Champagne conditions at sea for Bay sailing regatta

Sailors came from Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and all over south east NSW to compete on the open waters of Batemans Bay.

There were 45 boats entered including strong fleets in the Lightweight Sharpie, 505 and VXOne classes.

On Saturday the sea breeze got up to 12 knots with sunny skies creating champagne sailing conditions for races one and two.

On Sunday the breeze did not come in until after midday which delayed the day's racing. When it did arrive, conditions were light prompting race officer Phil Yeomans to shorten both races three and four.

This proved to be a wise move when the breeze dropped out as the last boats were heading for shore.

Of the local sailors, Peter Smith, Paul Whitfield and David Walsh did best by sailing "Yaminji" to second place in the NSW RL24 Championships, which were held as part of the regatta.

Club Commodore Simon Dunlop skippered his Laser to 8th in his division while the Vice-Commodore Lachlan Brown joined Brett Bowden's "XV" crew to finish 5th in the VXOne fleet.

Batemans Bay Sailing Club and Sailability volunteers turned out in force to help run the event.

On the water helpers included Richard Dunne, Nick Stone, Michelle Grybaitis, Tony Bonouvrie, Tony Sutton, Celia Davey, Tish Ennis, Greg Adams, Cathy Adams, Alistair Dally, John Cunniffe, Fred Tromp, Simon Lowth, Ash Connell, Bryony Chapman, Bob Richards, Nathan Phillips and Graham Bourne.

Andrew Bain secured some extra rounding marks at short notice thanks to Broulee SLSC.

Robin Davey corralled the sailors on Corrigans Beach while John McCloskey was on standby to coordinate any emergency response.

Terry Paton and Frances Harmey crunched the numbers to get the results out promptly. Peter Smith and Bev Dunne ran a very well attended curry night on Saturday.

Full results are up on the BBSC website www.bbsc.org.au.