A gentle nor-westerly breeze off Mullaloo Beach set the scene for day one of the 2023 North Coast Series between Ocean Reef Sea Sports Club and Hillarys Yacht Club on Sunday, November 5th. Two races on a windward-leeward course with the longer legs sought by skippers after the previous season produced some competitive and close racing in the three fleets.

Evenly matched with four yachts from each club, division one was very competitive right from the start. Whispering Jack (Bruce Bradford) led the charge for HYC with the fastest time in the first race and third place however, the honours went to ORSSC with Bull Bar (Jeremy Leitch) first and Whim A Way (Scott Forrest) second. With the breeze strengthening Ian Holder on Bad Habits celebrated a return to racing for HYC with a first and fastest in the second race but Whim A Way and Bull Bar were right there with second and third.

Four boats from HYC and two from ORSSC competed in division two with Ray Murphy showing continued improvement on Pinta with a win and third placing for HYC. Covert Operation (Bart Brouwer) was fastest in race one. Farrouk (Des and Gail Riley) was first and fastest in race two and Blue Chip (Keith and Deborah Fisk) was second in both races. Venomous (Andrew Hodgkinson) was very competitive for ORSSC and was third in the first race.

Terry O’Grady on Quicksilver was the sole division three competitor for ORSSC finishing third in both races which were dominated by Catabatic (Rob Bills) and Resolute (Damian and Kerry Martin). Catabatic was fastest in both races for first and second placings whilst Resolute, also first and second, was only ten seconds behind Catabatic in crossing the line in race two.

Many thanks to the course laying crews and start management team on Alibi for their efficient organisation of the day’s racing.

Photos of the racing are on the HYC Keel Cloud.

John Bird