On Lake Jindabyne
Story by Tim Symons, photos by John Byrne and Richard Churm
Lots of sailors gathered at Lake Jindabyne Sailing Club to compete in heat 3 of the 2020/21 Twilight series on the warm evening of Wednesday 18th November. Among them were Hobie 16 sailors Randy Wieman, keen to test his new sails, and Peter Brulisauer, sailing for the first time this season. But, all were disappointed after waiting for around an hour, race officer, John Byrne signaled the cancellation of the race with three hoots of the start boat’s horn. A bunch of Laser sailors still launched and had sail around in 0 to 2 knots of breeze.
Lake Jindabyne Sailing Club was a hive of activity on Saturday 21st November. A working bee had members busily mowing, brush cutting and cleaning around the clubhouse while a team reviewed the club’s buoys and equipment in preparation for the upcoming Snowy Mountains on 4th to 6th December. While this was going on, the juniors participated in their regular Green fleet racing in the club’s Optimist dinghies. After all that work and a sausage sizzle, the Juniors packed up and the seniors prepared their boats for two races that afternoon.
The first race was set to start at 1pm with a second race scheduled for 3pm. The sailors waited for the wind to arrive and John Byrne set a start line at the Peninsular mark. Richard Churm and Mark Norling manned the rescue boat. At about 1:20pm, the seven catamarans started the port rounding course first and headed off on a long, slow windward work in the 0 to 4 knot South Easterly breeze. Alistair and Alexi Cross slipped to the front of the fleet and reached the Cardinal mark behind cub island first. They turned towards the Mountain mark and discovered a new North Westerly breeze and sped away from the rest of the fleet. They were followed by Alan Davis, Tim Symons and Sam Bylett & Lucy Cross and the rest of the cats. The breeze built to 8 to 12 knots and allowed the sailors to use their trapezes to good effect.
The nine monohulls started five minutes after the cats. They too made slow progress to the cardinal mark with Nic Kennedy on his Finn battling for the lead with Laser Full Rig sailors Rod Baillie and John Baird. The monohulls too enjoyed the new stronger breeze as they raced to the Mountain mark, then back to the Peninsular mark to complete the first triangle lap. This was followed by a sausage lap to the cardinal mark and back to the Peninsular mark and another triangle lap for both divisions.
Though the North Westerly breeze was quite strong in places, it varied in strength during the race and around the course which kept the sailors searching for the best breeze to keep their speed up. Alistair and Alexi steadily built up a large lead on the rest of the cats ands led to the finish line at the Peninsular mark. Tim managed to keep ahead of Sam and Lucy and passed Alan to finish next. Then came Sam & Lucy, Alan, Adam Robinson & Mars, Andrew Kennedy and Marty Whittington. Due to the very light breeze before the start, Thor & Freya Slater started about 15 minutes late and didn’t receive a score. Alistair & Alexi took a well-earned yardstick corrected times win from Tim, Alan, Sam & Lucy, Andrew, Marty and Adam & Mars. Meanwhile in the monohulls’ race, Rodney and Cheryl Miller retired early in their yellow Tasar. After some tight racing, Nic led the fleet to the finish followed by John, Rod, Mal McLean, Damian Goninan, Stephen French Hamish Greenwood and Kerry McGaw. The top three remained the same after yardstick corrections with Kerry fourth from Mal, Damian & Stephen.
John moved the start line to the Cardinal mark for race two and sent the cats off to the Peninsular mark on a Starboard rounding course. Adam & Mars made up or their mistakes in the first race and led the fleet around the triangle and sausage laps with a final windward work to the finish at the Peninsular mark. The wind fluctuated around the course with fast and slow sections. Adam & Mars finished first. Alistair & Alexi battled with Alan around the course and finished next only 10 seconds ahead of Alan. Tim finished next followed by Andrew, Sam & Lucy and Thor & Freya. Marty didn’t compete in race two. Alan took the yardstick corrected times win from Tim, Alistair & Lucy, Thor & Freya, Adam & Mars, Andrew and Sam & Lucy.
A similar scenario to race one enfolded in the monohulls second race with Nic, John and Rod battling at the front of the fleet. Steve Osborne joined the fleet and Rod & Cheryl didn’t compete in race two. Nic finished first followed by John, Rod, Damian, Steve O, Hamish, Mal, Stephen F and Kerry. The yardstick corrected times didn’t change much with Nic first followed by John, Rod, Damian, Steve O, Hamish, Kerry, Mal and Stephen F.
Come see us sail next Wednesday evening and if you like it, then ask about joining in. There is always a skipper looking for extra crew.
