Comet wins all three heats, Flasheart bounces back to edge out Mary Maitland

Few yachts graced the local waters last Saturday with only two fleets competing in harbour and King George Sound races in a gentle southerly that hovered around 10-12 knots.

Four Hansas sailed three short-course harbour heats and Susette Evans skippering her Liberty class Hansa, Comet, proved too good when she won all three.

The parasailer and former club commodore has only been sailing for the past three seasons and is proving that age and a disability means nothing on the water.

Another parasailer Rob Cridge, skippering his Liberty class Hansa, Jaffa, also put in a sterling performance by getting second place in all three heats.

The other two Hansas are the smaller 303s with a skipper and passenger.

Reece Holden skippered Limeburner with Chris Oldham to three third placings which was well done when you take into consideration the size and weight .

The other 303 Rubber Ducky was skippered by Seb Stone with Rachael Hodgson as passenger.

He was also very competitive and not far off the pace in two heats.

Three division-two yachts started in their King George Sound event and Stephen Lee skippering Flasheart was after revenge having lost to Stephen Brown the previous week.

He was smartly away and began opening up a considerable lead to both Brown in Mary Maitland and Ian Johnston in Cambio.

All three were under spinnaker as they sped out of the harbour for several legs in the sound.

Brown and Johnston were neck and neck when they got into the sound but way behind Flasheart.

Brown made up some ground on Lee and got well ahead of Johnston when they sailed back into the harbour for the last few legs.

Flasheart went on to win by less than a minute on corrected time from Brown who had sailed extremely well with only one other crew.

Johnston was third and enjoyed the challenge in only his second race with Cambio and will only improve with each outing.

Those three boats were joined by Geoff Oliver in his division-one yacht, Excitable, which began the chase 10 minutes later.

It was exciting to see Oliver and his hard working crew catch all three in a fine display in their training run.