The Adelaide Sailing Club here in West Beach, South Australia are playing host to the IODA Oceanian Championship and the AIODA Australian Nationals. This event has attracted sailors from 11 countries and 4 continents and is the largest Oceanian Championship for many years. With 94 boats in the Open Fleet and 47 in the Green Fleet
The Fleet is broken up into 4 Groups (Blue, White, Yellow and Green) they race 2 Groups against each other there for there are 2 starts each time for the one heat. With sailors from , UAE, USA, Papa Nugini, Denmark, France, UK, Singapore, Honk Kong & all Australian states.
The Second day Thur 7th was very light 0 -5kts
The sailors arrived at the club to a little breeze. The race committee were optimistic of starting on time and preparations by both race committee and sailors were rewarded as the breeze began to fill in from the south west only to 5 knots.
Klause sailed well to keep in the top 10 overall.
Eva won the second Heat of the Green Fleet
The Third Day (Today) Fri 8th The boats launched for race 5 at 11am this morning in what was a very shifty breeze from the north east. Getting the fleet away was difficult as the shifting breeze at one point meant that the sailors could not lay the pin end mark on starboard tack. Eventually after several abandonments the fleet got away. For the sailors this was a particularly frustrating race as the wind flicked 180° more than once and beats became runs and vice versa. Luckily all divisions completed race 5 and then as the breeze died completely, the sailors retired to the clubhouse to wait for conditions to improve.
Finally, just after 5pm, the sailors were called out again for the sixth race of the championship. The breeze was still patchy but with 6 knots and building, the race officer was hopeful of getting in a race before the sea breeze died completely at the end of the day. The fleet started cleanly but the tide was pushing the sailors down the course so there were a few anxious moments when the first sailor rounded the windward mark just minutes before the time limit. The breeze had now strengthened to 9 knots and this final race of the day means that the first discard of the championship can now be applied.
The forecast tomorrow is for even higher temperatures so once again we may be sailing into the early evening when the sea breeze becomes more stable.
See this link for the results: http://www.yachting.org.au/site/yachting/event/23072/default.html?MenuID=Regattas%2F20297%2F0%2F%2COpti%5FNats%5F0910%2F21988%2F40803%2F
Regards,
Paul Wyatt