacManus, Hannah Walmsley and

Alison Woolstenholme were experiencing gale force conditions while

competing in the Australian Women’s Keelboat regatta, while the

Adams 10 built, set up and sailed to multiple regatta wins by former

member the late “Jungle” Jim Howard, was still competitive amongst

the newer designs.

While our far off compatriots remained rugged up, local sailors were

able to shed layers once the north course long offshore race

commenced at the 11.30am start time. Five yachts faced the starter,

with some fielding irregular crew, due to competing interests over the

King’s Birthday long weekend. With gale force winds forecast, and

noting the prevailing local conditions were somewhat fluky and less

than 10 knots all skippers elected to sail the shorter of the two

available courses.

An uneven start exacerbated by the falling away of the breeze saw

some yachts taking up to a minute and a half to cross the start line.

Third Man running the line on starboard appeared to take the start, in

a race that following the start must have been a disappointment for

that yacht. Kookaburra 2 with Commodore Andrew Walmsley helming

was second over the line while Solar Coaster was third across.

On settling down Razzamataz 2 inched past Kookaburra 2 with both

yachts favouring the inshore option. Solar Coaster and Third Man took

a wider out course, while Cool Change elected to steer a line down the

middle. On water skillful sailing on Razzamataz 2 identified ocean

current lines and in an instant managed to take a few hundred meters

lead over Kookaburra 2 on the northerly leg eventually pulling out to

a lead of some 600 meters at the northern turning point. Cool Change

being skillfully helmed and tactically adroit was third around the top

mark, well ahead of both Solar Coaster and Third man which had

fallen well behind.

Cool Change was charmed on the return leg giving nothing away to the

two leading yachts, which finished in the same order and with the

same margins as at the northern turning mark. Solar Coaster

recovered well on the return, while Third Man must have been rueing

the one that got away after the excellent start she had. On handicap

Cool Change was the clear winner from Razzamataz 2 with

Kookaburra 2 taking Third place.

On the season leaderboard Razzamataz 2 took the lead from Cool

Change due to Sunday’s result which allowed yachts to drop a “worst

finish” result from their season points.