SUNDAY’S forecast of a light nor-westerly breeze shifting to west then south-west increasing to 20 knots proved fairly accurate for the Hillarys Yacht Club sailors competing in the Marmion Reef race.
It was light airs filling spinnakers, then from the Centaur cardinal marker for a distance of seven nautical miles north up to Ocean Reef it was a thrilling hang-on ride in 17 knots of wind.
Ian Walker’s catamaran Sally Malay revelled in such conditions coming in a whopping 16 minutes ahead of second-placed Perle on handicap with Whispering Jack (Bruce Bradford) third in a division one fleet of nine yachts.
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In division two it was a much closer tussle with Farrouk (Lee Burrows and Rod Hernaman) ahead of Sheer Magic (Tony Waymouth) by just 12 seconds and two minutes ahead of Tony Brooke on Tropical Itch after four hours of sailing.
Fastest in division two was Graham Atkinson and Bart Brouwer on Covert Operation.
Steve Okeefe sailed Comfortably Numb into first and fastest in division three with new owners Tim and Katie Tucker second on Show Me and Larraine Brindle on Anastasia was third.
