A forecast of strong south-easterly winds, a chance of rain and thunderstorms still attracted a fleet of 19 yachts for the second consistency race for keelboats off Hillarys Yacht Club on Sunday November 12. After a windless winter it was a case of “now we have some real sailing to do”. The 20 knot wind which gusted to the mid-20s played havoc started even before the race with one yacht retiring with a ripped mainsail and others heeding the warning and reefing the main. There were opportunities for carrying the spinnaker however the tight shy-reaches made it challenging with yachts rounding up and a kite or two in the water.

In division one, carrying on from a win in the Marmion Reef Race, Martin Eyer on Circa edged out fastest on the day, Sophia (Bruce Utting) with Perle scrapping into third place by just two seconds from Bad Habits (Ian Holder).

Benefitting from plenty of miles in offshore racing on Lithium, Ray Murphy on Pinta stormed to a convincing win in division two over Show Me (Tim Tucker) and Helga (Mark Taylor). Covert Operation (Bart Brouwer) was fastest and first on the ORC handicap.

The closest racing on handicap was in division three with Laraine Brindle’s Stelfred pipping Deckchairs Overboard (Neil and Wendy Harrison) by four seconds and Kind Of Blue (Boyd Timler) just another minute behind in third place. Whispering Jack (Bruce Bradford) was fastest around the course after a tussle with Deckchairs Overboard just one and a half minutes behind.

If the day’s racing has whet your appetite for more, you can come down and watch next Sunday morning for the third consistency race, also starting at 10am.

John Bird