28 January 2012

LOTS of luck with a port hand start

By Peter Campbell

Cheryn Croker and her crew of Daydream certainly had something to write home about (to LOTS – Ladies on Tuesday Sailing) after last week’s racing with Daydream in other Squadron events.

Daydream is the only LOTS crew so far to venture into Saturday racing with the Squadron, joining Division 4, and also racing in the Friday evening open club twilights.

Last Friday evening Daydream came home first out of 12 starters in her division, sailing in a good breeze of 15 knots plus, although it dropped to 10 knots on the final leg home.  However, Daydream held on to her lead and the girls from LOTS came in first, closely followed by Counter Balance (Vicki Clitheroe).

Ian MacDiarmid and some of the crew of "Hell Razer"

On Saturday, Daydream and her ladies crew lined up against the competitive and male-dominated fleet in Division 4.  “We tried an idea in a book I had read, and went counter to the usual (are you really surprised?) starboard tack start,” reported Cheryn.

“While the six other boats jostled for position at the committee boat end, we headed to the port end and started from there,” Cheryn recalled. “Knowing we might have to weave between boats coming at us on right-of-way starboard tack, we got the boat moving fast and once we cleared the start we had just one boat ahead of us.”

Daydream kept up with the fleet on the beat to windward, but being short-handed, the crew did not hoist a spinnaker on the run, dropping back to finish sixth place out seven, with one boat not finishing.  “The good news is that on handicap we came fourth behind Hornblower, Wyreepi Too and Kerstin II,” Cheryn added.

In the closest finish of the day Kerstin II (John Bowman, Ken Chase & John Goldie) got line honours by just seven seconds from Hornblower (Peter Campbell & Steve Sweeney) with Wyreepi Too (Struan and Ian Robertson) just four seconds further astern.  On corrected time, Hornblower won from Wyreepi Too and Kerstin II with Daydream fourth.

A strong fleet of 15 boats turned out for Division 1,  with Charles Curran’s Sydney leading the fleet around the course and placing second on corrected time to Ian Macdiarmid’s Hell Razer, third place going to Euphoria (Tony Coleman).

Marina D at the CYCA must have been the scene of some celebrations late on Saturday afternoon as the winners of Division 2, 3 and 4 are all berthed on this arm of the club’s marina.

The colourful and stylish-looking Jessica Rabbit (Bruce Miller) had an outright win in Division 2,  winning on corrected time from alouette (John Waring) and Campeador (Jonathan and Mary Threlfall) while in Division 3 Wallop (Bryan and Collis and Stephen Wall) also took the line and handicap double,  winning on corrected time from Windsong 2 (John Vickery) and Casamajor (Philip Crane).   Hornblower, as mentioned earlier, completed the treble, taking out Division 4.

A small fleet of International Etchells raced on Saturday with Shindig (David Sturrock/Mike Tyquin/Robert Weir) winning from Alchemist (Richard Hammond and Roger Gain) and Vincero (Nick Kingsmill and Peter Gardner).

In the International Dragon class, Indulence, fresh from being runner-up in the Prince Philip Cup in Hobart, under loan to British yachtsman Robert Campbell, proved a winner back on the harbour for owner Robert Alpe. Indulgence won from Sidewinder (Carl Ryves) and Abacadabra (Nicholas Hogg and John Marty).

By the way, the Prince Philip Cup was won by Karabos IX, skippered by Hobart yachtsman Nick Rogers, his 10^th win as a helmsman and 11^th in total, with Robert Campbell placing second in Indulgence,  third place going to Sydney fleet member Wolf Breit, skippering Shapes.  

Breit is the newly elected Australian president of the International Dragon Association, with NSW to host the next Prince Philip Cup.

From Peter Campbell

M: 0419 385 028

E: peter_campbell@bigpond.com