RCYC Double Handed Race

by Andrew Collins

The best sailing format in the club (in my biassed opinion), delivered another excellent race on Saturday. As summer slowly fades, we had sublime typical winter conditions, perfect for short-handed racing. A flat sea and a consistent 12 knots of westerly, except for a brief lull when the wind dropped to about 6 knots. This allowed the fleet to enjoy a wonderful afternoon on the water.

As always, we had a good turnout of 20 boats. Class A had more participants than normal probably due to the forecast light breeze. Luke Scott and Greg Davis were there on SCUD for the first time and William Brooks and Morgan Evans were also taking part on Raymarine Regardless in their first foray into double-handed sailing. It is not easy handling a Cape 31 or a Farr 40 with only two crew, but the light conditions were perfect for a first attempt.

PredictWind showed the wind would be confined to the bay, ruling out Barker Rock as an option for a mark of the course. A mark was dropped off Mouille Point and fairly long windward/leeward courses set for the two racing classes.

The social gathering on the deck for prize giving started a little later than normal as the shortest elapsed time was 2 hours 15 minutes. Ray of Light and Raymarine Regardless had a great tussle with SCUD all the way around the course and the three of them crossed the line within seconds of each other. In Class B, Bodytec Flyer was 17 minutes ahead of Humdinger on elapsed time, but only 7 seconds on corrected time. Humdinger fluffed one tack in the whole race and this probably cost them the win.

Thank you to Excelsior for sponsoring the prizes. And thanks are also due to Hilary, Kerry and Mo for running the bridge together with the volunteer team of Liz Matthews, Lee-Ann Purse & Mark Devitt. Mark Laying Team, Boet Koopmans, Xolani & Zollile.

Results
Class A
1 SCUD
2 Xtra-Link Yolo
3 Ray of Light

Class B
1 Bodytec Flyer
2 Humdinger
3 Cabaray

Cruising Class
1 Morning Wings
2 Sabatier