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RACING REPORT
This season’s Port River Marine Winter Series has just been completed. The series was predominantly sailed in light winds with some boats struggling to record a finish in the first two races. With 13 CYCSA boats we made up more than half of the numbers in the combined fleet. In Division 1 Sintara (Derek Morrison) dominated in PHS and Magic (Mike Holmes) in AMS with Dr Feelgood 3 (Jason & Wayne Coonan) close behind in PHS and AMS. In Division 2 PHS School’s Out (Adrian Wotton) won from Rock On (Trevor Conyers) with Ocean Hawk (Steve Emery) third. Division 2 AMS was taken out by Rank Bajin (Doug Watson) over School’s Out and Ocean Hawk. The combined winter results for Division 1 were the same as the CYCSA results but there were differences in Division 2. In PHS Take 5 (Stephen Martin) from RSAYS was the most consistent ahead of School’s Out with Nerana (Chris Perry) from RSAYS third. In AMS Rank Bajin was first, with School’s Out second ahead of Rock On in third. The Plympton Cup, run annually by the Squadron, was to be Race 3 of the Winter Series but was abandoned due to very light winds. At the time of writing our Short-Handed Series has one race remaining for its series. Unlike the Winter Series the twohanders were dealt a tougher hand with the winter weather with three races being lost to strong winds or COVID. The fleet numbers have increased substantially since 2019 (six boats), 2020 (10 boats) and this year 15 entered. After two races on PHS Ocean Hawk (Steve Emery) holds a slender lead over Carioca da Gema (Craig Hutton) with PASC boat Touch N Go (Willian Doble) in third place. On AMS two-handed Ocean Hawk led last year’s winner Inukshuk (Robert Large) from RSAYS with Carioca da Gema third after a countback. Again this year some of the Short-Handed fleet sailed in the annual Port Vincent Dash and with the addition of a fully crewed division, a total of seven boats made the crossing. Race morning was looking more than ominous which led to several boats pulling out before the start. The fastest boat across (in 4hrs 16mins 42 secs) was Venom (Robert Dunn). Sailing in the Short-Handed PHS Division Squadron boats took the first three places with Take 5 first, Clockwork (Bob Schahinger) second and Inukshuk third. The fully crewed PHS division was won by Aquila (Mark Johns) with School’s Out second place and Venom third. It was typically a cold and damp night in the Port Vincent Marina but the camaraderie of like-minded sailors made it enjoyable yet again. The Racing Program for the 2021-22 season was published in July and is now available on the Club’s website. Notice of Race and Sailing Instructions are to follow soon. Safety auditing will continue to be the focus of attention preseason for owners with our Equipment Auditors undertaking mandatory safety audits on all boats before racing in the 2021-22 season. More information at the Skippers’ Briefing in September.
Inese Lainis Racing Administrator
