Sailing in one of the strongest winds of the season last Saturday, the Clarence River Sailing Club fleet was tested to their limits. Before racing even commenced, a squall blew two boats off their trailers while they were sitting on the shore. Luckily, the only damage was a broken wind indicator.
Three races were scheduled, but the constantly strong south easterly winds that were gusting up to 23 knots saw crew retirements and broken gear and only two races were completed.
The catamaran fleet saw numerous lead changes, with all crews getting serious air resulting in spectacular hull flying. Orlando Denman was back for his first sail in over 2 seasons. “I really appreciated Orlando’s help today,” dad, Luke said. “Today was the fastest I’ve ever had the Hobie 18 sailing.”
Greg Lee and Debra Michell brought their Mosquito catamaran back to shore after the first race. “The wind was gusting so hard that we were finding it hard to tack the boat,” said Debra. The Nacra 16, sailed by Ben Higgins also retired after the first race. Lindsay Cowan and Tansie Higgins were the overall winners in the catamaran division.
The monohull fleet was a mixed bag of the regular Lasers and NS14’s, however, usual Laser sailor Neil Burgess elected to sail the club’s Corsair with daughter Micaela and friend Erekle. In fact, the Corsair was the only monohull to finish both races. The gusty winds along with the combined swell and chop generated from a run out tide and opposing wind, saw Laser sailor John Helson have multiple capsizes in the downwind run from the South Grafton boat ramp to the Grafton Rowing Club in race two. With only a few hundred metres until the finish of race two, Deb Parkin was hit by a gust that snapped the mast of her Laser.
“I was pushing the boat pretty hard,” said Parkin. “I was leading the race and the finish line was in sight, but it was all over with a bang!” Parkin was safely towed back to the club house.
Sailing is on again next Saturday.
See the Club’s website for full results and lots of photos.
Thank you to Dennis Boyd for undertaking starter duties and Danny Parkin for rescue boat operations.
Visitors or anyone who’d like to have a go at sailing are always most welcome. Just drop into the Club. Start time is around 1pm on Saturdays.