Apollo Bay Sailing Club

Tell Tales

26th March 2018

Yesterdat the day started slowly with steady rain and little-to-no wind, but as the clouds parted and the rain cleared, the wind slowly filled-in across the bay from the north. It quickly freshened and suddenly the club's sailors were full off excitement to get their boats ready and start racing before the northerly petered out.

With mainly a keel boat fleet for the day’s race (a few dinghy sailors were absent, attending the FF state titles at Davey’s Bay YC), the duty team considered a longer than usual course, but with the forecast of the wind gradually dropping, a short, standard triangle course was set.

After a bit of uncertainty from the duty boat crew that we’d set the course correctly – lucky for me I had Morgan on board, and she was OK with it!, we quickly made our way back towards the start mark to set-up the start line. Boheme, Interlude, Wild Rose, Quickmatch, It’s Magic and 10+1 lined-up for the keel boat start. It was a close affair with 10+1 just beating It’s Magic and Quickmatch across the line. Wild Rose and Interlude weren’t far behind. Boheme appeared suddenly, screaming along the inside line, to take up the lead with It’s Magic.

It was a quiet affair for the dinghy start with only 2 boats, Ziff and Ffantome, “battling’ it out for start-line honours – bit more of a leisurely cruise than a battle! Ziff quickly found form and set-off to catch the keel boats. Ffantome followed and both were soon rounding the top mark, setting their spinnakers.

Boheme and It’s Magic continued with their joint-lead, and slowly increased this lead on the rest of the fleet. It’s Magic was a splendid, colourful sight as they launched their spinnaker, but all too soon this came to a frustrating end as they struggled in retrieving it, allowing Boheme to sail on past! But not one to give up easily, It’s Magic was soon back with Boheme, and in fact, leaving them behind.

Wild Rose, Interlude, Quickmatch and 10+1 were happily keeping each other company and as the wind slowly retreated, could only dream of finding the patches of wind that seemingly propelled the two leading boats. Interlude and Quickmatch were at times certainly showing the bigger boats around them how it’s done, easily gliding by. But soon enough, the order was set with Wild Rose finding their way in front of Quickmatch, 10+1 and Interlude.

In true Ziff style, she glided around the course with class, seemingly finding the breeze with ease, ‘ticking-off’ the keel boats one by one, only to be beaten across the line by It’s Magic by a couple of minutes. Ffantome had had enough of trying to catch the dying, fluky breeze, calling ‘retired’ after the 2^nd triangle.

On a day like this where conditions were not quite perfect, but was certainly a nice day to be out on the water, everyone was bound to have an enjoyable race. Drinks, hot chips and meringue with strawberries & cream (thanks Angelika!) apre sailing, will always add to that enjoyment!

Heat 7 - 'J&C Marriner Earthworks' Post X-mas Series

Heat 19 - 'Cafe 153' Club Championships

Thanks To Our Sponsors

Apollo Bay & District Community Bank, Great Ocean Road Trading Post, Waterfront Motor Inn, Café 153, The Fishing CoOp, Surf-n-Fish, J&C Marriner Earthworks

Life is good. Come Sailing!

To find out more see our website or our Facebook group - Apollo Bay Sailing Club