Champion Lakes Radio Sailors hold the Western Australian IOM Metropolitan Championships each year at the Champion Lakes Regatta Center. This year’s event attracted 13 skippers on a fine and sunny Sunday.
Race Officer Moby Stuart, ably assisted by Evie the dog, ran the day keeping us skippers on our feet. Ray Forsyth and Andree Bennett kept score for us, and we thank Moby, Ray and Andree greatly.
Unfortunately, there was a bit of weed in the lake in the morning. Most skippers managed to pick up varying amounts. It was unfortunate, but as the day wore on, less and less weed seemed to be in the water. Maybe it was just because we were picking it up and removing it?
It didn’t take long to establish how the day was going to unfold, with Sean Wallis maintaining his great form that he showed in New Zealand and Queensland over the past couple of weeks. Clearly, attending these regattas is vital to honing your skills and improving them to a high level. Sean showed a clean transom to the rest of the fleet, and the race was on for the minor placings.
Further back in the fleet, Peter Buchanan, Rob Mews, Edgar Vitte, Glenn Dawson and Rosco Bennett were all having some good races and some poor races. Many skippers felt that they were having a poor regatta, but because there were so many in that situation, it kept the scores close.
Early in the day, everyone had their A rigs on, but soon after the lunch break, the wind built to a B rig strength. With the increase in breeze, Rosco and Glenn began to put together some better performances, building a small gap between themselves and the rest of the fleet. Glenn made a bad decision to try going back to the A rig, and in the first race, the decision appeared to be working out. However, the breeze built again, and a hasty change back to B rig was required.
It was great to see Andrew Brady back sailing, now that the footy season was over. Andy put together some good races, and it won’t be long until he is pushing the front of the fleet again. Denton Roberts and Ian Sherriff pushed on, with both skippers having a few strong races.
Unfortunately, a few skippers were unable to finish the day, mostly with radio problems. It has been a while since this has happened. There will need to be a bit of investigation about why these problems occurred.
Everyone went home quite tired, as Moby pushed us pretty hard on the day. We got 20 races in, and the courses were quite long. It was good sailing once the weed cleared. Sean was crowned a worthy champion winning the day with a measly score of 21 points from 20 races.
Rosco resumed his bridesmaid tag in second place and Glenn Dawson rounded out the podium. In reality, daylight was second! Well sailed Sean.