Sail Middle Harbour Regatta - Magic Day 1

by Melissa Yeomans on 14 Dec 2013 What a fantastic start to the Sail Middle Harbour Regatta today on Sydney Harbour. With racing starting at 1pm the sea breeze kicked in with a beautiful Nor’easter of up to 17kts. The Organising committee could not have hoped for a better day and were all happy with how the day progressed.

Middle Harbour Yacht Club was in charge of the course area with the 420 and Finn fleets enjoying sailing past the ferry lane out on the Sound. MHYC Junior Sailing Manager Locky Pryor is wearing two hats during the event helping with the organisational side of things as well as racing in the Finn Fleet. He said 'Today was hard with the places never ever solid until the finish line the north Easter was playing havoc with shifts all over the place, you just couldn't lose concentration for a second as you would miss a shift!.' It was fantastic to see Jake Lilley from the Australian Sailing Team join the entry list starting with a fourth in the first race and then taking out the next three races.

The 420’s kicked of their racing with a General Recall before getting underway with Selden for Sailing sailed by Xavier Winston-Smith and Joshua Dawson leading the fleet with three first places and a second. The class is seeing some extremely close racing which is reflected in the number of tied placing’s after four races.

Middle Harbour 16’ Skiff Club had the task of taking on the 29er and 49erFX fleets with the 29ers being the biggest fleet at the event. The two race officers had discussed who would take which part of the race area and with the MH16’SC sailing off Middle Head to Dobryod Head. Harry Price and Angus Williams have shown they are settling well in the 49erFX that he received just yesterday with four bullets. 'We were just able to enjoy sailing our new boat in such great conditions' Harry Price said. 'We have found the FX rig is really quite powerful yet we are still able to throw it around in the 17kts with gusts around 22kts on our course off Grotto Point. We are hoping for a chance to put it through the paces once the southerly arrives tomorrow'. Unfortunately Brooke Smith and Emma Knighton found themselves with a broken rig in the last race seeing their day end a little earlier than the others.

The 29er Fleet with 26 boats on the course today had some great action with a few finding the conditions a little tricky around Grotto Point causing several of the crews to capsize in a spot which became popular for swimming. First and Second place are clear at this stage with ATB Morton crewed by Kurt Hansen and Harry Morton taking four bullets. Second place Objective with crew Jim Colley and Shaun Connor were also with a straight scorecard of four second places.

Tomorrow the race officers will have a tricky day ahead with the southerly change due leaving them playing the waiting game to see what the day will bring.