DESPITE a very ordinary forecast, five spiral class sailing dinghies and one finn class sailing dinghy began the new Nowra Community Sailing Club season competing for heats one of the Bomaderry Bowling Club point score and the Kel Campbell championship.
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Even though some of the sailors were out of practice, the start was tight as each competitor attempted to cross an imaginary line between marks on each side of the river as soon as possible, after the start signal.
Bill Jauncey won the start by a few centimetres from Michael Fairbairn's finn, with Wayne Norris, Steve Phelps, Richard Pryor and Merve Lotze a matter of seconds later.
Bill and Michael may have won the start but sailed to the southern shore in the beautiful eight to 12 knots east-south-easterly conditions while the others went for the north side and easily crossed ahead of Mick and particularly Bill.
By the end of the first lap, Michael's finn began to show its superior speed over the spirals and led the fleet from Steve, Wayne, Bill Merve and Richard who had elected to use the smaller spiral sail option.
Except for Merve passing Bill, the order remained the same over the next two laps but on lap four, Wayne got to the front of the spirals, with Bill just behind him.
Steve missed a wind shift to be overtaken by Merve and on the next lap, Bill began to clear out from the other spirals with Merve next from Wayne and Steve.
Richard began to rue his sail choice as the breeze began to lighten.
Meanwhile, Michael placed the finn in the right place for most of the wind shifts and tide flow to open up a substantial lead on the spirals.
The order remained the same for the early finish.
Michael finished seven minutes 18 seconds ahead of Bill who was one minute 25 seconds clear of Merve.
Wayne was just six seconds after Merve and Steve 13 seconds behind Wayne.
The breeze then almost died leaving Richard a slow finish, well behind the full-sized sail spirals.
The Kel Campbell championship is based on boat class yardstick which rates boat classes expected relative performance based on years of results in Australia.
Michael won from Bill by 19 seconds, followed by Merve, Wayne, Steve and Richard.
The Bomaderry Bowling Club point score is based on individual handicaps and Bill took this one out comfortably from Steve who was 21 seconds ahead of Michael, followed by Wayne, Merve and Richard.
Bill drops two minutes for his win, Steve one minute, Michael stays the same, and fourth and above gain two minutes.
This Saturday, the club sails heat two of the point score and championship, with visitors most welcome.
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