Graeme Elliott sailed carefully and consistently to minimise handicaps and take the win.
Today we had a smaller fleet of just seven DF65 yachts come out to play on the lake. The forecast from Windy.com suggested a high chance of 0.5mm and 0.3mm of rain during sailing and light Westerly breezes between 4 - 8knots. It seems we are getting soft because the turnout was poorly attended. I know a few of you are away and that's accepted BUT...
Those that did make it had a wonderful time with 90% full sunshine and enough breeze to tack your way through the fleet. Yes, we had calm holes and tunnels of steady breeze but it was variable which we are accustomed to racing in. It did not slow the hot skippers down, they found rapid downwind gusts and changeable lifts on both Starboard and Port tacks which placed them back up with the fleet.
There were 11 races completed and all but the winner and sixth won a race or two. That means the rest of us had multiple wins and were penalized 30 seconds because of it. Phil and Donks had three individual race wins (90 seconds), Mitch and Mark had two race wins (60 seconds) and Steve achieved just one (30 seconds). BUT if you add up Graeme's podium places he went out 100 seconds in total. Mark was 110 seconds in total. Mitch was 100 seconds, Steve was 80 seconds. Donks was 100 seconds in total, Lewis was 50 seconds in total, Phil was 90 seconds in total. It changes how you look at the results.
All of us were in awe of Phil's three wins. He started well in race 3 and took off leaving any chasing skippers with way too much to do. But then he won the 4th race and then followed up with the 5th race. Unfortunately his rudder must have been knocked because after that he was doing circle work when heading downwind and upwind he had to fight the rudder just to remain straight. You had a great day Phil and are improving all the time.
Up front our wild Kiwi was dishing out banter thick and fast but his little boat was flying and we all struggled to stop him passing everyone to reach a podium place in nearly every race. Very impressive race day Graeme Elliott.
Next Event - DF95 Scratch racing Saturday 22 Aug.
Please put in your Diary - ALRS Commemorative DF95 Interclub Regatta Saturday 29th August. Please enter on the RSAWA webpage - Events
