NINETY-two boats gathered at Manning Point for the annual Taree Aquatic Club Marathon on Sunday.
First boats away were the non-spinnaker trailer yachts with the smaller dinghies and catamarans. The noon start was spectacular with the large fleet starting in a light nor-east breeze.
Mikado, sailed by local veteran sailor Warren Ruprecht, had the best of the start and led the fleet towards Pelican Bay for the long trek home. The mass mixed fleet jockeyed for positions as they passed Harrington Waters, giving the spectators a real show.
Around and hour later the local fleets of MG 14s and NS14s were joined by a host of assorted skiffs, catamarans and trailer yachts with spinnakers. With the breeze beginning to build a clear start would be vital to avoid the bulk of the fleet.
Best away were Getcha Cans Out, a cherub from Belmont sailed by Simon Blatchford and crew. These lads enjoyed some great spinnaker rides with precise crew work, which wasn’t that easy for the crewmember who sailed with his broken wrist in a fibreglass cast.
Also well away was current MG 14 national champion Final Phase sailed by Greg Roche from Toronto Sailing Club and Dark Side of the Moon sailed by Robert Fish and young Sam Ferguson sailing in his first race. Even though the spinnaker yachts were slower off the start than the skiffs they soon made up ground on the smaller boats and enjoyed the building breeze, with Thimp (Peter Wilson) Mitchell Sails (Justin Mitchell) and Willaroo (Phillip booker) all reveling in the conditions.
The last fleet away was the boats sailing for outright line honors. Six vee esses fresh from their national titles including John Hodder’s Firestorm, current national champions from Teralba, took part. Also present were two 16 foot skiffs, some big catamarans from Great Lakes, local big skiff Browns Creek Ferry and a young sailboarder Matt Lancy from Newcastle.
With the breeze freshening to 15 knots these craft put on a fantastic display of skill and colour for the many spectators along the way.
The lead group consisted of the 16 foot skiff K.O.FM, Formula Sailboard, Firestorm and the Taipan Cat Snake of the Lake. This changed slightly as Big Tim decided to capsize the “Snake” and this proved costly.
One other memorable capsize involved Warren Ruprecht turning turtle as the line honors craft made their way through the other two fleets.
K.O.FM. and Matt Lancy’s sailboard crossed downwind tacks from the bypass bridges all the way to the finish line, with K.O.FM. just pipping the sailboard by three seconds for overall line honors.
Third was Snake of the Lake who recovered well to hold out the very consistent Firestorm showing just why they were national VS champions.
The next three boats were all vee esses, Wobegong (Brian Cleece) from the Hawksbury River then local boats Raptor (Rob and Hayden Baker and Adam Birkefeld) and Stowe Australia (team Folkes).
Due to the lighter breeze the record was not in danger of being broken.
With the bulk of the three fleets now in full sight the committee had their hands full clocking in the 92 strong fleet.
Another strong fleet of compass careel/investigator yachts turned out mainly from Newcastle and Sydney once again giving great support to the event.
All up there were approximately 40 trailer yachts taking part some of them thoroughbred racing machines and some purely afternoon cruisers but they all added a special touch to this great event.
Marathon organiser Ross Green was thrilled with the 92 strong turn out which in turn justifies the hard work both he and his committee have put into making the event such a success.