Winter Championship & Point Score series - Races 16, 17, 18

Grant Lovelady (PRO) Reports:

After Saturday’s soggy downpour you would be excused for thinking Sunday was going to be a repeat and a lie-in the better option. We arrived early for a crisp winter morning and beautiful Sydney Harbour mostly to ourselves, along with a few high-speed water skiers and a peloton of kayakers: 20-plus hardy ILCA /Laser sailors including a few visitors.

Breeze was W, WSW at 10-13 knots and we set a course with the top mark just off Clark Island and the bottom mark off Point Piper.

R1 set the day up with nice left shifts but the right had the pressure. The story for the day was to manage the oscillating shifts, sometimes 20+ degrees and connecting the pressure lines.

R2 saw the Radial/4.7 fleet very keen to test the PRO, but to no avail — we were not going to deploy the 1st substitute flag. Up came code flag X individual recall and 5 boats were called. Only 2 returned correctly.

R3 the rain looked like it was coming in and the breeze clocking to the south. A wise decision under the conditions meant we kept the same course but rotated the line. This made for a good tactical play, and shifts a plenty.

Winners for the day were:

ILCA 6 Radials – Roberto Blum, Andrew Cox, Ian Alexander

ILCA 7 Standards – Maxim Djura and Tim Heath (2 wins)

Thanks to the on-water crew of John Sweeny & Van Allen on the Dene Bergman setting the course and Ben & Charlie Byford on the Jazzman with PRO & LTRaR. Result thanks to Geoffrey Boscoe.

A reminder please to sign on, with the correct sail number. This helps the race management team, safety and of course you get included in the results.