It was a cold and wet weekend on the water but 81 crews rugged up to take on the conditions and contest Race 7 of the Winter Series.
After a gloomy but dry day on Saturday, Sunday proved to be anything but. The day started off with light southerly breeze before swinging around to the east and building to 15-18 knots whilst crews left the Marina.
One crew who was reveling in the conditions was Jason King and his team on Emily.
“There was a good solid breeze all day which is quite good conditions for us. When we left the dock at around 11am it was fairly consistent around 15 knots and rained constantly all day. It got up to around 18 knots at times but we were pretty happy sailing with a full rig for the whole race,” said King.
Jason and his wife Mary King usually compete on their Farr 40 Solymar, which is unavailable for racing as it is currently getting some work done. This meant they were able to seize this great opportunity to skipper Tim Casey’s yacht and bring a classic back to the racecourse.
“It’s a beautiful yacht and with the classic lines it likes to layover and use the extra waterline in reaching conditions. We get a massive amount of comments while we are out racing, even when we are overtaking some people they give us compliments. She is just a great boat,” King explained.
“It has been great, close racing throughout the whole series. Our whole fleet was bunched up right behind us as we went through the finish line. We only just managed to get through the other boats in our division on the last leg so the handicapper has been doing a good job.”
Emily is currently sitting first overall for the series in Division J1 with an eight-point gap back to Silver Cloud III in second place.
With only three races left in the series, crews will be eager to make the last races count as points on the overall series tighten up.
This week’s provisional divisional winners are:
| Division | Boat | Owner |
| Spinnaker (PHS) | ||
| A1 | Celestial | Sam Haynes |
| A2 | Little Nico | Adrian Walters |
| B | Quetzalcoatl | Anto Sweetapple |
| D | Whistling Kite | Kym Evans |
| E | Clavida | Christian Holle |
| F | Reve | Kevin Whelan |
| Non-Spinnaker (PHS) | ||
| J1 | Emily | Jason King |
| J2 | Calypso Magic | Jeff Mercer |
| K | Eau Well | Lee Hawksley |
| Sydney 38 (PHS) | ||
| Utopia | John Amos | |
