Acalm but overcast day greeted the sailors of the Port MacDonnell Sailing Club for the first two races of the season.
Six boats took to the water in the first race and seven in the second to compete in roughly 12-13 knot winds.
Commodore Jennifer Jones had the honour of race officer for the opening races and alongside husband Dave Jones, who operated the rescue boat, they set the buoys for the course.
Both races were a traditional triangle – loop – triangle course, with a finish off the club house.
After a small delay, the first race of the season started at 1.15pm.
The first boat across the start line was Austral20 ‘Salt Peter’ with Robin White at the helm.
Close behind was another Austral20 ‘Minty’ skippered by Steven Dyble.
While the larger trailable boats were faster across the start line, the light winds enabled the smaller dinghy boats to quickly catch up and overtake the bigger boats.
Despite multiple lead changes over the course of the race, it was Don McLennan on Sonata ‘Harmony’ that crossed the start line first, with Sharon Holmes on 145 dinghy ‘Miki Moto’ just over two seconds behind.
The second race started in similar conditions to the first, with the wind picking up towards the end of the race.
The rain held off until the end of the race, with sailors having to contend with a light shower as they crossed the finish line and made their way back to shore.
When the larger boats took the start line in race one, it was Sabre ‘Billy’ with Nick Watson at the helm who crossed the line first this time.
He was closely followed by new 145 dinghy ‘Em & the Boys’ skippered by Peter Douglas.
Once more the small dinghies took off around the course, with ‘Miki Moto’ in the lead for most of the race.
The larger boats struggled to keep up in the light winds, but ‘Minty’ held its own and was second across the line behind ‘Miki Moto’.
It was good to see the number of boats that took to the water to the start of the season.
The fleet was blessed with the presence of the local dolphin who swam alongside many of the boats as they sailed.
Following the day’s racing a club dinner was held that evening to celebrate a successful start to Port MacDonnell Sailing Club’s 2022-2023 season.
