What promised to be a steady east 10knots didn’t eventuate for Championship Race. A wise call to amend the course to suit the light winds and strong outgoing tide sets a precedent for avoiding our dreaded green marker (Yay, I hear the skippers say).
A short start line appeared to be a reaching start with a light SE wind; however, with the strong outgoing tide dominating the wind, it was a work over the line.
Great start from Kate on Bluey with Debie on Flying Dragon doing a lap around the start boat. Monique on Rolling Stone, getting caught up with Lex and Guy on the line, saw the fleet away. The pacers avoided the crush.
The fleet bunched up for the first two legs, and a drop in pressure on the third leg against the tide split the fleet in two. Seamed like hugging the shore did not pay off this time, with a little more pressure favouring the fleet east of the cardinal marker.
Once around the upstream marker, what appeared to be a downwind leg turned to a shy reach with the speed of the outgoing tide impacting the apparent wind. Certainly challenging conditions. Matt and Family on Monopoly and Kate on Bluey lead the fleet.
Pacers P6 (Adam and Gail) and Fletcher stayed much the same distance apart all race with a great leg three from Fletcher.
Five Corsairs were amongst the fleet on Sunday the 19th of February on a very challenging day on the Tweed River. A boat ramp and car park that was not dissimilar to a state of origin night at Lang park and a light easterly breeze a run-out tide and a heap of fresh water still running towards the ocean after Tuesday’s big rain tested everybodys skill set.
Crossing the line at what appeared to be the favoured pin end was Mark in Keenas and Craig in the Gidget, and both looked to be off and running from the start, while a bunch of Lasers and Pacers were exchanging blows and fibreglass at the boat end of the start. The kids on Monopoly declared that they didn’t want any part of that and suggested to start a little after the gun had fired would be sensible. These proved to be wise words for such youngsters, and Monopoly led the fleet at the first mark.
Up the first long work, the crew of Gidget rewrote the rule book and sailed inside the danger mark near the golf course, declaring later, “I didn’t want to tack”, meanwhile Monopoly was able to get to the top mark first and once they had turned with the tide established an unassailable lead and were never crossed in a gruelling two lap Race.
The sporadic appearance of Gidget this season means that Guy and his crew on Squirtle and the always keen crew on Keenas are locked in a very close tussle overall for second place in the Club championship with only one race to sail before the trophys are handed out.
Gidget hung on to second place while Squirtle closed the gap overall to Keenas by finishing third with Keenas and the team on Exhale coming in fourth and fith respectively.
A special thanks to Dave Robinson who bravely went where no man had gone before and laid a course that allowed the sailors to sail inside the infamous Green mark.
Words by Dave Robinson and Matt Andrews