Saturday 29th October loomed cold and threatening – not the perfect weather we were hoping to get for the annual Centaur Run – the only ocean race being hosted by our Club this season.
The Bureau’s forecast with a couple of days to go had the team worried that the winds might be too strong to allow the race to go ahead but thankfully it eased down a little. At the time the decisions were being made on Friday, we were still looking at winds over 25 knots with stronger gusts, a good chance of rain and the chance of a thunderstorm. On top of that, it was bitterly cold.
One of the realities of ocean racing is that competitors can deal with tough conditions much better than start teams. Coffee Point was to be the start boat for the race and whilst she is quite at home in such weather and has an anchor which will hold firm, the fact remains that many of the starters are not as young as they used to be and being thrown around in heavy seas is not good for them. Enter an idea put forward during the Valmadre series run by FSC. By using the South Mole finish line to start the race, no start boat or mark layer is needed. The waters of Bathers Beach are not ideal for a conventional start so boats were allowed to start as they wished during a 20-minute window and each was timed over the line as they started. That time was subtracted from their finish time to produce the elapsed time.
A rushed email to all competitors on Friday morning alerted them that such a start might be used and later that night all competitors were cautioned by SMS and email that the South Mole start would be activated. The experiment worked well and full credit must go the offshore race officer Cam Berg for coming up with the concept.
The race took yachts up the coast to Hillarys and back again, with a few diversions along the way. Dave Davenport’s Crush, a TP52 and the largest yacht in the fleet, loved the conditions to stride home in a whisker over 4 hours to take the trifecta – line honours and a win on both IRC and PHS handicaps in Division 1.
Ross Norgard’s beautiful Salacia II did the same in Division 2, cleaning up line honours and handicap victory on PHS and IRC.
Our own Matt Rose sailed his SS27 King Canute in the race. At 27 feet, King Canute was far and away the smallest yacht in the fleet and the trip home would have been a real challenge for the crew. They finished in under 9 hours, enduring a persistent belting all the way.
