Eden Regatta
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- Parent Category: States
- Last Updated on Friday, 07 September 2012 14:57
- Written by Nic Douglass
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EDEN REGATTA - 20th and 21st February (Shane Guanaria)
14 Tasars turned out for the annual Eden regatta on the NSW South Coast’s “Twofold bay Yacht Club”. The series also incorporated heat 4 of the NSW traveler’s trophy. The format was for 4 races to be held over 2 days, 1 morning heat and 1 afternoon heat. The Tasars shared there start with the 2 NS14’s that had made the trip, how nice of us.
Heat 1 was started in a nice 12-14 knot East/North East sea breeze with a nice rolling swell coming through the heads. The start was well contested with Sway and Chukkel getting the best of the pin end lane to lead the fleet up the beat. The race was a hard fought affair with the lead changing several times as the breeze increased through out the race up to 18 knots up the last beat. Sway got the lead back half way up the final beat and held on to win by 3 seconds from Chukkel. 3rd boat home was Rick Longbottom on Platform 9 & ¾’s.
Heat 2 started where heat 1 finished. The breeze was now a steady 20 knots and threatening to build. Sway again won the heavily biased port end start to lead the fleet up to the top mark. After a poor start Chukkel had worked her way through to 2nd and with a shift to the left, the first beat became very tight and with gusts above 20 knots made it hard work for the crews hanging onto the jib sheets. Sway held onto their lead for the entire race to win by 30 seconds from Chukkel with Platform 9 & ¾’s again coming in 3rd.
The club put on a great BBQ for the sailors as many people nursed their battered bodies over a steak and some well earned beers.
Heat 3 was not at all what we expected. After waking up to a car covered with dew, another seabreeze was clearly on the cards but the wind gods had other ideas. A starboard course was signaled and the start was under way in a light easterly. Sway thinking that they had broken the start returned to re-start but broke away to the favored right side of the course opening up a huge lead as the breeze died in the left. Sway lead at the first mark from Gary Foley’s Sea Ferret being guest steered by former Tasar sailor Lachlan Brown with Chukkel in 3rd. As the breeze died at the bottom mark the fleet compacted to be separated by only a few meters. Sway got there nose into the new North East breeze first and again cleared out to a big lead with the remaining fleet being tightly bunched behind. As the land breeze continually fought the sea breeze big holes opened up in the middle of the course. Places changed consistently and no one was safe. At the end of the shortened race Sway lead the fleet home by 6 minutes with the Ranga’s coming home in second and Steve Leister on Double Trouble rounding out the top 3.
With the breeze expecting to build throughout the afternoon and the major results all but sorted a greatly reduced fleet took the course for heat 4, which was sailed in the best breeze of the weekend. Rick Longbottom lead the fleet from start to finish to take the gun with John and Heather on more edge coming home in second.
Overall it was Sway first, Chukkel second and Platform 9 &3/4’s 3rd. It was the same result for the yardstick series in which the Tasars dominated over the NS14’s, Lasers and Radials. All in all it was a great event and was enjoyed by all. Twofold bay is a beautiful place to not only sail but also to visit and we hope to get back down there again soon.
