This Regatta, has been run and won, with a total of 10 Mosquito's turning up, a great turn out, and 4 boats had younger sailors showing their skills, 2 cat rigged and 2 sloop. these young sailors were keen to ask questions and learn about sailing their boats faster, this all goes well for the future of the class.

Friday there was 1 race scheduled this had to be abandoned until Saturday due to to much wind! many tents were flattered and some totally destroyed this should give you an indication of how much fun we had chasing flying objects around the camping area!

3 races on Saturday in winds varying from 12 to 20 knots, the Cats were split into 2 divisions with the A's and Taipan s in Div 1, Div 2 consisted of Mossies, 7 Maricats , a Hobie 16 and a Hobie 14, in all 3 of these races No Turbulence was first across the finish line with Courageous and young Lachlan Stephens fighting it out for 2 and 3 places, with Courageous sneaking into second in all 3.

Saturday night consisted of a band and a beer tasting competition, so entertainment for all.

Sunday morning race was racing in 15 to 20 knots No Turbulence won and both Courageous and Lachlan ended upside down leaving some other mossies to take 2 & 3rd (I need someone to fill in who made these positions I think I was off getting warm and missed which order everyone came in).

Sunday afternoon the breeze increased at the start it was over 20 knots and it kept building, a slight wind shift made the 1st windward a one tack speed race to the 1st mark, ideal for the Sloops, fist around the mark was Tom Stuchbery in a very nice looking blue sloop Mossie. 2nd was No Turbulence closely followed by the Hobie 16. Tom was still in front at the wing mark sailing well, on the next reach No Turbulence passed Tom and the Hobie made his move to the front. unfortunately on the next windward Tom's mast broke taking him out of the race, Sam Stephens (who is still a junior) also broke a mast in this race. in the finish across the line was No Turbulence, Hobie 16, another sloop Mossie Icthus, then Courageous showing consistency in all conditions.

Monday dawned for the traditional John Lane memorial stern chaser, we all woke up to rain and cold. in this race is combined for all Divisions Cats and Monos. For some reason the Mossie doesn't fair to well in the time sheets for this stern chaser and I knew again we had the short straw when one of the Taipan sailors said I had to give him 5 minutes head start!, a quick look at the start times and No Turbulence, was second last off, with a Taipan 5.7 with a spinnaker 1 minute further back! to put that in prospective the Mosquito is faster than the State and National tile winners in both A class and Taipan (why doesn't everyone sail a mosquito!).
As No Turbulence only gets the occasional outing I decided to race for the fun of it anyway, I also likes the challenge of seeing how many boats I could pass.

The course was a short windward(maybe 15m) round the mark downwind to mark B a windward to mark A a reach to Mark C a reach to mark B a windward to the ID mark and finish.

A long 36 minutes after the 1st boat started No Turbulence hit the start line in an increasing wind at the 1st mark passing the first boat (he was upside down) the wind was now above 25 knots and still building, while working on keeping the bows above water, I watched 1st an A class go over followed by a Taipan go in another 2 places made up!, around the mark and back on the wind I could see Icthus and the Hobie 16 in front, as I sailed closed they headed straight for shore, it crossed my mind that maybe we shouldn't be out here, but I was enjoying the ride so around the mark I went heading up the 1st reach, and noticed a Taipan heading toward land (a long walk from the club) and another Taipan on shore sheltering behind the point (even further from the club). I approached the wing mark with some trepidation as it was close to the shore and if I couldn't time the gybe I might just be sailing on the land! thankfully I managed to get around the mark at this point most of the boats I could see were upside down, so when I sailed near them I did a quick head count to make sure no one had been separated from their boats (the rescue boats were keeping busy). the last windward I could see a fireball (still sailing) 1/2 a leg in front and looked at passing him, as I got close the trap wire decided it had had enough and broke giving me a swim after getting the boat up and sailing to the finish with no trap, I could not catch the fireball but was the first (and only i think) cat to finish.
So an interesting race and to those who decided to watch.
A special thanks to the organises of this regatta, they hand out trophies on handicap and scratch so the mossie sailors took lots of them away.
So some young sailor in the class to keep an eye on are the Spephens brothers, Tom Stuchbery and Al Noone.

Ross