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.
With the forecast being for winds to build, uncharacteristic was the word of the day. Uncharacteristically the weather followed script, with winds up to 28 knots being recorded during the course of the Sunday’s River Race C course, which. also somewhat uncharacteristically was able to be sailed in full.

Three yachts faced the start line, Zig Zag, Cool Change and Mimosa. Conventional wisdom would have it that the conditions favoured Mimosa, with Zig Zag being least favoured. With conventional wisdom being shown the door, club handicapper Ken Macdonald was the winner with less than two minutes covering the field after handicaps were applied.
The first leg of the race from Settlement Point to the Hibbard Ferry saw all yachts revelling in the conditions, with Zig Zag taking the lead over Cool Change and reaching ferry in advance of Cool Change, with Mimosa at the rear, with all yachts recording sub 20 minute times for the leg.

With yachts taking a breather while crossing the ferry it was Zig Zag that sprinted away for the leg to the Dennis bridge and return, completing that leg clearly in advance of Cool Change and Mimosa, with Cool Change extending it’s lead over the undercrewed Mimosa, battling the conditions with only three onboard.

The final leg of the race tested crews with multiple tacks required to finish. Unsurprisingly Zig Zag having built up a substantial lead was first across the line, followed by Cool Change with Mimosa coming in third, but recording by far the quickest time of all yachts for that leg. Skippers and crew agreed that it had been an exhilarating, if somewhat exhausting day with the
prospect of a hot shower being high on the list of post race priorities.

The day’s results seemed inconsequential after such an invigorating sail, but for the record river shaman Teddy Clausen steered Cool Change to a victory, while surprisingly Zig Zag took second place on a day where she might have been anticipated to struggle, while Mimosa took third place.