Despite the forecasted light winds, a steady breeze kicked in for the 9 yachts that turned out for the first race of the winter series.
While we are on the subject of breezes, it has been noted for some time that the breeze regularly seems to die away as the afternoon progresses and that has a huge disadvantage to the yachts at the rear of the fleet. This weekend was an example of that with the last 3 boats only having the incoming tide to get them to the line. As a consequence of that I propose to start races an hour earlier at 11 am on race days.
As per usual, race day had its share of dramas, The first Mate on Kilmarnock forgot to duck and coped the boom across his head, losing his expensive prescription lenses overboard in the process and bleeding profusely until his skipper provided him with a turban to stem the flow and a pair of $2 glasses from the warehouse that managed to restore his vision enough to go on. This was before the race even started. But hold everything, that was not all that befell the victims sailing Kilmarnock, when rounding Shag rock in close company with Dec Sun, an errant wave got hold of a corner of the spinnaker in the bag tied to the pulpit and dragged most of it overboard. The subsequent retrieval of this untimely drogue set them back quite some distance. Rumour has it that they should have joined Libby for the day, which never raised a sail in anger. Dawn Song got a little tear in her foresail, hardly worth mentioning by comparison.
To the achievers, Trifecta took line honours by 27seconds from Special FX, followed by Wright One, Dawn Song, Dec Sun, Anitra, Kilmarnock, Focal Point, and the dying or dead wind left Moon Shadow with a DNF. Handicaps are a different story, Congratulations to Anitra for a first.
