Report by Ron Jacobs

The seventh running of the DF65 Interclub Challenge between Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron was a great success last Thursday. It was RPAYC’s turn to host RSYS and we couldn’t have hoped for a better day.

Visiting sailors were welcomed to the Club over coffee in Halyards by Commodore Rob McClelland before the two teams of ten sailors fought it out over twelve heats in near perfect sailing conditions.

The breeze settled in quite early, starting at 6-8kts from the NNE then quickly built to 12-13kts from the NE. RPAYC’s Phil Burgess, Dave Burke, Michael Cannon, Warwick Crossman, Greig Ebeling, Mike Green, Rik Hart, Ron Jacobs (Capt), Rick Murray and Gareth Pike all represented the club very well and retained the perpetual trophy for the third successive challenge.

RO Steve “Merro” Merrington, ably assisted by John Groves (marks) and Chris Hornsby (scoring) kept the short, sharp races ticking over.

RPAYC took control from the very first race and despite some solid races from the Squadron’s sailors the gap continued to widen. To be fair RSYS had a depleted team for this challenge with at least four of their better sailors unavailable. Team RPAYC had a comfortable winning margin with a scorecard of (173 vs 314) this time, but we know they’ll be back in six months more competitive than ever.

A very special thank you to Chris Hancock who generously donated some of his “Limited Edition” red wine for the presentations.

RPAYC’s DF65 fleet continues to go from strength to strength with over forty boats now registered at the club. Racing is run on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Everyone is welcome to come along and try out a DF65. Chances are you will be hooked when you find out how much fun RC sailing can be.