The Port Macquarie Sailing Club held their marathon race on Sunday in what started as a nice north-easter.
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It helped for the first half of the race down from the start line at the sailing club, but died out in the second half of the race up to the Dennis Bridge with a few of the last boats needing a tow home as the breeze died right out.
The run-in tide that had helped in the run back up river became a problem as the boats tried to get back down river again to the finish line at the sailing club.
The race saw the single-handed boats and the smaller boats start at 12.15pm and the two-handed boats and the cats started at 12.30pm.
Frank O’Rourke on Dino managed to find the puffs in the later stages of the race to finish 20 minutes on yardstick ahead of the next boat.
The next boat was Paul Robertson and Warren Sykes in Flembouyant who were only 40 seconds ahead of third placed Tony Kuhn on Stella.
Next was Martina Holt in Spellbound, Terry Howard in Ratz, Simon and Elsa Gandy in Voyager, Robert Barwick on Drift, and Dave Winter on Spica.
Peter Nyberg and Jayden Bourke in Jupiter finished after doing only the bottom half of the course, as did Grady, Lizzy, and Gus McNee in Better than Ballet.
As the wind died out completely, the safety boats had to tow home Jane Cooper in Pineapple, Steve Couch in Rainbow, and thanks to not keeping low enough in a gybe, a very sore headed Steve Bohlsen with Ed Molony in Splash Dance.
Next Sunday is the third round of the sprint series races.
Jeff Walsh is rostered on duty.