From our PRO Alistair Sutherland:
The end of May has delivered wintery weather across Sydney, and that came to a head with a cold, stiff Westerly on Sunday 21st May which was as exciting as it was hard work. The Race Officer team of Alistair, John Verco, Kim Ketelby and Chris Berg launched the Paul Adam at dawn to find a pleasant, and surprisingly stable, 12knots blowing down the harbour. But with the forecast to strengthen as the morning progressed, it was always going to be a gusty, shifty day on the water. Although the Sailing Instructions called for a three lap windward leeward, the decision was again made to go with a two lap race, with most racers preferring to stretch their legs on the longer course.
A South American Wedding, and a PRO trying to get his head around the technology of the new Race Management system, saw the AP flag go up at 08:15 for a brief 10 minute period, but this gave time to ensure a well set course was locked in, and once we got going we could turn three back to back races around in quick order.
With 40 Lasers on the water, over two well behaved fleet starts, we got through the 6 starts with only a single individual OCS and no General recalls. The westerly wind was coming straight down from under the Harbour bridge, with large gusts shifting as far as the Centre Point tower in the CBD, and the skyscrapers of North Sydney. Finding the breeze and getting on the lifted tack was the order of the day, with big gains and losses being made both upwind and downwind. The Radials had a good mix of Master sailors and Youth sailors at the front of the fleet, with race wins going to Connor Kellett (twice) and Andrew Cox. The Full Rigs was a Bermudian master class with Campbell Paton taking three bullets.
The numbers had seriously thinned out by race three as the wind licked up to the 20 knot range, cold and fatigue took over, and gear failure became widespread. Good job from all those who braved the conditions, especially the team who sailed down from Hunters Hill, and a big thanks to those who realised the conditions were getting perhaps a little too challenging and headed for shore at the right time. Please remember that a decision to race lies with competitors, but getting out of your depth in hairy conditions has the potential to stretch the response crafts, put others safety at risk, and impact the scheduling of the races for the rest of the fleet. Big thanks are due to the Hunters Hill support crew and our youth coach who provided additional response boats on the water; they were certainly kept busy keeping an eye on several competitors who were struggling as the breeze built.
