The idea of our inaugural Team Challenge was to introduce our two classes to each other & to have some fun before our 2023 seasons officially starts.
From feedback received on the day I am pleased to report that our Team Challenge held on the 14th January was a success.
It was a format of racing that we had not tried before – this involved selectively pairing up an IOM sailor with a Laser sailor. We had 10 teams/20 boats at the start of the day – team selection was done before the day taking into account the various skill levels of entrants. Not an easy task but seemed to work well. Each team had to come up with a team name as you will see on the score sheet.
Forecast was for 50% chance of showers, cloudy with increasing southwesterly wind 15-25km/h. Luckily the 50% chance did not happen & the cloud cover kept temperatures down. The wind steadily increased throughout the day – we could not have asked for better weather.
All IOMs sailed with A Rig all day & the Lasers used B rig, with one exception who used a C rig.
In total we had 12 races – each race comprising two rounds of the course for the Lasers & the same for the IOMS.
The teams quickly got the hang of the new format – it was great to see the Laser & IOM sailors get on so well & the inter team banter added to the fun. We had to manipulate two of the teams after a couple of boats had to withdraw with tech issues.
As you will see by the attached scoresheet the day was won with consistently good sailing by Roger Frith (Laser) and Phil Pearce (IOM) with 25 points, second place was a draw with 30 points each but taken out by Neil Carroll (Laser) & Doug Allen (IOM) on countback , third place going to Geoff Morris (Laser) & Michael Bourke (IOM).
Overall the level of sailing was excellent with few issues on the water – a credit to those that participated & certainly added to the enjoyment of the day.
Looks like we will be using the same format for our Season opener on Australia Day Thursday 26th January – details of the event is on our website www.scrsc.org.au
Our appreciation goes to members that arrived early for set up & to those that helped pack up at the end of the day. Adele & Ross Mackay did a great job mastering our new BBQ providing a sausage sizzle for our hungry sailors & volunteers. Not to forget Doug & Derick for bringing & returning the MSU & Boat trailers. Scoring was performed by our highly proficient Gwen Warne & race observing done by Adele – thanks Ladies for a great job as usual ! A superb effort by all.
The final thank you goes to Roger Frith for donating a 6m x 3m marquee to the Club.
We encourage participants to give us any comments & feedback on this format of our Team Challenge fun racing day, we are always keen to look at ways of improving what we offer our Members.