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MELBOURNE YACHT CLUB FALL REGATTA TUNE UP FOR NATIONALS

28 OCTOBER 2006 • Article courtesy of Mary Anne Ward With temperatures in the 70s and winds from 16 to 25 racing on the Indian River was fast and furious for the first day of the Melbourne Fall Regatta. Boats from TN to FL and GA gathered to work out the kinks before Nationals in Jacksonville next month.

In Race 1 Reid Collins from Lake Lanier taught everyone about spinnaker sets in big wind. Rounding the mark first he stayed deep for the set and sailed deep on a plane, huge gains were made against the rest of fleet who had been right on his heels. Racing continued to be tight for the rest of the fleet with Bob McElwain from Naples taking a second and local sailor John Harrison in third.

Race 2 brought a steadier wind speed of 18 but the shifts were big. Jeff Duvall from Sarasota led the way after the second downwind leg. Sail handling on the front of the boat proved to be one of the differences between being in the front of the fleet and being left in the dust. Take-downs were tricky in such shifty conditions. Jeff held on to win with Reed Collins in second and Bob McElwain in third.

Race 3 Ryan Hamm from Charleston won the start at the pin end and all the boats headed to the left but the downwind leg was the big separator. Reid Collins was once again the master of the downwind and led at the downwind mark. This was a really close race with the top five boats rounding within a boat length of each other. Reid’s tactics and upwind speed in this race kept him in the lead with John Harrison in second and Bob McElwain in third. Bob said he never saw less than 14 knots of on one entire downwind.

Race 4 • The wind had come up even more and was trying to shift to the west. As the boats are in the last seconds of the start sequence a 30 degree shift comes with the gun. John Harrison who was in position to win the pin hit it. Racing remained very tight and that cost him dearly. The winds were 24 at the top mark making the rounding really exciting since the top five boats were within a boat length of each other. Steve Jones from TN and Reid Collins fought for the top stop. Reed took top honors while Steve hung in there for a second with Jeff Duvall taking third.

As Reid Collins said at the end of racing today; “We caught most people downwind today by managing to have good sets and clean gybes. It was a terrific day of racing and everyone should come to this event.”

Bob Mc Elwain said; “The key was to battle around the race course with the fewest mistakes. The best boat management is leading the way in these conditions. We came here for lots of racing and big wind, Melbourne has not let us down.”

Stay tuned as day two is sure to be as exciting as today!