Worrell has last laugh over Joker

Division 2 skipper and Princess Royal Sailing Club sailing director Neil Worrell was busy on the harbour last Saturday when he clinched a narrow win over Josh Hughes in Joker and Stephen Brown in Mary Maitland.

Unfortunately, two of the faster yachts in this fleet bolted before the correct starting time and were disqualified leaving the other four to battle it out for major points.

Worrell sailed an excellent race to handicap in the light easterly and had Zuri in with a chance mid-way through the journey.

Hughes was also looking good and had Joker in a good position towards the end of the harbour course competition while Brown, with only one crew, worked hard to stay in contention with Mary Maitland. Gary Eaton had slipped away from those three and had Faster well in front knowing that he had to beat them by a huge margin to have any chance of victory.

Eaton crossed the line six minutes ahead of the next yacht but did not score any points, yet recorded the fastest time yet again.

It was a close and exciting finish for Joker and Zuri with only seconds separating the two. Although Joker beat Zuri over the line, it could only get second on handicap.

Zuri took the honours and Brown was able to snare third place.

Flying Fifteens raced over a harbour course and on this occasion, Simon Lucas in FForever Young had the better of Aileen Lucas in Crazy. In weather conditions suiting Crazy, FForever Young led throughout and extended its lead at every mark.

Like most skippers with large handicaps, Lucas knew he had to finish more than two minutes ahead to win.

FForever Young did just that with time to spare in a fine performance. Division 1 had only three starters and Murray Howson paved the way with Sitting Bull by leading for the entire race.

With his huge handicap, Howson was under pressure to be as far ahead of the others as possible to be a victor.

Marco Giuntoli and Craig Anderson gave a good account of themselves as they tried to match the speed of Sitting Bull with Scappata and halfway through the race they were sitting pretty.

Murray Deere was flying downwind under spinnaker but lost ground on the upwind legs.

Sitting Bull went on to be first over the line but on handicap could only finish in third place and recorded fastest time once again.

Scappata sneaked into first place by a mere five seconds from Wild One on handicap in yet another fine win.

All three yachts sailed extremely well and will take a well-earned rest with the other fleets next weekend as many club members head to Walpole for their annual regatta.