Peter Bane records victory with Dunluce, Jessie James and Frequent Flyer win div two races

Division two skipper Peter Bane, having solved his crewing problems, sailed one of his best races in a King George Sound competition to win with Dunluce on corrected time.

It was one of Bane’s best efforts with Dunluce and more of the same can be expected.

All skippers and crews in all fleets enjoyed the champagne sailing conditions with a warm southerly that never reached 10 knots.

Four division two yachts faced the starter, and unfortunately for Stephen Lee, he had Flasheart grounded in the shallows but luckily was able to extricate himself from the mud to be less than a minute late.

With a skeleton crew, he was able to bridge the gap and stay in contention.

Stephen Brown, also with only one crew member on Mary Maitland, set the early pace having had a spinnaker duel across the harbour with Josh Hughes in Joker.

Dunluce was able to stay in touch with the leaders.

After several legs in the sound, Brown was still leading as they came back into the harbour.

Flasheart was putting pressure on Brown and Joker had fallen off the pace.

Brown put Mary Maitland over the line first but Dunluce was declared the winner.

Brown was second and recorded fastest time making him a happy skipper.

Joker was third in an improved showing, with plenty of potential for future races.

Division two also competed in a KGS event and three yachts made up the small fleet.

Geoff Oliver, in Excitabull, was quickly away from Harold Keay’s Shagabull and Brett Hawker’s Jessie James.

Oliver led the other two out into the sound, where it was slow going over the long course.

Keay was forced to retire after hitting the front, leaving Jessie James and Excitabull to battle it out.

Hawker managed to take the lead on the last leg after a mighty tussle with Oliver to win by about 30 seconds after sailing for three hours.

Three Flying Fifteens sailed a harbour course event, and in the ideal weather, nothing much separated them.

Simon Lucas, skippering FForever Young, jumped to the lead but couldn’t shake off a determined Wayne North, in Frequent Flyer, and Aileen Lucas, in Crazy.

North continued to put pressure on Simon Lucas and was rewarded with a victory on corrected time, being only 30 seconds in real time.

Crazy had done enough to take second place, with FForever Young relegated to third but fastest.