March Race Day

A fantastic day with just the right amount of wind to send our fleet of five on their way.

Chris and Jill Ashton, Yolanda Yuen, Ron Notley, Barbara Cowell, Jeff Hiley and Brian Sutton were on the pontoon, which acted as start boat.

Our new VHF radios worked a treat, both on the pontoon and at the base station in the clubhouse. Ron did a marvellous job of communicating to all boats.






Some of the boats anchored in Dalpura overnight, whilst others sailed up in the morning.

Thanks to Sid for the photos of Bonnington's crew (a) fixing problems with the mainsail and (b) enjoying morning tea - there is something to be said for a stove on board!







First across the line was Bonnington - too fast for the photographers, I'm afraid, and we still don't have a single close photo of Bonnington under sail (pathetic plea to all photographers to please take a pic of our boat!!) A crew of five - skipper Guy, with Sid, Robert, Stewart and Alene as navvies - and the dratted dinghy which cost us a win (we claim!) Chris's photos show us ahead on the first leg of the race with (left) Rainman in the foreground and (right) Tycho Brahe in the foreground, all heading to Peel.


However, Sid's photo does prove we were in front of Not Duffers at this stage.








Next across the line was Not Duffers, with skipper Peter Fox and crew Michael Stephens. Crafty Peter to ask the most experienced member of our club to crew for him! And the one who knows the bay best!

John Walker's boat Rainman with Willem as crew followed, with Colin bringing up the rear with Tycho Brahe.

There was a close run to the finish, after just over two and a half hours, there was a margin of 30 seconds between Not Duffers in 1st position and Bonnington in 2nd position. Alene tried to claim 3rd for the Bonnington dinghy, which trailed faithfully behind all the way but denigrators scoffed and told her to tie it up before the race next time.