SKIPPER Andrew Bain conquered Batemans Bay Sailing Club’s keelboat racing season aboard Wishful Thinking.
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Bain captured the Bay Cup AMS series and the club championship from Lachlan Brown’s Hotspur and Tony Bonouvrie’s Apostrophe.
On Saturday, the final two races of the Bay Cup were the last chances for crews to change their position on the overall leader boards of the Bay Cup and club championship.
A gusty 15- to 20-knot south-westerly and a lumpy sea greeted the six yachts on the start line.
Race officer Dave Magill and his crew aboard committee boat Clarence the Clocker, had set a course with a finishing line one-third of the way up the course.
Brown said the set course was “distinguished because of its brevity”.
“The action was fast and furious because it was only 0.75 nautical miles from the leeward mark to the top mark,” Brown said.
A boat end-favoured start line ensured plenty of pre-start manoeuvring.
Hotspur shut out Apostrophe at the boat end as other boats got away cleanly.
Wishful Thinking led around the top mark and may have thought the first race was sewn up when Bain had a brief tumble while on the helm.
He stalled long enough to allow Simon Byrne’s Attitude through to leeward.
Attitude then set off on a wide course above the leeward mark and Wishful Thinking followed.
Hotspur and Apostrophe then headed straight towards the leeward mark on the hunt for victory.
Hotspur was the only boat to set a spinnaker and held on to claim PHS victory in race nine of the Bay Cup.
The Saint, skippered by Stephen Ring, did well in conditions which didn’t suit the J24 yacht, but James Gardiner’s Xanthia never got going as the legs were not long enough to set her asymmetric spinnaker.
The second race featured more of the same - Wishful Thinking again neglected to set a spinnaker and Apostrophe also eschewed the spinnaker, poling out a headsail on the downwind legs instead.
The Saint made the most of its good start and went on to claim the PHS victory, closely followed by Hotspur.
Xanthia finished at the rear of the field due to a breakdown on board.
“The crew were said to have been hampered by a malfunction in the onboard coffee maker,” Brown said.
Brown and Hotspur claimed the PHS Bay Cup title ahead of Xanthia and Apostrophe.
Full results are available on www.bbsc.org.au.