With many other sports cancelled because of the extreme weather conditions, the beach seemed the perfect place to be and Nepean Bay in front of the Yacht Club was a blaze of colour and a hive of activity during the morning with kayaks, windsurfers, holdfasts and pacers dotting the water during Sail Training, not to mention all the youngsters taking advantage of a swim.

With a little bit more wind this Saturday, many of the youngsters were fearful and preferred to sit in the duck so there will be changes to the Junior Sail Training on Saturday, hopefully to help the newies gain confidence and they will be notified at school.

We are pleased that more adults came Saturday wishing to sail and we hope they will continue and race on Satunrday afternoon.

In a steady breeze of eight to 10 knots with the wind finally settling from the South-East, eight Lasers raced for the First Championship and Steve Kempster you did get a finish even though you sailed an extra windward and return, had a swim at the buoy in the light airs and came home 23 minutes behind the lead boat.

Peter Lovering was proudly explaining after the race the tactics he used to beat Rick Southgate over the line by 10 seconds.

Two 303s, two Pacers, one Arrow and one 420 competed in Division Two.

Young Josh Thomas skippering his 420 with Mark Ingerson helping him as crew was lamenting the fact that there wasn’t enough wind to get out on traps.

The finish between the 420 and the Arrow sailed by Russell Colman was a cliffhanger with the 420 getting through the finish line by a metre.

Jane Evans attended sail training in the morning and went out with Lindy Muecke in the afternoon and after the race Lindy was teaching Jane how to skipper and came in complaining, in a nice way, that every time they set sail for a buoy, Viking pulled it up.

Only six Holdfasts nominated to race in the afternoon as there was a shortage of crews wishing to go sailing.

Those six boats will get another chance to race for the Championship at a later date as the Race was declared null and void after a protest was lodged against the Committee Boat, which gave outside assistance to several boats but not “Peewee” (Eliza Sheridan/ Abby Ripley-Dennis) which won the race, or “Vampire” (Kate Faint/Charlee Clifford) which retired.