Cougar II hammered downhill, which set up their line honours win this morning.

The Club Marine Series, Day Five – the winner is seabreeze.

That’s seabreeze the site, not the natural event. From a few days out, they predicted that Melbourne’s Port Phillip would have 20-25knots out of the North for the morning and then coming back into the teens for the afternoon. Other sites have since modified their theories to match this, as well. The actual observations from Fawkner Beacon, which sits out in the middle of the top part of the Bay, show that seabreeze was right on the money.

Seabreeze.com.au had been talking about 20-25 in the morning and then 10-20 in the afternoon for days before the race.

The morning Division Zero race of Day Five of the Club Marine Series saw the expected 20 to 25 knots and a little bit of chop, too, as you would expect with breezes that strong. By the time it was all over at 1300hrs, it was back in to 17 knots and varying between 14 to 20 knots, all from due North. There is the occasional squirt still approaching 25 knots, however.

You cannot argue with the Fawkner Beacon observations!

The Farr55, Living Doll, lead the smaller than usual fleet to the top mark for the first time, but by the time they were rounding the bottom mark after two runs, it was the TP52, Cougar II, that had the lead by some 20 to 30 seconds.

All observers out on the course were mesmerised by Cougar’s speed off the breeze and she really was flying. “We’re thrilled with the line honours result! These are great conditions for us, with 23-29 knots out of the North and relatively flat water as a result. A huge amount of fun”, was how her owner, Alan Whiteley, put it.

Cougar II just blitzed off the breeze. Must have been close to illegal in the fun department!

Cougar had all their usual crew back onboard, a computer that was working again and some fresh wool for the kites today. On Day Four of the CMS, Living Doll graciously gave them theirs, as they departed the course after the first race.

“The crew worked really well today. We did get a spin sheet around the keel, but it was recovered, almost before it happened. We saw quite a few shifts, through nearly 60 degrees. Thankfully the team in Fantasy Land down the back, picked each and every one”, Alan went on to add.

Veloce tore their kite from tape to tape, a couple of metres below the head, during the second run this morning.

The second run also took some other casualties, with Veloce blowing a kite to pieces in the brisk breeze. We trust they have another onboard, as the afternoon looks set to be a classic, good breeze and flat water race, as well, which is entirely suited to the modern planning hulls. The first race was postponed for just a minute, which some found a little interesting. A lot of crews commented on “Just how nice it is out here.” No doubt the crews from Divisions 1,2 and 3 will be singing the same tune shortly, as they arrive on station for their races.

So Cougar II won this morning’s race, with Living Doll second over the line and then the other TP52, Shogun, in third. Goldfinger brought home the 50-foot contingent, with a fourth place over the line.