Port Macquarie Sailing Club hosted NSW Tasar Association’s TT3 regatta (Travellers Trophy) on the weekend, as well as race six of the club’s summer series on Sunday afternoon.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Saturday’s races were run under sunny skies in a building north-easter and a slowing run-in tide.
By the time the second back-to-back race was run, many of the crews had had enough, so the third race was held off for Sunday.
The breeze had eased to a lightish easterly for the Tasars’ three short back-to-back races in the run-in tide at midday on Sunday.
A passing storm killed off the dying breeze during the afternoon’s club race which prevented a number of boats from completing the course.
The Tasar TT was won by local crew Paul Robertson and Warren Sykes in Slam Dunc after a close tussle all weekend against second place Kerry Fyfe and Michael O’Brien in Faking Clever from Woollahra Sailing Club.
Chris Parkinson and Mel Benson in Agamemnon From Speers Point were third, then came Malcolm Handel and Beatriz Calvete in Something Cool from Northbridge.
Simon and Phil Gandy in Voyager and Stuart Symons and Jeff Walsh in Big Bang both from Port Macquarie followed.
Local boat Big Bang won on handicap ahead of Agamemnon, Voyager, Slam Dunc, Faking Clever, Something Cool, Elmo, and Baxon Baxoff.
With a number of club members busy with the Tasars and others less than impressed with the windy outlook, only a small fleet contested the club’s race six of the summer series.
Tony Kuhn on Stella was the only catamaran to complete the shortened course for that class, gaining both yardstick and handicap points after Jack Corthals on Harpic pulled out in the dying breeze.
The only boat to complete the full course was Elmo in the monohulls.
Simon Gandy, now with daughter Elsa as crew in Voyager, had arranged to only do one lap and have his lap time multiplied as he had to leave early for another commitment.
Because the breeze was dying, everyone was interested to see whether Elmo was still going to be fast enough to get the win, and they did just make it by 36 seconds.
Tony Walker in Deep Purple and Sharon Carney and Steve Couch in Jupiter succumbed to the dying breeze and did not finish. Elmo also beat Voyager on handicap.
Next weekend is the Harold Dick Memorial marathon starting at 11am.
The race will start at the club, round a mark off the Town Green about midday, then sail to a mark at the Pacific Highway before finishing back at the club.
Ron Apps is rostered on duty.
