Nowra sailors were involved in an exhilarating weekend of sailing last weekend. On Saturday Nowra Community Sailing Club ran heat four of the Manildra Championship, heat seven of the Bomaderry Bowling Club point score, and the Kel Campbell Trophy of the Day on a beautiful day with ten to 15 knots of east to north east breeze and an incoming tide, meaning near flat water and muscle-working works to windward.
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The fun continued for some sailors from Nowra and Callala at the Illawarra Yacht Club on Sunday for heat two of the G.O.F. Trophy.
Saturday’s start was won by Michael Fairbairn sailing his Finn dinghy, from the Spirals of Wayne Norris, Bill Jauncey, Cameron Phelps and Steve Phelps. With all competitors leaning out as far as possible to extract maximum power from the brisk wind, Michael reached the top mark (at the windward end of the course,) first, followed by Wayne, Bill, Cameron and Steve.
The fleet turned at the top mark to head for the bottom mark on a thrilling run, but not thrilling for long for Bill who disastrously capsized and took over three minutes to recover, placing him last.
Over the rest of the race Michael extended his lead, lapping Bill and Steve, while Wayne had a blinder and also lapped Bill – a remarkable effort as they were both sailing one design Spirals! Cameron steadily opened his lead over his father and well deserved his third place over the line. Steve came next followed by the hapless Bill.
The Manildra Championship is decided on the boat’s yardstick and was won by Michael by almost two minutes from Wayne. Cameron came next, then Steve and Bill. The Bomaderry Bowling Club Point Score is based on personal handicaps and this was won by Cameron who was 31 seconds ahead of Michael on corrected time. Wayne was less than two minutes back for third, followed by Steve and Bill who were clearly keen to boost their handicaps for the post-Christmas Point Score! They succeeded! Michael won the Kel Campbell Trophy of the Day for his championship win and second in the point score.
This Saturday we sail heat five of the Manildra Championship, heat eight of the Bomaderry Bowling Club point score, and the Kel Campbell Trophy of the Day. As usual visitors are most welcome in any ‘off the beach’ boats. Details at www.nowrasailingclub.wordpress.com
Last Sunday’s heat two of the GOF interclub challenge in memory of past NCSC commodore Ray Fairbairn, attracted Michael and Bill from our club, and Merve Lotze, Richard Pryor, Mike Wotten, and David Ginty from Callala Bay, to take on the strong fleet at the IYC. Anticipating a strong wind, Bill, Merve and Richard selected the smaller 5.6 square metre (the area of the sail) rig for their Spirals – a wise decision as it turned out.
Following a tight start Michael reached the front ahead of the two best Lasers from IYC followed by Merve and Bill who swapped places a number of times for the first half of the race, then came a local Laser and Dave, (who had taken over Richard’s Spiral) and Mike. Other Lasers were behind the Shoalhaven gang.
At the end of the first lap Michael, who was in the lead, went for the wrong mark and lost time rectifying his mistake, while Merve and Bill continued their tussle, ending when Bill had a swim later on an upwind leg, though he recovered much quicker than he did on Saturday. After all he did have the practice!
With the wind now gusting over 20 knots, Michael finished first over the line, followed by the two local Lasers, then Merve, another local Laser, and Bill. The rest of the fleet followed them. Being a mixed fleet with boats of different classes, the Victorian Yachting Council Yardstick was applied to the finish times giving the win to Merve followed less than a minute by Bill with Michael back in fifth. A great result for the Shoalhaven sailors.
Heat three of the GOF Trophy will be the Nowra Marathon on February 11.
