Cadibarra gets gun in foggy race
by Bob Tanner, ORCV on 17 May 2005
Cadibarra came through the mist to take line honours Daryl Krasu
In fog and light and patchy breezes on Port Phillip Bay, Cadibarra, a Jones 43 sailed by Nigel Jones and Scott Esler, came from behind to take Line Honours in the frustrating Entire Two-Handed Race.
The Ocean Racing Club of Victoria’s annual Entire Two-Handed Race, sailed around the sticks on Port Phillip Bay was a real light weather affair, as the course was enveloped by fog an hour before the event!
All but one of the 34 entrants managed to find their way to the start line off Brighton, where 30 minutes before the start, it was impossible to see the whole of the line.
Fortunately, by the 10.00 am start time, most of the fog had burnt off with a patchy light northerly of 3 knots wafting in.
It was slow going to the first mark; those who tacked inshore fared better. While reaching from the first mark back to the second mark off Brighton, the wind swung more to the west and by the time the fleet approached the third mark, they were beating into a light westerly.
After rounding, the wind continued to swing around to the south-west at 6 knots, giving the fleet a consistent reach to fourth mark.
By that mark, the maximum wind strength of the race was achieved - a blistering 7 knots - leaving the fleet with a long port-hand run back through the start -finish line and up to the windward for the second time.
From there, the bulk of the fleet had one starboard tack back to the start-finish line. As the majority took in excess of 3.5 hours to complete the first lap, the race director decided to shorten the course after the first two legs of the second lap, in an abating 6 knot south-westerly.
Cadibarra (Jones 43 - Nigel Jones /Scott Esler) came home first after being fourth at the second mark, followed by Horizon Sprint, Frank and Lisa Hammond’s Radford 35 and Alien, a Lidgard 36 sailed by Mark Welsh and Alex Dawson.
The Beneteau 32S5, Alibi, (Dennis Hambleton/Ian Walker) sailed well above its handicap to take first place in both AMS and Performance Handicap Divisions, while and S80, Jack Tar, (Steve Cartlidge/Alan Watkins) won IRC Division and finished third on Performance Handicap.
Alien finished second in AMS and IRC, Reckless (Northshore 33 - Rory Thomas/Mark Gilbert), took second in Performance Handicap, Deja Blue (Northshore 33 - Paul Neilson/Craig Jackson) third in AMS and Trivial Pursuit (Adams 10 – Ross Chisholm/Phillip Burns) third in IRC.
Full results are available at www.orcv.org.au
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