Team Mario certainly had a difficult time of it, little wind and quarantined West Aussies, this was the Victorian Marblehead State Championship held at Edgewater, Melbourne over the weekend of 24-25 April.
Day One
The wind direction was a bit of a challenge for the skippers and the team Mario beach crew, but as you can see on the scores the usual suspects were in the race for the ultimate prize.
Benson was the first casualty of the 22 boat's, with radio problems and withdrew in the second race, I believe Scott Fleming had a hand in setting his boat up?
As the day proceeded the first protest was put in. I now honestly believe the WA governments reaction to the COVID outbreak is just a ruse to stop Ross Bennett returning home. Rosco's tongue in cheek protest form was quickly decided to be an invalid protest, as it was lodged under the wrong sail number, he put 37 instead of 39.
Anyhow the racing continued and at 3:00 o’clock the racing was abandoned due to lack of wind with Scott Condie on 8 points, Kirwan Robb 15, Mark Newman 15, Andrew Reid 16, Scott Fleming 16, Lincoln McDowall 17 and that’s how day one ended.
Day Two
The day started off with a full fleet of 22 skippers. After the first race and a minor coarse adjustment, plus a massage from Scott Condie, the RO was happy again ... the racing continued with little fanfare or wind. The wind seemed to be mocking us. Every time the race was about to start the wind gave us a big YEAH… not this race. So lunch was called early and 5 minutes later the wind was mocking us again by being rather consistent.
Anyhow after lunch and several course changes we persisted with restart after restart until the wind finally gave in and decided to play ball. Race 7 was our only withdrawal for the day with Alan Gold retiring due to radio problems. 2 o’clock came and it was change the course time again, so Cam the boat guy who was busy to say the least, racked up a few more frequent motor sailing points in a boat now renamed the bath tub.
The penultimate race, B fleet was the perfect sailing condition and just for a second there the RO thought we could get a couple more races in before the end of the day, but it’s the thought that counts and we were lucky to finish with the A fleet for the day.
Thank you to Andrew Reid, Rob Nowak and the APMYC. Also a big thank you to Jayne, Cameron and RO Mario, your efforts were terrific and really appreciated.
Congratulations to Mark Newman (best Gentleman on the water)
3rd place Andrew Reid 2nd Place Scott Fleming 1st Place Scott Condie
But the big winner was that there were 6 states represented at this Regatta. A fantastic effort from all those that travelled large distances to compete, well done.