From our PRO Mike Forbes

It was a beautiful sunny autumn day – with the Sydney Harbour Regatta underway and day 1 of the JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championships taking place it was going to be crowded.

We had a light East Nor’easterly breeze averaging 6-8 knots. Following the morning’s LTR it was a quick briefing before heading out to the Jazzman… only to find her powerless for the day…(thanks Coxy for owning up to that). Having tried a few different options, we took the Paul Adam out to the start line with a bunch of flags and the rechargeable horn…sadly a few critical flags escaped us in the rush so more improvisation was employed!

Racing eventually got underway around 3pm, however due to the outgoing tide, a flurry of big yachts cutting our start line, the 18s kicking off and some eager radial sailors - we saw a few general recalls impede the first attempts for Race 9… finally with a black flag in play we got a clear start for race 9 across both fleets. It was a fluky race that saw the breeze shifting 30 degrees north before heading back East again… (damn the Dardanelles). The elapsed time was a few minutes over the target of 45mins.

Race 10 was a little delayed as we moved the marks for a slightly shorter course and the shifty breeze, but still had a good sized fleet of 45 sailors in play.

Two more clear starts ILCA 4 & 6 under Black Flag straight up after race 9 start issues (naughty boys & girls) and standards getting away clean… It was a great race for all involved, although shorter than the target time as it was getting late in the day.

Thanks to the sailors in the fleet for your patience whilst we had some vessel challenges, and equipment issues.

Huge thanks to Steven Boukatos, and Mark Dagworthy for COTD and Co-COTD, thanks to Craig from Hunters Hill for extra RIB support, and thanks to Rod Barnes for attempting to revive the Jazzman.

Goes to show we must always remember to check those isolators are off when we leave the boat!!!

Also, a quick reminder to always sign on and off with your correct sail # for the day please - it avoids much confusion - everybody wants results posted asap at the end of the day's racing but if some don't follow the routine makes it hard for the volunteers to finalize them and join the banter & beers on the deck.

P.S I’m conversant with the RRS but can someone explain the hail “Oi”? Ot must be hidden in Part 2 When Boats Meet, Section A? The 18’ skiff guys are all over it as we heard it screamed out several times.