Twilight Race: Another lovely afternoon on the water saw 17 boats and over 100 crew sailing on Pioneer Bay in last week’s Whitsunday Sailing Club twilight race.
It was great to see two new boats in the fleet, Matchless (Terry Stevens) and Fordplay (Grant Ford).
First away was the faster boats in Division 2, with Reignition (Charles Wallis) leading the fleet away. However, Bobby’s Girl (Mark Beale) led by the time they reached the first mark and never looked back, finishing almost 2 minutes ahead of the rest.
In the battle behind, Reignition briefly held off QMS Ponyo (John Galloway) with a slow starting Smooth Criminal (Leo Rodriguez / Iyas Shaheen) joining the battle. Houdini (Robert Meizer) finished just seconds ahead of Wide Load (Shannan Hart) at the end. On corrected time, Twister (Kevin Fogarty) took the honours.
Division 3 saw Masquerade (Tom Vujasinovic) lead the fleet away before being overtaken by Wobbly Boot (Craig Piccinelli), Matchless and Shiraz (John Cable). On the longer legs Aquatarius also got into the action, the light winds not helping the larger yacht. Ultimately Wobbly Boot and Matchless broke ahead of the fleet, with just 11 seconds separating them at the finish. On corrected time, Wobbly Boot took the honours.
Races start from 4:30pm each Wednesday afternoon, so those wishing to participate as crew need to be at the club by 3:00pm.
Contributed with thanks to Ross Chisholm
Houdini with crew on Trapeze
Wobbly Boot just holding off Matchless
