The penultimate day of keelboat racing between HYC and ORSSC was held on Sunday February 25th in the waters off Mullaloo giving spectators for the surf carnival a spectacular view of colourful spinnakers close to the beach.

The 14 knot east-sou-easterly provided ideal sailing conditions however shifts in direction and strength kept skippers and crews alert and busy as they tacked for a tactical advantage.

In Division one Whispering Jack (Bruce Bradford) and his crew of eight set fastest time in both races for a first and third place whilst Bad Habits (Ian Holder) was second over the line and second on handicap, also in both races. Scott Forrest on Whim A Way from ORSSC was third in the first race and in a greatly improved performance Perle won race two.

Perhaps the stand-out performance on the day was that of Farrouk (Des and Gail Riley) who was ahead by a “country mile” for fastest time in both races and first place followed by a third placing. Panache (Geoff James) was the sole representative from ORSSC in Division two with second place in the first race whilst Show Me (Tim Tucker was third. In the second race Volant (Emille Janssen, John Ball, Frank Hagemann and Kevin Meta) was first with Show Me and Farrouk, 22 seconds and 35 seconds respectively off first.

In Division three, the three HYC yachts battled it out with Resolute (Damian and Kerry Martin) first and fastest in race two and second in the first race. Intuition (Marc Carpenter) won the first race and was second in race two. Catabatic (Rob Bills) was third in both races but set fastest time in the first race.

A big thank you to the start management team on Alibi and the crews in the RIBS for the excellent course setting and informative race control.

John Bird