On Saturday, a fleet of 33 yachts fronted the starter for the first of the BBIC races for 2019/20. Start line was set at Palm Beach near the Mackeral Beach mark, heading north to take Lion Island to port, then Dangar Island to whichever way you want and finally Scotland Island to port before the finish at RMYC Broken Bay.
The start line was quite biased to the boat end, but the pin end had a nice SW breeze and there was little disadvantage being at that end. Those that elected to run a kite had them up early, but as the fleet approached West Head, the breeze started to go SE, then hard west on the point. Those with spinnakers still in 1 piece turned right and headed for Norfolk Island in a futile attempt to get them down.
The field was still bunched around Lion Island, a strong run out tide and many crab pots causing a lot of grief navigating through the channel. Once in the Hawkesbury, those that elected to tack away from the shore paid a heavy penalty in the tide, and some of them were not seen again.
The work up to Dangar was tricky, with the breeze dying, then gusting W, SW then dying back into the NNW. Most boats took the clockwise option, however a dead spot rejoining the main channel saw a backlog of boats from the middle of the fleet. A new breeze filled in from the SE and built steadily in the main river channel.
On the work to Scotland, a tacking duel developed at the front of the fleet, which continued all the way to the finish line.
First across the line was Chill Factor, 12 seconds in front of Animal Farm. On handicap in the spinnaker division, Aeolian was first, followed by Chaos Theory and Manly Office. Results in Non Spinnaker saw Addiction a clear winner, Kulani then Sassy. The handicapping results saw less than 10 minutes cover the first 15 boats.
Next race is the Gosford Gallop on 14th December.
