Race report 26 March 2022
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Our PRO, Alistair Sutherland has provided the following report from racing on Saturday.
A small but enthusiastic fleet took to the water for Autumn pointscore races 5&6.
Race Officers Alistair Sutherland and Derek Hand made an early call to set the windward mark up in Rose Bay, and run the racing between Shark Island and Point Piper, with the “Dardanelles” living up to its reputation as a thinking man’s game.
Large shifts of up to 30 degrees in the east / southeast breeze meant that having the head out the boat and getting on the correct tack was the order of the day. Some did better than others, with Richard George and Pat Levy taking out the wins in the two radial races. In the standard rig, Ryan Aldrich persevered around the course and his tenacity to make sure he finished paid off with a handicap win. Mike Dunne took out the other race on handicap by just 8 seconds which proves that every second counts and a good or bad tack can be the difference between first and second.
The race track was a very busy area as we seemed to be joined by just about every kind of dinghy fleet in Sydney - Tasers, Flying Dutchmen, Aeros, 505s, Contenders, Moths and a bunch of keelboats all went past; they were clearly all after a look at Pat Levy’s brand new Laser which had powered to the front of the fleet during race two. At least we didn’t have any Etchells to worry about for once!
Kevin and Richo did a great job of moving the windward mark and start line around to account for the ever shifting breeze and were instrumental in helping get two good races away in good time.
Many thanks to our volunteers for the day: Alistair Sutherland (PRO), Derek Hand (LTRAR), Kevin Gilroy (COTD), and Richard “Richo” Holstein (CoCOTD), as well as Geoff Boscoe and Tim Heath who helped Paul and Shirley in the canteen.