With a peaceful bar crossing, winds hovering around the 15 knot mark and easy seas, skippers and crew, considered they had found the ultimate in sailing bliss, and could only marvel that five yachts alone faced the starter for Sunday’s long ocean north event. · Read more

The definition of relentless is “continuing in a determined way without interruption”. Such definition could be applied to Cool Change’s skipper, who, although having taken an unassailable lead in Port Macquarie Yacht Club’s inshore pointscore, with a crew of irregulars, continued in Cool Change’s domination of club inshore events, on a day that tested all skippers and crew. · Read more

The Port Macquarie yacht club runs sufficient offshore regattas for regularly competing skippers to have a reasonable idea of expected elapsed times for the various courses. Last Sunday, with racing scheduled to commence at 9.30am on the North easterly regatta course a fleet of seven yachts faced the starter at the slightly delayed start, in a light to non existent breeze. · Read more

Many visitors to Port Macquarie who sing the praises of the light and gentle breezes and the safe, accessible beaches would have found only wind whipped sand and beaches closed due to the heavy seas on Saturday when PMYC ran the first day of it’s Invitational race weekend to Laurieton and return. In those conditions four yachts only contested the weekend’s events. Northshore 38 Solar Coaster skippered by Stuart Watson used the weekend as a training run for its skipper who has entered · Read more

Variable breeze from 7kts to 23kts greeted the reduced fleet that faced the started for Sunday’s long river race from Settlement Point to the Dennis bridge turning mark. The handicapper was in form, dealing with the varying winds and a segmented race, managing to produce two separate segment winners, and with the longest segment sailed being decided by a mere 0.77 seconds on handicap. · Read more

Some of the more senior Port Macquarie Yacht Club sailors were heard to comment that last weekend’s Offshore regatta was like an episode of Survivor, as, one by one yachts withdrew from the event until there were only the placegetters left standing. · Read more

Australians are traditionally believed, not least by themselves, to be outdoorsy sporting types, more comfortable wrestling crocodiles, than wrestling a spreadsheet, which was generally considered best left to the less sporty studious types. A rethinking of that image was due following last Sunday’s demonstration “pursuit” event held in the eastern arm of the Hastings river on Port Macquarie Yacht Club’s river A course. · Read more

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was again on the minds of crew on the seven yachts that faced the starter in last Sunday’s “river B” event sailed on the Hastings river between the Settlement Point and Hibbard ferries. With around 2 knots of breeze, unrippled water and tidal run of about 1.5 knots, there was little prospect of starting at the scheduled time. · Read more

Last weekend the Port Macquarie Yacht Club scheduled races to Laurieton and return. After reviewing the weekend weather forecast and in view of dangerous conditions forecast for Sunday, the whole of weekend event was abandoned and replaced by a Saturday non-point score long ocean race. · Read more