Sunday was the Port Macquarie Sailing Club’s first double header for the season, with race two of the spring series in the morning and the first club championship race in the afternoon.
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The morning southerly breeze was extremely patchy, with more dead patches than breeze which, combined with a fast run-out tide, made racing almost impossible.
The afternoon race was started with much trepidation, but the southerly picked up to a reasonable breeze to allow some good runs and a quick race in the sunny conditions.
The start of the morning race was delayed while waiting for the wind to kick in, and finally a start countdown was commenced, only to see the light breeze die again.
After a half hour struggle against the tide, Jack Corthals on Harpic finally got a big enough puff to be the first boat to get across the start line and around the course to take the yardstick win for the catamarans.
A little while after Harpic finished, Rob Barwick on Drift also managed to get a puff to allow him to get around the course.
Scott Witchard on Hummer never got to the start line in the frustrating conditions.
If the catamarans had a frustrating morning, the monohulls had it even worse.
Stuart Symons and Steve Couch in Jupiter managed to get around the course after well over an hour after the start time.
The rest of the monohulls consisted of Simon and Dale Gandy and Paul in Voyager, Jane Cooper in Pineapple, Peter Nyberg, Jaiden Burke, and Peter in Britannia.
Then Tony Walker in Deep Purple just could not make headway against the tide to be able to get to the start line.
Caitlyn Hicks also had a frustrating time going for a first sail in her boat Nesryn.
The afternoon’s first club championship race for catamarans was sailed in a reasonable breeze, although the course was still short as there was much doubt that the breeze would kick in.
Frank O’Rourke on Dino was first home on yardstick, followed by Tony Kuhn on Stella, Harpic, and Drift.
The yardstick winner in the monohull division in the afternoon race was Terry Howard on Ratz, ahead of Jupiter, this time with Steve Couch on the helm, who in turn were only 11 seconds ahead of Pineapple, and finally, Britannia who now had Imogen Archer crewing for Peter Nyberg.
Next Sunday is race three of the Spring series starting at 1pm and Dave Winter is rostered on duty.
