Report by Murray Stone:
To (mis)quote George Costanza: The breeze was angry on Saturday my friends. Like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli!
The first day of the summer sailing season started with a gradient northerly that shifted to the north north-east just before midday, holding around 15-18 knots. Pat Levy was sporting a grin so wide, if he had been wearing lipstick, he would have gotten it on his ears! By the time the start was in sequence just after 2pm, the breeze clocked 19kts and was not far from true north. It was looking magnificent.
Pleasingly, all radial sailors held their nerve and it was a clear start.
Then it all went to custard! The breeze shifted to the northwest while the Standards were in sequence. A port hand start for all and a reach to the first mark. The start crew scurried into the Jazzman to retrieve the 'N' flag to abandon the race and, to their horror it was nowhere to be found. To make things really interesting, shortly after the start, a J70 literally sailed over the top of the start mark, hooking it on their rudder and dragged it 150m south. The crew on Paul Adam raced over and managed to untangle the disaster without losing the anchor or destroying the mark. While this was going on, the crew on the Dene Bergman dashed ashore, found the 'N' flag and the race was abandoned just after most of the radials had completed a lap. By that stage, there had been a 70-degree shift in the wind direction!
Long story short, the course was reset with the wing mark becoming the top mark, the bottom mark being adjusted slightly, and a new wing mark set just south of Clark Island. We were ready for a restart by 3pm with the breeze 17kts from the WNW, gusting to 26kts.
Both the radials and standards got away cleanly and there looked to be some good racing and some downwind rides.
More custard! About halfway into the race, a storm front showed on the Sydney radar and gusts of 37kts had just been recorded at Camden (30 km to the west) ahead of the front. To make it more interesting, the breeze veered a further 60 degrees on the course and was nearly out of the southwest by the time the fleet was finishing.
Race 1 Podiums:
4.7s: 1st Benjamin Phillips; 2nd: Clifford Gates
Radials: 1st Roberto Blum; 2nd Scott Hunter; 3rd Scott Finlayson
Standards: 1st Healy Ryan; 2nd Charlie Byford; 3rd Luke Parker
Realising that the course would have to be re-laid to get another race in, and that there was a storm front coming, an executive decision was made to abandon Race 2. That decision turned out to be one of the best of the day. The storm front hit Sydney Harbour shortly before 4:30pm and recorded gusts of 55kts (102km/h). All competitors were safely off the water and largely derigged by that time.
A big thanks to the race crew of Martin Gill, Murray Stone and Gaye Rosen on the Jazzman, John Sweeny and Michael Morris on the Paul Adam, and Kerryn Smith, Daryl Lawrence and David Murphy on the Dene Bergman (RIB reserve), who were kept busy throughout the day. A big thank you to the canteen crew of Paul, Shirley, Mark Dagworthy and Tory Epworth.
