79 Bay St
Double Bay NSW 2028
Australia

The best ILCA / Laser sailing club in the world, located in Double Bay on Sydney Harbour.

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Race Report - Sunday 11 May 2025

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Winter Championship & Point Score

25 signed on and several unsigned on sailors greeted the starters for the Mother’s Day opening to the winter series. A light but fairly consistent westerly-ish breeze allowed us to get racing underway a little after out new scheduled start time. 

We held three tightly contested windward/leeward races.  Nobody was over at any of the eight starts. It was great to see eight ILCA4’s racing and they had their own starts for Races 2 and 3.  Several failed to get to the start area early enough for the first race to earn their own start.  Please see below.

Congratulations to the series leaders after Round One.  In the Winter Championships the current series leaders are Harper Spacey in ICLA 4, Roberto Blum in ILCA6 and Quentin Burns in ILCA7.  In the Winter Point Score the current series leaders are Harper Spacey in ILCA4, Brendan Pollard in ILCA6 and Sam Slattery in ILCA7.  Remarkably, each of those sailors won 2/3 races held this week.

Thanks to all the race crew for a successful day on the water.

Few takeaways for remainder of the winter series:

  1. The start is at 8:00. Winter racing MUST start on time because 

    • Winter winds often fade by 10am

    • It’s fair to those that make the effort to wake up, and 

    • It’s good practice for serious racing that always starts on time

  2. Further, as Westerlies are always fickle in Double Bay, budget on 30-40 minutes to get to the starting area. So, if you want to make the first start at 8.00, you need to be rigged and dressed prior to 7.30 and launch IMMEDIATELY after the briefing.  This week it was opening day and only because each sailor assured us they made their mum a cuppa in bed for her special day, the starter was lenient and delayed the first race by 10 minutes. But it’s only Mother’s Day once a year. You snooze, you lose. 

  3. 4.7’s will have their own start only when there’s 6 or more in the starting area (not rigging lawn!) prior to the sequence. 

  4. Don’t go wandering between races.  There shouldn’t be a delay between starts.  

  5. No sign on, or no sail # = no results.  Plus, two boats had no numbers at all. Obviously, it’s impossible to score a boat without a number.

Luke Parker - PRO

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