Yet another pleasant afternoon on the water for those competing in Whitsunday Sailing Club’s weekly twilight race last Wednesday. Once again there were 16 boats, sailing in three divisions, on the water for the race.
The first division away was the fast, racing yachts, with Reignition (Charles Wallis) leading the fleet away, and with it the Doyle Sails sponsored best start prize. By the time the fleet completed the first of three laps of the1.5 mile course, Smooth Criminal (Leo Rodriguez) held a slender lead over Bobby’s Girl (Mark Beale) and Reignition.
The two leaders soon held a break over the fleet, and at the end there was only 25 seconds separating them. A similar gap separated third and fourth, Reignition and QMS Ponyo (John Galloway). On corrected time, Bobby’s Girl came out on top with Reignition second and Smooth Criminal third.
Division 3, made up of a combination of cruising boats and trailable yachts, started five minutes later, with Rossgo (Greg Hammon) leading the fleet away. Rossgo held a convincing lead over Aquatarius (Tom Parker) and Shiraz (John Cable) after the first lap, but dropped back during the second lap, allowing Aquatarius and Shiraz to take control of the race.
Further back in the fleet, Lighthorse (Di Forster) and Lama (Heather Sutton) were making good inroads in relation to the leaders, as reflected in the corrected time results. Final results had Lama first, Rossgo second and Lighthorse third.
Incognito (Brent Ireland) was the surprise package in Division 1, outperforming twilight regulars G’nome (Terry Archer) and Back in Black (Michael Van Der Zwaard). While Back in Black won the start and sailed away from the fleet, Incognito sailed a consistent race to cross the finishing line just 5 minutes after Back in Black, while G’nome came home in third place. Corrected time results had Incognito first from Back in Black.
Presentations at the club afterwards saw the Whitsunday Industrial Services SML prize going to G’nome, while the participant prize, sponsored by Soft Rigging Solutions, went to Lama.
Races start from 4:30pm each Wednesday afternoon, so those wishing to participate as crew need to be at the club by 3:00pm.
Offshore Racing
With a strong wind warning and high probability of rain, only 4 boats took part in the latest race in the Whitsunday Sailing Club’s offshore race on Saturday.
The start saw Reignition (Charles Wallis) leading the fleet away with a short windward leg to a rounding mark before heading over toward Henning Island. As expected, Smooth Criminal (Leo Rodriguez) soon took the lead around Pioneer Point, but as the boats started to battle the tide within the Molle Channel, the fleet bunched up. Treasure VIII (Rob Davis) chose a route through Unsafe Passage on the way to Henning Island, while the others all chose a less direct route around Roma Point.
On the way back, everyone went the direct route via Unsafe Passage, with the exception of Reignition, who chose a longer, but more effective, return route. While line honours went to Smooth Criminal, in the final results, Reignition came in first by less than 2 minutes over Seventh Heaven, with Smooth Criminal just 20 seconds ahead of Treasure VIII, after 4 hours of racing.
Reignition heads Treasure VIII just after
