This years Hastings Yacht Club Winter series was a tightly contested one consisting of 8 races with 2 discards. The 3 Divisions were Trailer Sailors, Keelboats and Multihulls. The series was well supported with usually about 25 boats competing of which there were 4 regular Multihull entrants. The sailing conditions for the entire series ,which was run every other Saturday, was one of light winds. On 2 occasions the wind picked up, but never enough to warrant the first reef.
George Bulka in Redshift started as the Multihull division favourite, but in the earlier races George was experimenting with a new rudder configuration which resulted in a DNF and some quick design work. Al Bennett in Mustang Sally started well and used his Screecher to great effect in several races. Pressure of work and stand in skippers bought Al back in line with Redshift. Dave Tapper in Shuttle faired better in the lighter conditions that kept the full potential of the Farriers at bay.
Mark Southwell in Fleetwind was a regular competitor and showed good speed upwind but seemed to enjoy cruising downwind. Chris Culph on Slick Willie joined us for a couple of races before being "demounted" and packed up for delivery to its new home in Queensland. Slick will leave a hole in the SOMR fleet and Bundy sales in Victoria! Vince Gardiner joined us initially on Trifle, but dropped out after a couple of races.
At the end of the Series Redshift, Mustang and Shuttle had each won 2 races. The final result after the discards was Redshift and Mustang equal first with Shuttle in 3rd Place. An enjoyable series well run by the Hastings race committee who worked hard at keeping the fleet active by promising free sausage sizzles after most races.... seemed to work. We now look forward to a combined Hastings and Yaringa Summer series and are hopeful that the Cat's parked up Rutherford inlet will come out of hibernation and show the Tri's a thing or two!!!
