Autumn Point Score Series Races 7 & 8

by PRO, Alistair Sutherland

Having spent the week watching our fellow club members battle big waves and breeze in Adelaide at the Master's Worlds, about 35 sailors turned up to see what Double Bay could offer. No massive waves, no trips to a vineyard, but 18 knots of stiff breeze was just what everyone needed for some great fun. The race committee turned up to find a South / South Easter and, after some contemplation, decided there was enough breeze rolling down Bellevue hill and out of the Eastern side of Double Bay, so no need to move the whole operation around to the South East course in Rose Bay. This decision saw a surprisingly steady breeze in the middle of the course, with a massive Rose Bay shift on the left hand side, and shifts off of Clarke Island on the right hand side.

The ILCA 4 class continues to grow at DBSC, and a decision was quickly made to give the 6 entrants their own start. This decision led to rolling starts with the first gun at 14:00 sharp, and a total of 6 fleet races completed across 2 hours. The ILCA 4 had some great battles with Jasper Kinsman and Miles Greenwood battling it out neck and neck at the front, with the pack very tightly congested. Jasper took both wins on corrected time and is chasing Charlotte Jenkins hard at the top of the series leader board.

The Radial's sported the largest fleet of the day with 20 plus starters and countless battles throughout. At the front James Tudball and Healy Ryan had a royal battle and shared the honors with a gun each. Michael Morris and Jack Restuccia hung in there with excellent boat handling to take wins on handicap.

The Full Rigs came close to testing the race officers patience on the final start of the day, but the surprisingly compliant 10 boats in the fleet managed to sort themselves out just in time for the gun, and proceeded to have some great racing. Luke Parker had a great first race, but performance of the day was reserved for race two where Yves Stening proved that a commitment to mid week training results in taking the gun at the weekend. Check out his moment of glory here :

Massive thanks to the race team of Craig Ryan, Gerard Cafe, Alban Delpey, Nick Pellow and Dave Evenden for making sure races were high quality, on time, and safe. Thanks are also due to the entire fleet for making such a great effort to sign on - the finishing system is so much easier when we all do the right thing here.