Batemans Bay Sailing Club has been holding a fortnightly series of races over the cooler months. The Batemans Bay Marina Winter Series races have a sternchaser format where the fastest boats give the others a head start.
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A sunny day blessed the winter series fleet as they headed out for Race 6 last Saturday. It was great to see eight boats out on the flat water with a north west wind.
Spinnakers were up for the broad reach to Wimbie Beach but the wind died out for the leading three boats.
- Simon Lowth
Light wind started the first two boats; True North and North Star They headed from Caseys Beach to Square Head on the first leg of the reverse winter series course.
Xanthia started 3rd boat as the wind picked up. North Star rounded the Square Head mark first followed closely by Xanthia then True North.
Spinnakers were up for the broad reach to Wimbie Beach but the wind died out for the leading three boats. The rest of the fleet were greeted with a nice wind for their spinnakers to catch up to the lead boats. The race was on to the Wimbie mark.
Shaken Not Stirred, Apostrophe, Jembe and Ghoster stayed in close. Xanthia glided along under her big gennie – the quarter acre dream – to match these boats and rounded the Wimbie mark just in front.
New boat Horizon with skipper Michelle Grybatis and crewmen Peter Ottesen followed the fleet around the course.
From Wimbie the fleet sailed close hauled on port tack to Chain Bay before a run to the finish at Caseys Beach. The breeze came up to 15 knots so all the boats were powering along. Great crew work and a smooth hull allowed Xanthia to hold on to the win from Apostrophe and Shaken Not Stirred.
Four boats are in contention to take out the 2017 winter series in the final race on August 12th.
Results
1 Xanthia, skipper J Gardiner.
2 Apostrophe, skippers T Davis/Mcnichol.
3 Shaken not Stirred, skipper S Gasser.
4 Jembe, skipper C Thompson.
5 Ghoster, skipper D Perrins.
6 North Star, skipper J Drummond.
7 True North, skipper S Lake.
The Jembe leads the club pointscore, on a score of 9, closely followed by Apostrophe and Shaken Not Stirred, on 10 points each.
Xanthia is in fourth place on 11 points. Other contenders include North Star (14 points) and Ghoster (15 points).
![THERE SHE BLOWS: Xanthia, skippered by James Gardiner, sails past Denhams Beach, during the Batemans Bay Sailing Club's competition on Saturday. Photo Lachlan Brown. THERE SHE BLOWS: Xanthia, skippered by James Gardiner, sails past Denhams Beach, during the Batemans Bay Sailing Club's competition on Saturday. Photo Lachlan Brown.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/P6duGiBRTmfbtYGzUCkKfG/7205e073-104c-4915-bdae-bc0442c24d35.JPG/r0_0_3000_4000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)