The racing...
The parties...
Race 1 of this year’s Middle Island Regatta was the first time a DBYC event has been included in the COA Championship and it was a delight to welcome three new visitors to join the fun: GA, No One Else and Chota Seye. Also new to the DBYC fleet was Legs Eleven just arrived in time from her delivery trip from Subic.
We at DBYC rely heavily on the generous support we receive from a wide range of sponsors to make events such as the Middle Island Regatta a success every year. So on behalf of all the participants I would like to thank the following supporters of MIR09...
Discovery Bay Marina Club for hosting the visiting yachts at the ‘Home’ end of this 2-venue event. As always we enjoyed excellent service from the reception and back office team in organizing the berthing and from David and the F&B staff for the welcome drinks and the arrangements on the Headland for the final Prize giving. DBMC kindly provided the medals and wine prizes, snacks at the prize giving and berthing for the event.
Aberdeen Boat Club as co-hosts of this event, and for the valuable support from all the staff to make the crews feel welcome at the Middle Island clubhouse. The Indian buffet received widespread praise, so many thanks to new F&B manager, Colin and his chefs.
Cervesa Sol was once again the main sponsor, with fun prizes and plenty of cold beer for our hot and thirsty crews.
Ocean Park for providing a coveted Red Panda and prize tickets to the Park.
UK Sails generously supplied kit bags and caps for many of the prizewinners.
Bombay Sapphire in keeping with our Bollywood theme provided by Bacardi.
Nita Kung for lending us her home as the Committee Boat and her husband as Race Officer - thank you, our races wouldn’t happen without this tremendous support.
Lindsay Pickles for managing the budgets and her gentle powers of persuasion which so painlessly extract cash from participants that they don’t even notice.
And so to the races...
Race 1.
Race Officer Andy Kung set a simple start line without a windward mark. So inviting was it, that Xakanaxa couldn’t wait for their own Div A start time and crossed at the head of the Div B boats before being recalled and re-educated.
The course had been shortened due to anticipated light winds so the only marks were Lamma and Chesterman Rock. This meant the shortest route lay between Sunshine Island and Hei Ling Chau, a tight squeeze to windward but 15 of the 16 fleet went for it with determination. Then it all went very quiet and we drifted, and drifted and drifted… until after an hour we picked up a freshening breeze for a couple of hours of beautiful blue-sky sailing with most boats picking up to a good 6 to 7 knot pace. Clean away by this stage was Aegean (sailing two-up), pursued by GA, No One Else and Harlequin.
By the time Aegean rounded Chesterman and took convincing Line Honours ahead of No One Else, the slower boats were once again being challenged by failing winds and only three completed the shortened course, with Skellum taking 1st place in Div B.
Bollywood Party
It was great to see so many people joining in the theme and enjoying the party. This year’s curry buffet was exceptionally good and the ice-cold Cerveza Sol a perfect complement. Sometime during the night Bollywood met Bondi and Square Bear took the party on board...
Race 2
Sunday dawned another beautiful sunny day and after a full breakfast the first boats headed for the start line, the biggest challenge actually being… to cross it! Rigel caught the last of the early breeze, but others drifted over and Square Bear parked on it! After the first hour the slow boats managed a 100 m head start when, of course, the wind picked up to give the big boys the wind they wanted to start at speed and catch up in two minutes flat.
Once the fleet were clear of Middle Island it was a good run to Chesterman and then spinnakers set for a blast round to the south of Lamma - that was the plan. Heartbeat and Sipadan stayed in close and appeared to overtake the fleet which had stayed further south and stalled, but the wind returned briefly in the early afternoon to create a thrilling close finish once again for all the more southerly fleet, with overall victory to Harlequin, and Rigel taking first in Div B.
Thus Harlequin just squeezed the Overall Div A and Combined prizes as well, with 4.75 points (4th and 1st places) over GA with 5 points (2nd and 3rd places), and Skellum winning a clear first place overall in Div B. See below for the full results.
St John Cameron
Race Chairman
