Sailor Moon wins inaugural Mount Gay Rum Y88 Three Handed Champs

by Mike Leyland on 11 Nov 2013
The Young 88 is an ideal boat for short-handed racing and is always well represented in the SSANZ two handed series and Y88 Association organised single handed and two handed champs.

Based on feedback from the two handed champs it was decided to try windward leewards, three up with spinnakers.

As is and typical of the class the racing was very close with most crews experiencing moments of glory at the front.

Congratulations to Jacko van Deventer, and crew Greg Forsyth, and Michael Naulls for the first on line in this new event. Mark Trevurna and crew were second, only missing out on first after count back. Edward Massey was third on Undercover also on count back.

First on handicap went to a fast improving Ben Tilley on Dilemma.

Getting round a windward leeward track, short-handed with kites in close company without incident was a real challenge with a premium on preparation and communication. There were plenty of examples of things not going quite to plan (a SNAFU?) and many weary bodies by the time the warning signal went for the sixth race.

Sailing instructions included signal flags to mandate the change from overlapping genoas to jibs at 12 knots and then restricting the use of spinnakers at 16 knots and over. The PredictWind forecast was accurate and the weather played the game with 10-15 kts from the Southwest. This added a few headsail changes to the already busy workload on board but kept boats in the spinnaker range just.

The team from Royal Akarana Yacht Club (RAYC) did an excellent job organising and running the event, even managing to get in 6 races with plenty of mark movements in a shifty breeze. This left enough time, just for a hardy few to make it back to the club for prize giving.

The Y88 Association wishes to acknowledge and thank the RAYC and team of volunteers and sponsor Mount Gay Rum for putting on an excellent day of racing. We will be back in 2014.

For results and more information on the regatta click here and for Young 88 information click here