05/01/2022
Nacra “Nationals” - Hervey Bay
5th January 2022 - final day of racing
Gusty, shifty, light, shifty, gusty, touch of rain, bursts of sunshine, gusty, shifty - and that was just in one race.
In the N5.8 fleet it was all on for first place with us and 1715 tied on points going into the final day with three races scheduled.
Race 8: we were a bit slow out of the blocks and scored a 5th. We did have a nice start but then got out of phase at some point. 1715 was first across the line so we had our work cut out for us for the next two races.
Race 9: 1715 tried to jam us into the start boat so we hung back and let them all go and cruised through a bit late, tacked off to the right and sailed our own clear air race. After one lap we were first and opened up our lead to almost two minutes (1:57 to be exact) by the finish. Our main rival 1715 finished fourth.
It was now game on for the final race of the regatta.
Race 10: an even more aggressive start from 1715 who luffed us up and above the Start Boat before the start so we ended up back winding sails and reversing whilst the rest of the fleet including 1715 sailed off into the distance. After clearing the start line we again tacked off to the right and sailed our own clear air race and picked every shift perfectly to go from second last to first by the end of the first lap and opened our lead to 1 minute by the finish. 1715 finished fourth however they lodged a protest against us for a start line infringement. Bronte has now experienced her first protest committee and hearing. The jury decided in favour of 1715 so we finished second overall in the regatta.
Congratulations to all the competitors and a big thanks to the Hervey Bay Sailing Club and all their wonderful volunteers for hosting a great regatta.
