SOPYC Short Course Regatta - Australia

[Jon Stubbs]

South of Perth short course, sports boats regatta provided plenty of thrills and spills. Four races on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. The races were about 40 minutes long.

Saturday was offshore 12 to 18 knots from the east ,with gusts to 22knots. Sunday was lighter with 9 to 15knots with gusts to 17Knots. The wind was shifting up to 30 degrees.

A fleet of  14 boats sailed -  6 Vipers, 1 Shaw 650, 3Thompson 750?s, and 7?s,  Elliots, Farr 25?s et al

The second new Shaw 650 in the state, Octopussy, had been performing well in recent weeks and this was her first meeting with all the Vipers. Again, there was much interest in how each class would perform.

Two or three Vipers and the Thompson 750?s  performed better upwind than the Shaw and generally finished ahead  at the first mark. The Shaw generally made good gains downwind but had to work through quite a few boats. Not many let them reach over the top of them so quite often they had to gybe off and hope they were going the right way.  It made for interesting tight racing.

Line honours  was shared between the three Thompson 750?s with Guy Skinner dominating day one.  The Red boat (T 750) won most races on Sunday but  Mark Robbins and Scotch on the new Shaw 650 sailed really well in race 8 for an over the line and handicap win.

On SMS, the Vipers proved too strong with Rod Beurteaux  announced winner.  The Vipers won 5 or 6 races with placings in the other races. Second and third were also Vipers but that result was subject to change due to Octopussy making a few alterations to their handicap rating that the officials had overlooked.
Octopussy might have slipped into second or third place overall.

No updated results are up on the SOPYC site.

Again, great racing and friendly competition and quite a few beers shared in the brand new, massive ?sportsboat hardstand? after racing. The new hardstand area is the biggest and best on the river. It includes three new cranes with finger jetties and a launching ramp. The facility is tailor made for sports boats and will attract new boats to South of Perth Yacht Club.