The Port MacDonnell Sailing Club hosted its last sail of the season on Saturday.
The winds were a calm 10 knots, which dropped to about 7 knots by the end of the second race.
The biggest challenge was the large clumps of seaweed all over the course, which caused the boats that raced to dodge.
There was a season record of nine different boats on the water for the day’s racing.
Race officer Nick Watson set two different courses for the day, to give the skippers a challenge for their final race day.
With the help of Chris Jacobs and Hamish Mlakar on the rescue boat, they set three marks with two different configurations.
Race one was a triangle – loop – loop course, with one loop to the left of the course and the other loop on the right of the course.
The first boat to start the race was Austral20 ‘Mirage’ with Dennis Illman and Donnita Widdison on board.
They were closely followed by another Austral ‘Salt Peter’.
The fleet spread out a bit over the course of the race, with the faster boats finishing about three minutes before the Austral fleet.
The first boat across the finishing line was Sonata ‘Harmony’ skippered by Don McLennan and with Adrian Romescu and David Connell also on board.
They were followed closely by Chris Lynch’s Noelex ‘Sandrine’.
While the marks remained in the same position, the second race was three loops; one to the right of the course, a loop across the top of the course, and then a loop on the left taking the boats back to the finishing line.
The start of the race was closely contested, with two boats having to be recalled for crossing the start line before the start of the race.
The boat to take start line honours in the final race was ‘Mirage’.
The wind dropped off during the last race, making it difficult for the boats at the back of the fleet to finish their race.
For the final race, all boats finished the season with the sun coming out from behind the clouds and shining on them all.
Line honours for the last race went to ‘Sandrine’, with Dave Evans, Damian McMahon and Christa Mlaker on ‘Farr-merr’ finishing second across the line.
The season ended with a club barbecue dinner for all sailors and social members invited to mingle at the club house.
Presentation night will be on May 26.
