18/05/2026
Saturday Racing Roundup
by Des Beeck
JUST GRACE ON A ROLL
And they're off in Heat One of the Winter Series
Six yachts from the mixed keelboat fleet sailed in glorious autumn weather in the first heat of the six-race winter series. It was a flying start over a harbour course, and the breeze was from the north-east at around 7 knots. It looked like it may drop out before the race had been completed, and plans to shorten the course were in place.
That didn't eventuate as, within half an hour of the race beginning, not only had the wind changed rapidly to the east, so had the wind strength, increasing to 15 knots.
Two boats broke the start and had to begin again, one being Jessie James, skippered by Brett Hawker, which showed why it's the quickest boat at the club when, on the first leg, he had caught and passed the other five.
Sicarius under spinnaker finishes ahead of Flasheart
There was a tremendous battle going on throughout between Mark McRae in Sicarius and Stephen Lee in Flasheart. Lee was well ahead for the majority of the race with some good spinnaker runs, but McRae was ready to pounce at any time.
Stephen Brown won the start with Mary Maitland but struggled at times against both Sicarius and Flasheart. Neil Worrell had Zuri moving well at times until he lost a lot of time with a wayward spinnaker and trailed the fleet.
Meanwhile, Hawker had crossed the finish line but, on corrected time, was relegated to fourth place. However, he did record the fastest time in a fine performance.
North went on his merry way to score his hat trick of wins with Just Grace in excellent fashion.
On the final leg, Sicarius had just managed to get its nose ahead of Flasheart and, just to make sure of beating it to the finish line, hoisted a spinnaker. It worked wonders as it took second place in a fine performance.
Flasheart had to be content with third placing after a thrilling finish.
Wayne North receives his winners pennant from Sailing Director Stephen Brown
Next Saturday will see the running of Heat 2 with a 1.30 pm start.
