Opening Day is months away but for the first winter race the return of the big boys to division one was a breath of fresh air and breathed new life into keelboat racing at HYC on Sunday June 23.

Whispering Jack (Bruce Bradford), Mulberry (Mark Pitt), Lithium (Wayne Pitcher) and Deckchairs Overboard (Neil and Wendy Harrison) competed in division one to finish in that order after a handicap start in benign conditions that tested the skills of crew and skippers as they chased the elusive zephyr. Damian and Kerry Martin of Resolute took a punt on joining division one and with a colourful spinnaker performed creditably for a first outing. Lithium, with the back-marker handicap, surged through the field to record fastest time by more than five minutes followed by Whispering Jack and Deckchairs Overboard.

Greg Hill’s Not Negotiable, a new addition to division two, put the fleet on notice with an emphatic elapsed and corrected time win for first and fastest finishing ahead of Show Me (Tim Tucker) and Helga (Mark Taylor). Back-marker Farrouk (Des and Gail Riley) was second fastest and fourth with Volant, sailing short-handed, was fifth.

Peter Hibberd sailed Hard Evidence into first and fastest in division three, albeit pipping Intuition (Marc Carpenter) by just 24 seconds with La Premiere (Ken and Des Luplau) in third place. Stelfred (Laraine Brindle) and Kind of Blue (Boyd Timler) were spared the agony of trying to find an almost non-existent breeze, volunteering to person the start tower and earning average points for their efforts, thank you.

The variable, very light wind race conditions and with starts spread over half an hour meant that it wasn’t a true test of the accuracy and validity of the new handicaps based on historical VMG boat performance, however it was more than satisfactory and with tweaking has the potential to reinvigorate racing. Well done Peter.

John Bird