Saturday had Lake Bonney Yacht Club skippers, race management volunteers, Australian Sailing SA management, visiting Metropolitan Sailing club members, followers, and past member Mike Rumbold with his vintage Dolphin catamaran all hoping for some great racing to participate in and watch.
The weather gods dished out a nice variable 8 to 15 knot north westerly breeze.
The "A' series handicap races 5 and 6 were contested tightly with the working to windward legs producing many opportunities for overtaking and tactical manoeuvres a plenty. Hard work and good boat positioning on course had rewards with the Contender boats recently returning from State championship sailing showing exceptional speed and tactics in the stronger breeze of the 1st race of the day: heat 5. Result: 1st Contender "Pushing Limits" Geoff Ling, 2nd Contender " Bandit" Beau Delaine and 3rd Aero7 "Just" Stephen Thomas.
2nd race of the day: heat 6 had conditions which included a few lighter "lull" sections over the course bringing the Aeros back into favour and costing some competitors valuable time and ground. Although some good race tactics and boat handling had 1 Contender still in the mix. Result for heat 6 had 1st place, Aero7 "Just", 2nd, Contender "Pushing limits" and 3rd, the Aero6 "Sea Breeze" skippered Kirsten Thomas.
Notably over the 2 races with elapsed times of around 40 minutes the handicap times had all competitors corrected handicap finishing times within 4 minutes of each other Very tight times for results.
All sailors had a great day out on the water and the balcony spectators had every move covered. Big thanks to Carol and Jean for race course management and timekeeping. Also thanks for the spectator support.
Next weekend is Club Championship heats 7 and 8.
Hope to see all competitors, followers and visitors at our great Club and sport on the Lake.
Our thanks to Jean for sharing her photos.
Check out that beautiful Dolphin cat. Rumor had it that it is up 4 sale
Lake Bonney Yacht Club started their Sail Training mornings on the weekend. Attendance was a bit light, but still a good light learning breeze and fun was had by all who attended. Hope to see a more learner sailors over the coming weekends. Everyone is welcome. Check out our website and when arriving ask for Steve to help you out.
Racing skippers rigged their boats in glass out conditions hoping for the forecast North Westerly to arrive. It did arrive and Championship heat 5 got away in a light 5 knot NW breeze. A very tightly contested start line saw 1 boat (Blade) squeezed off the end but everyone got away without infringement. Shifty light conditions and some good tactical decisions favoured a few throughout the race with the Aero dinghy light air flyers sailing very well to be leading the bigger Contender boats and ILCA 7s. Over the distance of the race due to many tactical and opposite course side decisions, the ILCA 7 dinghy "Blade" Chris Stevens came out victor with Aero 6 "Sea Breeze" Kirsten Thomas 2nd and Aero 7 "Just" Steve Thomas 3rd.
Race 2 of the afternoon saw exactly the same very contested start line and the Aeros taking full advantage of the lightish conditions. The Contenders didn't have windy enough conditions to be able to sail at their yardstick rating and suffered on the scoresheet. "Just" had a stellar second windward work with Steve getting the tune and trim sorted out nicely and making big gains on the fleet.
Race 2 result was 1st "Just" from "Blade" 2nd, and Sea Breeze" 3rd.
Yardstick time calculations were very close in both heats with only seconds separating all competitors. The racing was very tight on the water and great camaraderie was enjoyed off the water.
Thank you to Jean and Bjorn for their Race management and timekeeping.
Hoping to see more interested sailors and visitors coming down to the club for a look and maybe giving our fantastic sport a go.
See you next weekend to do it all again.
Sail training returned this morning. And it’s always good to make sure that you rig properly, as demonstrated by our very keen junior 😊
The Lake Bonney YC programmed Saturday event was for a "resail" or "Pacesetter trophy series" race day. Saturday saw a perfect Northerly of 10 - 15 knots with gusts up to 20 knots for short periods.
With the 2 Contender class boats away at their State Championships and no requirement for resails, 4 boats competed in the first 2 heats of the Pacesetter series.
This race format comprises sending off boats in staggered time intervals according to their handicap to attempt to get all competitors finishing at the same time.
The race course was set as a Starboard hand 2 x windward and return loops around 4 different marks. The upwind legs were true beats and the downwind legs were where big gains could be made if catching waves and surfing the troughs.
Race 1 had "Sheet Happens" starting from the shore 3 minutes ahead of "Sea Breeze" and a further minute behind that was "Just" and "Blade" also starting from shore. After 40 mins of racing “Sheet Happens”, Joel Edson, finished in 1st place only to be scored DNF for taking 1 mark to port. In 2nd place 2 mins behind were "Blade" Chris Stevens, "Just" Steve Thomas 10 seconds behind and "Sea Breeze" Kirsten Thomas a further 1 minute later. Which made a finish time between the 4 boats within 2 minutes. Pretty close.
