Race Report - Saturday 29 November 2025
Steven London
Spring Point Score, Race 11
Hardest part was getting out of and into Double Bay…
PRO Alistair Sutherland reports:
Saturday the 29th of November saw only a handful of DBSC regulars brave enough to face up to the North Westerly that ripped through in the morning. By the time the briefing finished, and the Race Team got back on track, we found it had shifted to the West and slacked off to a pleasant 15 knots. After a hurried adjustment to the course, we got both Full Rigs and Radials/4.7s away in good order with the fleets executing near-perfect starts - powered up, on the line, and starting with speed without being over early. Unfortunately, a large cloud to the south of Double Bay decided to start raining just after the start, the result being a massive left shift of 90 degrees that saw the two windward leeward legs become more a reaching procession. Everyone enjoyed a bit of high-speed reaching and most of the fleet managed to finish okay, allowing the Race Team to wait patiently for the cloud to clear and the Westerly to re-establish. And re-establish it did - in the lulls of 20 plus knots most competitors could keep sailing OK, but we had bullets of 35 knots coming through which made Laser racing somewhat impractical. By this point the Jazzman was drifting backwards on the anchor at an alarming rate of knots, and we went looking for the abandon-all-hope-and-head-for-shore flags. With two response RIBs and the Jazzman on the water, everyone got back to shore safely with yet another war story under their belt.
Winners (on handicap):
ILCA 6 (1st, 2nd, 3rd): Chris Tattersall, Kirk Marcolina, Scott Hunter
ILCA 7 (1st, 2nd, 3rd): Hadrien Bourley, Geoff Boscoe, Stephen Reid = Grant Lovelady
In the ILCA 4, only Julian Doumit finished (ahead of most of the 6’s - Ed.)
Thanks to the on-water teams of Alistair Sutherland, David Airey on Jazzman, with Mark Dagworthy, Masa Kume, Katie and Craig Ryan doing duty in the RIBs. Paul and Shirley in the canteen were ably assisted by Scott Finlayson. Daryl Lawrence was our handicapper.
Only a few photos this week (all thanks to David Airey), as our on-water team had their hands full!
