MELBOURNE YACHT CLUB WEEKEND RACING

By John Mac Neil

MYC Small Boat Racing, Sunday Sep 7

Thirty boats hit the water for three races in winds that backed from SE to
ENE and built from 6 to 12 knots before thunder closed out the racing. The
fleet was hit with big drops of rain as it re-entered Melbourne Harbour.

Sunfish Gold:
1. Paul Strauley
2. Dave Silverman
3. Tony Elliott
4. John Fletcher
5. Jim Edwards
6. Bill Haberland
7. Chris Gates
8. Mindy Strauley
9. Danny Escobar
10. Chris Lowrie
11. Brian Wolfshon
12. John Fox
13. Kurt Nicholls
14. James Liebl
15. Steve MacLeod

Sunfish Blue:
1. Coral Smith
2. Lynde West
3. Nancy Fox
4. Barbara Safullin
 Laser:
1. James McParrish
2. Paul Henderson
3. Wallie Everest
4. Jack Clark
5. Steven Schwartz

Fla Tech FJ’s
1. Sail # 17
2. Sail # 1
3. Sail # 5
4. Sail # 2

Portsmouth
1. George and Henry Picco - Mega Byte (2nd up against the FIT FJ's)

Twenty Sunfish, five Lasers, four Flying Juniors from Fla Tech and a Mega
Byte kept the RC busy with crowded starts and some close finishes. (Seven
Sunfish from the Gulfstream Sailing Club in Broward County came up to race.)

The racing rewarded the ones sharp enough to see the left side shifts.
Including Dave Silverman who took the advice of Chris Gates to "Go left,
young man" and took a first in race 1. Oddly, Chris stayed right and was
buried at tenth in that race. James Liebl was leading that race and suddenly
found himself in second on the 2nd lap, he missed the shift, too.

The RC was having trouble and blew the wrong recall signal in the second
race. In that race and the third one, the boats over early didn't hear the
recalls. One of the boats to watch was James Liebl. His roll-tacks are just
flat spectacular. Flat is the operative word here. He lays the boat over
almost flat and you'd swear he was capsized with the boom in the water and
the daggerboard out of the water during each of them.

After the races, the fleet pulled their boats out of the water in the rain.
Lynde West opened the bar and the brick pit was covered with
food-a-grilling.

Special thanks to John Russell for being there ready to help with
registration.

We will NOT be racing Sunday, September 21, due to the MYC Mermaid Regatta.
But you can come out and watch the ladies race...