It came after the realisation the software-generated handicaps didn’t always work out fair.

The race started under sunny skies with a somewhat too light southerly in the last of the run-out tide.

But as the race progressed and the tide turned, the southerly built up and weeded out a lot of the inexperienced and unfit sailors.

After the software tweaks, the digital start and timer worked flawlessly.

The catamaran division was led home by Tony Kuhn on Stella, closely followed by scratch boat, Frank O’Rourke on Dino.

Grady McNee on Zax sailed well to be next despite being a bit out of practice, and finally Dave Winter on Spica. Jack Corthals on Harpic was going well but had to retire when he became unwell.

In the monohull division, the scratch boat of Paul Robertson and Warren Sykes in Flembouyant made up their 22 minute head start to still take the win.

Simon and Elsa Gandy in Voyager were next despite a capsize, then came Terry Howard in Ratz, Allan Pogonowski and Stuart Symons in Jupiter, and Steve Couch and Peter Nyberg in Britannia.

Despite sailing well, Kelly Miller in Devocean had to pull out after the 2nd lap for an appointment at a wedding venue, Tony Walker in Deep Purple pulled out after a loose tiller extension caused a number of capsizes, and Martina Holt in Spellbound and Jane Cooper in Pineapple both pulled out after capsizes and running out of stamina in the building Southerly.

Next weekend is the first round of our sprint series races starting at midday.

There will be two sprint races before the lunch break, then three sprint races after lunch. Paul Robertson will be on duty.