Adam Smith, Sunday, 9 December 2012
Our Talented Kids sweep all before them in bringing the Yachting Westernport Teams Racing trophy back to Balnarring
Sunday morning at 9.00 saw a hive of activity at the club – plenty of helpers rigging Pacers, Andrew Hill, Noel Gibson and Alan Bryson readying the rescue boats and Heather Crabtree and Adrienne Dugay turning out the egg and bacon rolls at the BBQ. Wendy Wilson from Point Leo popped in to return the YW Teams Racing trophy that Point Leo was unfortunately not able to assemble a team to defend this year. Somers also was a late withdrawal – unable to motivate a full team after their 50th anniversary celebrations on Friday and Saturday!
That left 3 teams to contest the trophy:
Westernport Wizards
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Westernport Wunderkind
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Warneet
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Rhys Mead & Carlo Caiani
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Vincent Cross & Jess Donnelly
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Chris Piper & Ron Varga
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Lachie Gibson & William Fleming
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James Fleming & Asha Cook (who handed over to Josh Smith for the later races)
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Adam Smith (honorary Warneet member for the day) & Dayle Short (on his 69th birthday!)
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Cary & Pat Pedecini
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Alexander Jurovic & Millie Harvie
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James Thompson & Susan Arnold
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The wind was up early, gusting up from 15 knots from the south-west. Sailing officer Andrew Hill made the call to reef the mains on the Pacer fleet (against howls of protest mainly from Lachie and Alexander). The first race went as expected with the Wizards showing the Wunderkind what good teamwork is about but it was a close race. Then the first upset of the day with the (a little late arriving) Warneet team sailing terrifically downwind to take the points from the Wizards.
From that point on the wind started to abate and the skills of the Wunderkind came to the fore and they managed to win the remainder of their 6 races. The Wizards managed to turn the tables on Warneet twice to take second place, but racing was tight all day. Umpire Cameron Smith was called on to adjudicate a number of times but all competitors took utmost care of the club boats and got them all back in the Dillon Hill sailing shed at the end of the day with no damage to report.
The day then wound up with Steve Cross’s legendary steak & salad (and chocolate cake) lunch. Overall a great day of sailing made possible by all the helpers mentioned above and also Charlotte Caiani, Christiane Coutant, Roger Crabtree, Jim Douglas, Col & Wendy Franke, Brian Hill and Jacqui Jurovic (and probably some other – apologies to any I’ve missed) who assisted with catering, collecting money, coordinating activity of the beach, crewing on rescue boats and generally helping the day run (reasonably) smoothly.
Thanks also to our visitors from Warneet, mainly big boat sailors, who raced competitively and in good spirit and stuck around to enjoy our facilities – they are welcome back any time. Also good to see Warren Stahel who dropped in from FNQ for a visit (no Warren, we don’t guarantee a spread like that every time you visit!)
Last Modified on 12/12/2012 07:39