For race 2, we made a couple of time adjustments with Joel sent off 2 and half minutes ahead of Kirsten and 2 minutes to Steve and Chris which created a much closer finish of "Just" 12 seconds ahead of "Blade", 4 seconds ahead of "Sheet Happens" and "Sea Breeze" 12 seconds after that.
All 4 finishers within 28 seconds. A great result!
The sailing was a fantastic success and race day idea. Thanks to Carol and Jean for the race management duties and hope to see all next weekend for Championship heats 5 + 6. Everyone is welcome to join us for an afternoon at the Club by the Lake.
Many thanks to Jean for the photos.
Lake Bonney Yacht Club sailors competed for their Club Championship heats 3 and 4 in a true North light breeze of around 6 to 8 knots on Saturday. The water was a bit bumpy due to around 6 kilometres of fetch creating small square edged chop testing the skippers. Starting the first heat saw a blatant attempt of "barging" down the line by ILCA radial "Beige Babe" Vanessa Wainwright until forced over the line by other starters causing her to be on course side. It was a fun moment but costly for Vanessa having to return to pre start side of line and restart. The Aero 7 "Just" and Aero 6 "Sea Breeze" of Steve and Kirsten Thomas sailing team got away very well and sailed nicely upwind through the light airs and bumpy conditions. The Contenders of Beau Delaine and Geoff Ling were close in front of the fleet. The rest of competitors got a bit straggled out in testing conditions. Gareth Carpenter sailing Nacre catamaran "Doocaty" and Joel Edson steering ILCA7 " Sheet Happens" experienced the unlucky side of the wind shifts costing time.
Despite the Beau Delaine skippered Contender "Bandit" having a quick capsize on the second upwind work it didn't cost him much time.
Result for heat 3: 1st "Bandit" B Delaine by only 7 seconds from "Just" Steve Thomas and 3rd "Sea Breeze" Kirsten Thomas.
After a quick course change to shorten a bit and reset the windward work for a north westerly shift, racing for heat 4 got away with a clean start with ILCA7 "Blade" Chris Stevens having a great first windward work to be very close behind the Contenders. The Aero's were still there doing what they do best in the light airs. Geoff Ling "Pushing Limits" led most of the course but not really getting clear of the fleet. Race 4 result: 1st: "Blade" Chris Stevens, 2nd: "Just" and 3rd: "Sea Breeze".
Thanks to Jean for the safety boat work and mark setting and Carol for race management.
Next weekend sees the Contender boys heading to Brighton Seacliff Sailing Club to compete in their State Championships. Good luck.
Lake Bonney Yacht Club will still be sailing, racing and open.
Racing next weekend is for the "Pacesetters Trophy" series which is a staggered timed start of competitors according to their handicap ranking with the intention of all boats finishing at the same time.
Good luck to all. Everyone and visitors are welcome.
Don't listen to them, Vanessa. You had full rights going down the line like that and you should have forced it. You were the only boat on Starboard, with everyone else on Port! I want to see more of it 🙂
LBYC held races 3&4 of the 'A' Series Handicap on Saturday. Sailors had a very nice South to South West wind of 8 to 10 knots to sail in, and a triangle, windward return course was set for Race 3 which started on time. Good racing conditions made 2 sides of the windward leg favourable with competitors splitting either side of the rhumb line but meeting back again at the weather mark . The Aero 7 and ILCA7 hiking dinghies were having a tight race with the 2 Contender trapezing dinghies doing the same just ahead. The rest of the fleet got a bit scattered on the first work to windward and remained the same throughout the race.
Race result was 1st : Aero6 "Sea Breeze" Kirsten Thomas, 2nd :Contender "Pushing Limits" Geoff Ling and 3rd : ILCA7 "Sheet Happens" Joel Edson. Unfortunately 3 boats were scored OCS, "On course side" unknowingly and 2 did not finish.
Race 4 start signals had confusion amongst some competitors with 3 boats deciding not to start. Other competitors started and finished the course. The 2 Contenders not starting went on to practice some boat handling skills in preparation for their State Title regatta in 2 weekends time. Good luck to you boys. Race result was 1st : Aero7 "Just" Steve Thomas, 2nd : Aero6 "Sea Breeze" and 3rd : "Sheet Happens".
Congratulations to those that got it right and looking forward to next weekend's Championship series races 3+4. Everyone is welcome to visit us at our Club for a great Saturday afternoon.