Closing Regatta 2021-2022 Season
Maybe the biggest battle of the day was between two light winds, a gentle morning sou'easter competing with an even more meagre afternoon nor'easter. The sou'easter didn't want to leave and the nor'easter didn't have the stregth to takeover. Sometimes both winds were present with an area of doldrums in the middle of the lake for the sailors to negotiate. Fortunately almost all the sailors present were hardened pond sailors so they weren' too phased.
Our Race Officer Scott managed to conjure up 5 races so the sailors could drop there single worst score and this proved decisive for a number of the fleet winners; Estel in the Opti, Lucy in the P Class, Rose in the Starling, Rob in the Zephyr, and Werner in the Open Senior fleet. The Starlings had the largest fleet with 11 boats entering, but the closest racing was seen in the P Class fleet with the scores of the first 3 boats being 6,7, and 8 points respectively. The Open Senior fleet consisted of three 3.7s, one OK Dinghy, two Lasers, and two Windsurfers. These 4 classes share quite similar handicaps and the light winds with few opportunities to get the boats up on the plane evened things out even more. The fleet was won by a standard rig Laser, with a 3.7 second and a Windsurfer third.
Mant thanks to all of the helpers who made the day possible. Scott, Hilary, Brokey in the tower, and Rick et al on the patrol boats. Carol and Debs managed to come up with some great food ideas so that sailors could graze as required, and there can't have been much risk of creating a COVID super spreader event.
Look out for the HYC prizegiving coming up on the evening of May 14th and the start of the winter series in the Quests on the same day.
It is been a difficuly season with the COVID related disruptions and a general reluctance to gather in numbers, so it was heartening to see plenty of sailors out for the last event of our 2021-2022 summer season. Good luck to the Starling sailors planning to take part in the Nationals competition in a few days time. It is much more likely that Napier will provide fairer winds than our little lake, to go along with tides and surfable waves.
John B
