It was a great day to sail last Saturday when the Batemans Bay Sailing Club held the annual Waverider Mark race. This course ran from the middle of the windward bay to the Toll Gates mark and thus to the Waverider Mark 3 nautical miles off North Head.
It was a rare sunny day with a gentle sea breeze.
A receding tide made crossing the Clyde River bass a bit tricky. Some boats engaged in a polishing of the keel when leaving. Race director Terry Paton and his trusty sidekick Steve Masterton set up an excellent starting line. “Accolade” (Lachlan Brown) and “Hobo” (Peter Withington) started on the spit while the other 3 boats, “Moonmist” (Geoff Perrem), “Wishful Thinking” (Simon Dunlop) and “Xanthia” (James Gardiner ) started at the end of the boat.
‘Accolade’ was narrowly leading to the Tollgates mark then tacked over ‘Moonmist’ to force her to tack on the right side of the course. However, “Moonmist” was coming up faster upwind and was able to return the favor near the Waverider mark. “Wishful” took a good
line into the top mark and took the lead, heading away from “Moonmist” over the wide reach to the Marine Park mark off Black Rock. “Moonmist” had fitted a rather small heavy weather spinnaker which also allowed “Accolade” to pass.
The next leg was to circumnavigate the seaward side of the Tollgate Islands before another wide ascent to the finish line off Caseys Beach. The “Xanthia” crew wisely deployed their massive asymmetrical spinnaker on the last leg to pass “Moonmist” and catch up with “Accolade”.
‘Wishful’ took a clear victory of online honors while on PHS it was the mighty ‘Xanthia’ which showed what a good light airboat it can be. In Division 2, “Hobo” won a convincing victory. Full results are available on the BBSC website www.bbsc.org.au. The next BBSC keelboat race will be a Bay Cup race on March 26.
Above: the fleet taken just after the start (photo credit Terry Paton)
