The Adelaide Radio Yacht Racing Club again successfully hosted the M State Titles over the weekend of 07-08 October. Everyone who attended enjoyed the sailing and the hit out before the Nationals in a few weeks’ time. Whilst it would have been great to get a few more entries we ended up with a good split of interstate and local entrants, for what ended up being a mini warm-up nationals.
Saturday started with a moderate easterly breeze which threatened to drop out at any time. Brett, the RO, decided to postpone the racing until it settled. We eventually got racing underway with the top marks in the lee of the café. This made for a lottery at the top mark reminiscent of the IOM National Titles last year. The interstaters got the early jump with the top two places with several of the ‘top’ guys down the order. The second race saw the breeze do a 180, which combined with the tide meant that Scott and Simon, whilst late back to the line had the best starts. Scott held on for his first win. The breeze then settled into a moderate west sou’ westerly with occasional bullets from the west and south. This made for plenty of passing lanes for the fleet and the results for the first day showed this. Many of the fleet changed down to B rigs through-out the day with the last race conducted in fading light, wind and increasing jellyfish.
Sunday again started late. However, the westerly pushed through earlier and we were able to get a few races in before the lunch break. Scott picked up where he left off from the day before. Simon then managed to find some exceptional height and speed upwind to take the next two races and some momentum leading into the lunch break. The breeze then went more southerly after lunch and increased to top of A rig. However, all boats stayed on A rig for the remainder of the day. The results were mixed for the remainder of the day with both Simon and Scott consistently up the front of the fleet and fighting it out for the overall win.
However, in the end Scott’s class and experience was too much and he ended up comfortably taking the overall win after a taking a strong lead on day 1.
1st Scott Mitchell 52 ARCYRC
2nd Simon How 99 ARCYRC
3rd Andrew Reid 74 Albert Park
Thank you to all the volunteers and supporters who made it down over the course of the event. Thanks especially to Brett for doing another great job with the RO duties and Johan and Gully for setting the courses. Thanks also to Graham who organised the registrations, scoring and hydration for the sailors and lunch for the volunteers. Also thank you to Peter Turcich for taking on scoring over the weekend with support from Alan Gold and Ian Dowsett.