The allure of Port Macquarie lies in its sub-tropical climate and all that it brings in terms of wildlife beaches and the general positive energy it exudes. Visitors and locals received a treat on Australia Day as yachts in PMYC’s Australia Day regatta made practice starts and jockeyed for position in the regatta start area in front of the Town Green, with the extended unofficial prestart of around 30 minutes between the on water race briefing, and the 11.00am start time, drawing a substantial crowd of onlookers.

When racing began, Kookaburra 2 took start from the pin end, while Enticer followed closely at the opposite end of the line. Zig Zag, C Breeze, Third Man, Cool Change and Mimosa were all in the following group. As the yachts moved upriver the crowd of onlookers, having enjoyed a remarkable show at close quarters, slowly disbanded.

The favourable start area breeze soon became a memory to sailors, as the wind direction and wind strengths became modified by the eastern shoreline features the further yachts moved upriver from the starting area. The lightening up of the breeze favoured the flat out race boats in the fleet, while the cruiser/racers struggling in a current racing at around 3.5 – 4.5 knots began to fall behind.

Commodore Andrew Walmsley’s Enticer took the lead from Zig Zag, with the remainder of the fleet falling well behind. Enticer won the day in this first of three races beating Zig Zag across the finish line by three and a half minutes, although reversing that result after handicaps were applied. That the next boat to finish took 40% more time to sail the course showed the dominance of these two in the prevailing conditions.

Having regard to the conditions the OOD elected to shorten the course to the northern half of the river section, unfortunate for any people on Town Green hoping for more on water pre start action, but meeting with approval from sailors.

Race two saw a keenly contested start at the mid river Twilight start line with Kookaburra 2, Zig Zag and Enticer all hitting the start line more or less in unison. It was Enticer that again took the lead, with Zig Zag in hot pursuit with Kookaburra 2 and C Breeze following in that order. While in the previous race not all yachts managed to complete the course, all finished the second race with the order across the line being Enticer, Zig Zag, Kookaburra 2, Katherine then C Breeze, Cool Change Third Man and Mimosa, although in the published results there was an error by Kookaburra 2’s skipper in submitting times that was not
corrected before publication. Handicap placings were C Breeze, Katherine, and Third Man.

Race three was shortened even further, with the removal of one of the two top marks from the course to be sailed. Zig Zag won the start, but was soon overhauled by Enticer. Third Man, which was favoured by the course shortening improved it’s performance and was fourth at the finish on scratch, but managing to take handicap honours, for the final race and
for the regatta overall.

The final regatta placings were Third Man first, C Breeze second, with Cool Change finishing on equal points to C Breeze in third place on countback.