A reduced fleet set sail at Fingal on Sunday, due to many boats and crews being away competing at Lake Cootharaba, north of Noosa.
16 ft 3 handed Corsairs, were represented with 2 boats, and 3 single handers. Our club performed very well with Corsair “Swell Lady” (Monique Smith, Matt Andrews and Deb Flannery) winning ahead of another Tweed Corsair “Odin” (Daniel Sieders Adrian Dokter Matt) getting second. Racing was very intense between these 2 boats, with Swell Lady winning 5 of the 6 races. The Tweed crew of “Swell Lady” are now hot prospects of winning the Australian Corsair Championships!
Back on theTweed, 10 boats and 21 crew contested the 3rd and final races of the Summer sprint series, consisting of 3 short course races.
Conditions were testing on the river with a hot gusty northerly blowing, which challenged thecrews.
Todays fleet consisted of 4 16ft Corsairs, and a 16ft Harpoon in the 3 handed heavyweight division, 2 NS14’s in the two-handed division and 2 single handed Olympicclass Lasers.
At the front it was a 3-boat race, between 2 Lasers, and 1 Aussie designed NS14.(Northbridge Senior)
Top boat today was Laser “Siesta” Gary McCrohan getting 2 firsts and a second. Pushing Gary very hard all day was second placed Laser “Vickie 2“(Maurie Meyer) scoring 1st, 2nd & 2nd. While third went to NS14 “On& Off “(Dave Robinson and son Hugh) 3rd, 2nd & 3rd.
Maurie might have managed 2 wins today but for a spectacular capsize in the second race, while Dave and Hugh in the NS14 also had their share of misfortune,hooking up a rounding mark and towing it 100 metres up the river, as well as several capsizes, Hugh said it’s was a tough, bruising day!
Mean while in the Corsairs, a very close battle was being fought, but surprise top boat today was new comers Michael & Liz Grace sailing their new boat, “One too Many” with ring in crew Nicholas Taylor. Obviously, Nicholas is a very good sailor as he led the team to score 1st, DNF (did not finish) &1st, a disastrous capsize ended their second race. Next fastest in the Corsairswas “Melita 3” (Alison Blatcher, Christine Martin and Igor Prado) 2nd,1st & 3rd, and third place went to “Capers” (Andrew Jaggers, David Berg and Tara Beth) 3rd, 2nd & 3rd
It was a tough day for top Corsair “Keenas”, with skipper Mark Reynolds missing his gun sheet hand Craig Foley who was away sailing at Southport. Mark seemed to have his mind on compliance issues and not on sailing, and took an unusual 4thplace.
New boat in the fleet a Harpoon 5.2M sailed very close to the Corsairs and was only beaten in one race by 2 seconds.
Next Race is on the 16th of December and is the last of the year. The sailing club is expecting a big and highly competitive fleet to contest the 2ndHeat of the North Coast Corsair Championship. Racing is expected to be intense.With a flooding spring tide forecast, crews will be hoping for a stiff Southerly.
All are welcome to come down to Fingal and enjoy the race and the ambiance on the riverbank.