The 2017 City of Rockingham WA State Youth Championships
Sailed at The Cruising Yacht Club of Rockingham
over the 27th and 28th of September
The 27th of September dawned a little better than the previous week. For one it wasn't blowing itself silly and neither was it pouring with rain. But the sailors were there with the best part of 80 boats on the water and lots of volunteers to help them. No less than three courses and the attendant RO's and start teams as well as mark layers and lots of coaches. How do I photograph them all ? Quite hard; but we did have to go ashore and eat so the camera was working hard during the breaks.
But the breeze wasn't co-operating and we sat on our fingers for an hour before J.T., the RO on the Laser/420 course was able to get a race under way. John was good enough to put me onto a bottom mark boat once the race was under way and I managed to get some bottom mark shots. I'd have liked to do more but there weren't enough boats for me to have one to myself. A pity.
So back in for lunch and a good feed with soup and a roll for all. Well done Dean Caple who had organised all this stuff. More photo's taken.
Then back onto the water with the Flying Ants and the 29ers. Not many of them, but they made it up with good humour and trying darned hard in the light breeze. Again RO Trevor was helpful in getting me out onto the water and I managed to get a few shots from the bottom mark again. It's pleasing to see the new RO's being trained up with the current RO's acting as mentors to those in training. And then without any further ado I managed to get a lift over to the third course where RO Robyn was in charge of the Pelicans, Opti's and Bics.
Many more boats this time and the start line was seething with boats especially when the senior Opti's and the Bics fired off. And weren't the Bics lucky.. A decent breeze came in and set them off. We had a set of gates close by so I was able to get some rounding shots, but the start lines were fun and one of the senior Opti's down at the pin end got a little brave and tried to cross the fleet on port. Nearly made it but had to flip half way down the line. Still seemed to be in front when I looked at the last image.
But the closing time caught up with us and the sailors had to be off the water by 4 pm so that they could de-rig and get onto the bus to go back up to town. Ok we were short of races, with the first two mentioned courses managing three for the day but the Bic's, Optis and Pelicans only had two races on the board. I don't know the reason why but I'm sure that there was a good reason.
So onto the pictures...
There's lots . Enjoy
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