Division two skipper Ian Johnston shines in King George Sound event

Division-two skipper Ian Johnston won his first race on corrected time with his fairly new yacht Cambio in last Saturday’s King George Sound event.

Johnston has scored a second and a third so far this season but in his latest outing sailed extremely well to win handsomely with time to spare against some gun boats.

Johnston was able to stay in touch of the leading yachts throughout and was always in contention for a place.

Five yachts started in ideal sailing conditions with a light but steady south-easterly about 11 knots which was very pleasant compared with some of the dreadful weather experienced early in the season.

Stephen Brown won the start with Mary Maitland and led the fleet almost into the sound where he was swamped by the likes of Chris Oldham in Joker, Stephen Lee in Flasheart and the eventual winner Ian Johnston in Cambio.

A new yacht making a guest appearance in this fleet was Sicarius.

Joker surprisingly led the fleet back into the harbour with Johnston and Lee not far behind.

All of a sudden Flasheart surged to the lead with Joker doing everything to keep up but to no avail as Lee took line honours but could only get third and fastest in a masterly display.

Johnston took the race easily on corrected time with Joker not disgraced in second place.

Four division-three yachts competed in a KGS race and Geoff Oliver in Excitabull won the start and led the way out into the sound where it all ended after he was overpowered by Marco Giuntoli in Scappata, Harold Keay in Shagabull and Brett Hawker in Jessie James.

Keay adopted to go jib and main as he had an inexperienced crew on board but he still managed to stay in touch with the leaders.

As they sailed back into the harbour Scappata was leading but only just ahead of Jessie James which was doing well by being so close.

As they neared the finish line all interest was on Scappata and Jessie James and who would win and Hawker with a generous handicap got the nod, leaving Giuntoli in second place with fastest time while Keay was third in a good effort.

Three Flying Fifteens conducted a harbour course event and Simon Lucas had FForever Young away very rapidly knowing that he had to be more than two minutes ahead of either the other two to be able to win.

Aileen Lucas with crew Ela North on Crazy had a close encounter with John Swarbrick and Wayne North on Frequent Flyer throughout the race, with the lead changing frequently.

FForever Young was looking good for that elusive win until both Crazy and Frequent Flyer made up the gap to the leader in the latter stages which saw Simon Lucas crossing the finish line about 10 seconds too late, handing the race to Aileen Lucas in a very narrow win.

Swarbrick was second leaving Simon Lucas in third place but with fastest time.

Two Vipers conducted two un-official short-course harbour races, and both skippers and crews put on a show of speed around the marks with each having a win.