Sailing News

Joker Has Last Laugh

Division 2 skipper, Josh Hughes, skittled a fleet of eight in Saturday's King George Sound competition. Perfect sailing conditions saw a record number out on the water following weeks of inclement weather.

Hughes put on a scintillating display of helmsmanship helped by a skilful crew which culminated in a great victory, also giving him his first ever first and fastest.

Joker put pressure on all the bigger and faster yachts and reading the flukey winds enabled it to hit the front in the latter stages to win convincingly. Stephen Brown, who broke the start with Mary Maitland, had to play catch up throughout but managed to pass a few others on the way to finish second on corrected time. She still leads the fleet in the points tally. 

Third place was taken by Stephen Lee, having his first competitive race for the season with Flasheart. Lee didn't start well but, once he got into stride, was moving well. He and Hughes had a great duel right to the finish and will be a force in coming races.

Division 1 competed for the Waters Cup with a history going back to 1913 making it one of the oldest trophies at the club. Murray Howson had only put Sitting Bull back in the water during the week and showed his transom to the rest of the fleet all afternoon including Michael Cameron in his Viper, Bite Me.

Howson left the honours to Murray Deere in Wild One, who took the race and the trophy from Marco Giuntoli in Scappata on corrected time. There wasn't much between the two throughout, with Scappata just that tad in front of Wild One. Next Saturday all fleets will compete in harbour handicap start events and hopefully some weather to suit.

Picture: Josh Hughes starts well with Joker and goes on to a fine win in Saturday's KGS race.

Race Day photos

To see more of Des' race day photos, including contributions by others, please visit this link.

Casual Adventurer blog

Club member Richard Hodgson writes to PRSC from the World Cruising Club's ARC+ rally, which is preparing to take sailors across the Atlantic from Gran Canaria to the Caribbean via the Cape Verde archipelago. 

It's estimated that Richard should arrive on approximately 5 December based on a speed of six to seven knots. To read more, request membership of Richard's closed Facebook group where he blogs about the rally, here.