It was a great turnout for Sussex Inlet & Basin Yacht Club’s second Basin Chase of the season, with 11 yachts taking part. The forecast was good, with a warm sunny day on the cards and a decent easterly(ish!) wind.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It was a handicap start and unusually there were four yachts all starting together at 1pm, HooRoo (Andy and Lou), Two Up (Paul and Lynne), Serendipity (Dick, Scott and a mini guest crew member!) and Sapphire (Max and Lois). They were closely followed by Tingaround (Andrew, John and John) who started only 2 minutes later with Backchat (Steve, Jan and Mark) just 2 minutes after them and Optimist (Sandra, Paul and Lynne & minus aquatic pets) off 1 minute later.
Fly Navy Too (Greg, Ronda and Annabelle) and Equinox (Ken, Graham and Rhonda) were not far behind starting together 2 minutes after Optimist and gradually catching the rest of the fleet. Sussex Inlet RSL (Silver, Macca and “the milkman”) were next to start with Southern Cross (Greg, Lynne and Bill) bringing up the rear.
This made for an exciting first couple of works with plenty of overtaking and not much in it by the first laid mark in Erowal Bay with Tingaround first round very closely followed by Two Up and HooRoo. The two downwind legs spread the fleet out a bit with HooRoo gradually pulling out a bit of a lead though not as much as everyone thought!
The wind was inconsistent throughout the race and by the end it was a bit fluky both in strength and direction, making the final work into “Ernie’s” even more challenging than usual (Ernie’s is notoriously fickle when it comes to wind speed and direction!).
The lead changed more than once over the course of the race and eventually HooRoo couldn’t hold off the challenge from Tingaround who crossed the line first, with HooRoo second and Backchat hot on their heels in third. Serendipity came in next and despite their best efforts Fly Navy Too couldn’t quite get past Two Up who beat them over the line by just 30 seconds, with Equinox in hot pursuit another 30 seconds behind them.
Sussex Inlet RSL and Southern Cross were also very close with Sussex Inlet RSL beating Southern Cross over the line by just 8 seconds! Sapphire brought up the rear with Optimist not quite finishing in the time allowed but it was definitely their best race to date.
As always thanks go to Phil and Ray on committee boat Sparrowfest who did their usual fantastic job.
Next week is a rest week with no weekend race so the next race will be an Outside Course handicap start on 17th November.
PBH Results:
1st Tingaround; 2nd HooRoo; 3rd Backchat; 4th Serendipity; 5th Two Up; 6th Fly Navy Too; 7th Equinox; 8th Sussex Inlet RSL; 9th Southern Cross; 10th Sapphire. Optimist – DNF.