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Lake Cootharaba Sailing Club once again hosted the Queensland State Titles during the weekend of 1-2 October. Ten entries were received with four of those traveling from New South Wales for the event. Unfortunately Norm & Lesley Thompson’s visit was once again thwarted by a bit of bad luck with Exit developing a leak which was unable to be repaired sufficiently for them to compete.
Only eight boats lined up for the start of race one as Raptor managed to break a halyard prior to the start and headed back to shore for repairs. The race was started in around 10 knots of westerly breeze with stronger gusts keeping everyone on their toes. Decepticon sailed by Bucky Smith reached the top mark first followed by the bunch all of which were battling for position. With the breeze oscillating and gusting it was a lottery going up each beat and some hairy rides were experienced with each downwind leg. Decepticon managed to handle the conditions best and sailed to a
clear win with Once a Knight sailed by Hamish Urquhart working through the fleet to pip Scaliwag (Murray Dyer) on the finish line for second place.
Due to the increasing wind strength the races scheduled for Saturday afternoon were postponed and rescheduled for an early start on Sunday morning. A leisurely afternoon was enjoyed by all as was the get together at the Apollonian Hotel for dinner that night.
Sunday morning was still quite gusty with the wind more into the south west and still oscillating considerably. However the Race Committee did all that can be done in this situation and race 2 got underway as scheduled with the Decepticon team once again showing their class. Scaliwag was once again pipped on the finish line for second place but this time by The Matrix sailed by John Horler.
Race 3 was started shortly after the completion of race 2 with Scaliwag managing to get the jump on Decepticon up the first beat leading to the top mark but clipped the mark with her boom and thus completing a penalty turn. Jackpot sailed by Robert Huckfeldt finished second with Once a Knight managing to scrape past Plan B sailed by Bruce Wales for third place.
Race 4 saw a number of boats decide not to brave the conditions so only 5 boats started with Decepticon and Scaliwag arriving at the top make together but once again Decepticon jumped clear down the first reach and went on for a clean series score. Scaliwag managed to hang on to record a second ahead of The Matrix.
As only four races were completed competitors were not permitted any drops and the final scores can be scene at Results
