The first reasonable North Easter this season on a race day showed that a number of more experienced members of the Port Macquarie Sailing Club were either out of practice or needing more boat maintenance, and tested a lot of the newer members.
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The run out tide roughed the river up, and we ended up with only five boats finishing out of the fleet of 10 starters.
The catamaran division suffered the most.
Frank O’Rourke on Dino sailed his usual flawless race to win on both yardstick and handicap ahead of Jack Corthals on Harpic who was second despite a capsize.
Dave Winter on Spica was the first to retire due to the conditions, followed a short time later by Rob Barwick on Drift.
Tony Kuhn on Stella was going well until forced to retire when a jib cleat ripped out.
In the monohull division, Paul Robertson and Warren Sykes in Flembouyant handled the conditions easily to finish first on both yardstick and handicap.
Terry Howard in Ratz was second in both point scores, and Jane Cooper and Sharon Carney in Jupiter showed they are really starting to get their sailing skills up.
They finished third on yardstick and just missed second on handicap by one second for a third place there as well.
Stuart Symons and Allan Pogonowski in Britannia retired with a lot of water in the front tank, and Steve Bohlsen and Scott Witchard in Splash Dance were forced out in spectacular fashion when their rudder broke while flying along under spinnaker.
There will be no racing for the next two Sundays over Christmas and New Year, the next race being race one of the summer series on January 7 starting at 2pm.