An incredible weekend at Canberra Yacht Club , with over 100 boats competing
in the ACT Dinghy Championships. A near perfect forecast, and good reports
from last year’s event spurred on the registrations leading into the
weekend, making in one of the biggest regattas in the club’s recent years.
The fleet was made up of decent numbers of the usual suspects; Sharpies,
Lasers and Spirals, but this year was bolstered by travellers from the RS
Aero’s, Heron’s and Mirrors, with Pacers, Sabres, 2.4’s, NS14’.
A huge thanksto all of the volunteers for their efforts. In particular Gerry Brooks was
the PRO for the event and took full advantage of the conditions to keep the
fleet punching through the races with minimal delay. Congratulations to all
who competed, check out the results here and photos on facebook here (thanks
to the amazing Andy MacDonald for the incredible shots and narrative this
album shows of the Saturday’s racing!)
It was disappointing to have only three Flying 15s racing, but, as Mark
Holmes said to me, it is better to be seen than not seen – and what
wonderful conditions we had to show off the Flying 15 at its best, with the
breeze gusting to 46kph on the Saturday and 37kph on the Sunday. We had
three short races on each day, starting at the prescribed time of 1pm and
10am. The average elapsed time for the six races was about 40 minutes. We
raced in a general division for boats with a yardstick of 106 to 109 that
had insufficient numbers to make up their own class. Our main competitors
were the Tasars and NS 14s.
In the division, Craig Rainey skippered Mark Holmes’ boat, with Mark as
crew, finished second overall on yardstick. Peter Forster & , Will were fifth
overall, with Matthew Mitchell and crew, Chris, in sixth place. The ACT
Flying 15 championship was based on those results. Craig/ Mark won four
heats and were second in one, Peter and Will won two heats and had a second and
a couple of thirds (Craig/Mark opted not to sail in the final heat,
preferring, sensibly, to spend the time packing up their boat prior to
driving home to Paynesville, Lake Macquarie, respectively.)
I have to say that I was tired after the weekend – and I have a case of
gunwale bum! – but I was pleased to be fit enough to attend an 80th birthday
dinner on the Saturday night for one of our longtime members, Graham Giles.
A belated happy birthday from us all Graham!
And, after the racing session on Saturday, we had our AGM. In the absence
of any other nominations Peter Forster was re-elected President, Bruce as Treasurer and
Matthew and Paul as committee members.
