Whatshot
Commodore Dinghy Series at Point Yacht Club
Commodore Dinghy Series at Point Yacht Club
The wind at the start of the afternoon was sitting at an exciting 15 - 18knots, with gusts edging it just above 22knots. In the first race Durban North's Trent Bingham dominated from the starting blocks, reading the conditions and gusts brilliantly. The two laps around the course were quite a solo affair for him.
The fleet of 14 whittled down to nine during the first race. Scottburgh's Rowan Clark tailed Bingham for majority of the first lap, as he neared the bottom mark on the run; his boom broke, forcing him to retire. Also retiring during the race were Rob and Tracy Bowman on their Flying Fifteen, Liam Fennessy on his Hobie 14, Andrew Dolloway and Keith Gregory in the Finn class.
All of the monohulls, excluding the determined Iain Bowman from Hillcrest sailing his Optimist Sharkie, opted for drier conditions and headed back to the clubhouse. Bowman, together with Dylan Albert, Murray May, Peter Hall and Wayne Smith remained for the second race with the breeze building to gusts of well over 25knots.
In the second race, Race Officer Sean Fennessy held an all-in start for the five boats that stuck around for the race. Minutes before the start, Hall got knocked over by a gust meters from the start line. He managed to right his cat and powered through the start line. Highway's Hall and May took a couple of dips in the water as the two pushed their boats to the limits in the conditions, getting some air on the beats.
Youngster Dylan Albert breezed through the start line late behind the others, tacked, tackling the right hand side of the course early which paid off as the more experienced sailors battled in a hole in the wind-shadow of the sugar terminals.
Fennessy opted to shorten the second and final race as the gusting winds quickly dissipated stranding the sailors as they bobbed towards the finish line.
The start line was set just off the sugar terminals, with the fleet sailing racing around various harbour marks in the Victoria Embankment channel and then running back down to the bottom mark in the Maydon Wharf channel.
On Sunday, Hobie sailors made the call not to sail as conditions offshore were a bit too mountainous for the catamarans, with the bay being hammered by a North Easter for a number of days. A handful of sailors opted to go free-sailing, with a few reports of pitch-poling.
The next Point Yacht Club event is the Keeler Commodore Series held offshore for the bigger keelboats.
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