Last weekend saw a fantastic two days of sailing with a variety of races and winds for the 2018 BIG Boat Regatta.  This year we had 17 boats participating across 4 divisions.  There were teams representing both DSC & DBCYA, Defence & GBC had teams chartering 3 of the Elliot 7 and there was also a WOW team aboard Cleaning Lady.

Saturday saw 3 short windward leeward races hosted by the DSC.  Racing was close with some of the mark rounding’s and finishes rather tight.  There were light breezes for the first two races until it filled in just before the last race of the day.  The Under 30 fleet had the best line up with 8 boats taking part who put on a good show for the spectators on the wharf.  One of the Defence teams had a man overboard mid-race but thankfully managed a swift recovery in under 4 minutes.

Day 2 and the final race was also the first of the Wet Season Series hosted by DBCYA.  A strong rain squall made for an interesting start for the first 2 fleets with winds of 48 knots recorded in Doctors Gully!  A number of boats had to pull out or return to the marinas for various reasons so the finishing list was a bit shorter than expected.  After the initial squall passed through it was a nice race through the harbour in the sunshine.

The BIG Boat Regatta will be on again in 2019 with suggestions of running the event before the end of October to allow more MANTA boats to participate and to continue to allow the Elliot 7 fleet to also take part.  We are open to feedback for anyone that has any please contact claire.hall@sailing.org.au before Nov 15 2018.

Special thanks to Tom Griffiths for a great job Race Officer on Saturday, Ed Vincent for assistance with Elliot 7 teams, Bob Coleman for handicaps and Gove Boat Club for travelling all the way to Darwin to join in! Final placings for the weekend were…

DIVISION 1 - Racing

1. X Factor                                Steve Schortz                    DSC                        5.00
2. Mango Madness              Bo Wharton                        DSC                        6.00
3. Zanzibar                               Jenny Simondson            DSC                        6.00       

DIVISION 2 - Under 30

1. Elliot 4                                   Alanna Field                       GBC                       5.00
2. Elliot 2                                   Finn Niemeier                   Defence               7.00
3. Glass Onion                        Karyn Geitch                      DSC                        8.00

DIVISION 3 - Cruising

1. Insatiable II                         Kai Pederson                     DSC                        3.00
2. Our Philosophy                 Glen Stanford                    DBCYA                  6.00

DIVISION 4 - Multihull

1. Ms Palmer                          Francis Wilkins                   DSC                        3.00
2. Cockatoo                             Matt Punch                        DSC                        5.00