Invented in 1883, there’s Reversi and Anti Reversi, both two person games where strategy becomes critical from the first quarter but with the object of the game flipped.  In normal format mixed fleet yacht racing starts are no quarter given or asked affairs. Strategic starting is important in that races can often certainly be lost at the start and occasionally won on the back of a good start.  Pursuit racing flips to anti “normal racing”, where between little and no strategy is required at the start, with each yacht starting at its individual time anywhere on a likely clear start line, then clear sailing lanes and yachts strung out along a course before coming together close to the finish when strategy comes into play with lane blocking, gassing opponents, and uncompromising racing calls, as yachts scramble to be first over the line.

PMYC likes to provide variety so it was last weekend a pursuit format event was held with yachts sailing from Port Macquarie to Laurieton. Slower yachts started a little over an hour in advance of the quicker vessels. The five yachts started with Frank Lagudi’s Third Man first to depart followed by Teddy Clausen’s Cool Change,  then Razamatazz 2, sailing with owner Kevin Brown onboard, Adrian Du Vernet’s Kookaburra 2, with an all female crew, with Andrew Walmsley’s Enticer at the tail of the pursuit a little over an hour after Third man. 

Being a “social event”, so long as yachts started reasonably adjacent to their allocated time and started timers as the crossed the start given the vagaries of the weather a close finish was assured. 

After the start yachts sailed their preferred sailing lanes concentrating on optimising performance without interference from other yachts. With distances of up to a kilometre separating each yacht at the start by Grant’s Head yachts had bunched up and with the finish line in sight and it was game on. 

Third Man which still led,  failed to lay Grants Head, and had to tack out to sea and away from the finish. Cool Change which was further out to sea had a clear lane to the finish and made up significant ground on Third Man, but was unable to overtake that yacht.  Kookaburra 2 which had trailed Razamatazz 2 managed to lay Grants Head, while Razamatazz2 had to tack out to sea, losing ground and being overtaken by Kookaburra 2. Enticer  took the starting instructions literally starting a few minutes after its nominal start time and consequently could only watch the fun ahead of her. 

After Razamatazz 2 tacked back towards the finish Kookaburra 2 sailing more inshore took the lead and appeared to be first across the line although without an official finish official Razamatazz 2  might also have claim to first over. No dispute with the following yachts in order being Third Man, Cool Change with Enticer finding a clear lane to the line and being the final yacht to finish.

Yachts moored overnight at the Laurieton United Services Club courtesy jetty with crews meeting later for dinner at that club. With it being a social event, several crews adjourned to the moored boats for post dinner drinks and post mortems.

With the following day’s event being abandoned due to the wind conditions, the only confirmed result foe the weekend was the handicap result which saw Kookaburra 2 taking first place from the consistent Third Man, with Cool Change in third place.