The final race day of the SAMM Autumn Series 2017 attracted a good turnout of competitors and 9 boats came to the start of the first race, five single handers and 4 with crews of two or more. Due to a timing error by the race officers the boats had to be recalled and re-started, the first time this has happened in many years.
Unfortunately the SW 4 to 5 knot early wind gradually faded to virtually nothing and the uneventful race, so uneventful that it looked as if one competitor had fallen asleep, had to be shortened to just two laps, which some boats took nearly 2 hours to complete.
By the time the 10 boats started the second race at 2.30 the wind had gone to the forecast Easterly at 5 knots with some gusts a little stronger. This was still a problem for a couple of boats who had difficulty with the up-wind leg.
As in previous weeks the lead was being contested by the dinghies led by Julian in the Topaz, Tug in a Laser 2000, John in his Quba, Norman in the Laser Radial and Di/Tom in a Gamba, with the bigger boats and the diminutive Sea Hopper bringing up the rear.
The dinghies took between 51 an 66 minutes to finish the 4 laps and the fastest bigger boat the Sailfish 18 of Julian/Jane/Ernie 71 minutes. The race officer decided that the slower boats were going to take too long to finish so shortened their race to 2 or 3 laps. Rather than record a “Did Not Finish” it was agreed that their average lap time would be used to calculate their total time over 4 laps.
The results after handicaps, in both races were: 1st Julian, Topaz Duo. 2nd Tug, Laser 2000. 3rd John, Quba.
That’s five straight first’s for Julian, five seconds for Tug and 4 thirds for John in the last five races. A brilliant achievement by all of them.
The SAMM Spring 2018 Series is scheduled to begin in March.
