High tension at winter race

Most crews opted to set a reaching spinnaker out to the first mark in a fairly stiff south-easterly and all yachts powered away.

Slick teamwork saw boats dropping their spinnakers and rounding the mark to tack back towards the beach. From there, the trick was in trying to pick the wind-shifts.

Gradually, the backmarkers pegged back the early leaders and as the breeze fell away, so too did the inexperienced crews and heavier cruising boats.

In division one, the two Beneteau First 35s Mulberry (Mark Pitt) and Haywire (Brett Young) had a great tussle surging through the fleet. Victory went to Mulberry by only three seconds.

This resulted in Mulberry winning the winter competition by one point from Salamander (Bruce Bradford) and Low Flying Duck (Ryan Binedell) a further two points back.

In division two, Show Me (Bruce Ellery), starting at the front, held off the fastest yacht Covert Operation (Graham Atkinson) who, with the second placing, clinched the series win with Sublime (John Newman) and Show Me taking the minor places.

Division three yacht Catabatic (Rob Bills), outpointing many division two boats, enjoyed a race and series win with Sensei (Brett Bailey) second.

The warmer winter days brought out the biggest winter fleet, making it the most successful season.

The club will hold its Open Day on October 3 as it awaits the arrival of the more consistent Fremantle Doctor breeze.