The race was run by Jervis Bay Sailing Club on Jervis Bay in a delightful 15 to six knot southerly, with a considerable wind swell which abated as the wind eased over the race.  

The start was tight with Wayne Norris on Never Satisfied and Michael Fairbairn on GOF leading Bill Jauncey sailing Twist ‘n Shout, Cameron Phelps on Green Titan and Steve Phelps on Moving Along.  

The Jervis Bay fleet also hit the line at the start gun and their faster boats revelled in the good breeze.  

By the top mark Michael Fairbairn was ahead of Wayne Norris, who had quickly opened a convincing lead on Bill Jauncey, who was being hard pressed by Steve and Cameron Phelps.

The next two reaches were terrific with Michael inching further ahead of Wayne while Bill closed some of the gap on Wayne and extended his lead on Steve and Cameron.  

Cameron had elected to run the smaller 5.6 sail and as the breeze began to die he began to rue his decision.

The second longer work enabled Michael to make a worthwhile gap on Wayne while Wayne reopened and extended his lead on Bill, who once again was being pressed hard by Steve.  

This pattern continued for the rest of the race with Michael’s Finn dinghy gaining a progressively bigger gap on the Spiral dinghies, and Wayne extending his lead on each work while Bill slightly reduced it on the off wind legs.  

At the finish Michael was over six minutes ahead of Wayne with Bill another three minutes after Wayne and Steve just one minute behind Bill.  

As the breeze had now faded considerably, Cameron was another 14 minutes behind his father.  

The yardsticks adjustment was applied for determining the Manildra Championship, the yardsticks being based on the best performance of the class of the boats, and this was again won by Wayne from Michael by nearly two minutes, with Bill another 25 seconds after Michael.  

Steve was less than a minute after Bill and Cameron five minutes after Steve.  After applying the handicaps, the race was won by Steve from Wayne, Bill Michael and Cameron, giving Steve the Kel Campbell Trophy of the Day.  

The first four boats all finished within two minutes after the handicap correction.

After discards this meant the Bomaderry Bowling Club Season Point Score was won by Bill with 929 points from Wayne with 898, Michael with 863, Cameron with 639, Steve with 537 and Joe who only sailed some races with 186.  

Wayne’s win gave him a perfect score for the Manildra Championship of 800 from Bill on 584, Michael on 497, Steve 252, Cameron 177 and Joe with 72. 

This season has been one of the club’s best for many years.  

The racing has been really close and exciting, and the club membership has grown with more interest shown by some other new people so the prospects look good for the next season which resumes on the river on October 18.  

The club thanked its starters, without whom it could not race, and its generous sponsors Manildra, Kel Campbell, Bomaderry Bowling Club and South Coast Sails.  

Details of the next season will be on the club website in the next few weeks.