Race Report - Saturday 28 February 2026

All photos by Van Allen

Sprint Racing (Sail GP Weekend)

Maxim Djura reports:

If Sail GP were a rock concert, the sprints were the opening act.

The race officers left early to assess the wind and stake out a suitable venue. There were two options: 1) take the main stage and warm up the early spectators before the F50s come, or 2) run our own rock concert in Rushcutters. After deliberations and many wind measurement measurements, we decided that conditions in Ruchcutters were just as good as between Clark and Shark Islands or in the Dardanelles. That and doubt that an F50 would hear a starboard call from a Laser motivated the race team to set a course between Garden and Clark Islands. The windward mark was between Clark Island and Darling Point, and the gates were farther west towards Garden Island.

Some sailors remarked that the wind was not stable, and indeed it wasn’t. It wildly oscillated between SE and NE, keeping both race officers and sailors on guard the entire time. The race team set the course to the average wind direction and started the first race sharply at 1 p.m. There was an equal number of boats rounding both ends of the gate in the first couple of races, but later the boat end of the gate gained in popularity.

The race committee called a couple of boats OCS in one race and many more in the next one. All the OCS boats were requested to do a penalty turn. Those who didn’t were DSQ and requested to leave that race. There were no more troubles with starts after we adjusted the gates and changed Blue Peter to a black flag.

There was a massive right shift later in the day that convinced the PRO to move the gates during a race, to the surprise of sailors, to say the least. Accidents happen.

It was impressive to see Jon Emmet chasing Healy Ryan at front of the fleet and finishing just behind him. Tim Heath finished second after Healy and first as a Master in another race. Guest sailor Neil Peters, Steve, and Hadrian got guns as first Masters, too.

The racing was run by Van Allen as CoCOTD, Mark Gray as COTD, Maxim Djura as LTRaR, and Alistair Sutherland as PRO.