Copied from the VMCA site, thanks to Tim.

Spinnaker State Titles

Well what an interesting weekend! A check of the satelite images and weather reports at McRae YC on Saturday morning showed the wind probably wasn't quite as strong as it looked (20 knot gusts). Seven mozzied rigged up with spinnakers and Simon was also there without a spinnaker but representing his home club McRae and generally staying on top of organising everyone for the day.

McRae YC ran two races for us and the Westerly wind certainly had plenty of strength but was very shifty, making the windward legs especially challenging. However the downwinds were an absolute blast, with plenty of speed and some pretty "exciting" gusts (too exciting for some!). There was a lot of place changing with Matt, Peter, Neil, Tim and Gary all sharing time at the front. However by the end of the two races Gary had demonstrated that important ability to be the one in front at the end of the race, and was in front with two firsts.

We left our boats rigged at McRae YC and headed back to Neil's accommodation for a delicious barbeque dinner.

Sunday morning we rigged early and sailed over to Rosebud for some light-wind practise. The first race managed to maintain 6 to 8 knots of breeze but after that it started to get more fickle. Nevertheless Rosebud YC managed to run 4 races for us, with lunch in the middle and Gary once again showed an uncanny ability to simply be in the right place at the right time and pulled out another 3 wins to clearly win the overall title.

Thanks a lot to Simon Clavin at McRae for being the oil that kept the wheels turning over the weekend, to McRae YC for running our races on Saturday, and to Rosebud YC for running our races on Sunday, and providing lunch.

Results:
Position Sail No Name Boat Name Score Race 6 Race 5 Race 4 Race 3 Race 2 Race 1
1 1760 Gary Maskiell Thrice Bitten 5 1 1 1 3 1 1
2 1789 Neil Joiner Immunity 13 3 3 2 4 3 2
3 1816 Matt Stone Unko 15 2 2 5 2 5 4
4 1775 Tim Shepperd Karma Cat 17 6 6 3 1 4 3
5 1790 Peter Nikitin Bee Alert 19 4 4 4 5 2 DNF
6 1794 Philip Warren-Smith More than a Splash 32 5 5 7 7 DNC DNC
7 1805 Trevor Armstrong Just a toy 33 DNC 7 6 6 6 DNF