After a few sailors braved and tested the early conditions, it became apparent that the A+ was too big . . the B rig to small . . . that leaves the A rig . . . . so with the start time looming, coffees were hurriedly downed, nervous pre-race ablutions carried out, boats were re-rigged and re-tuned and the course was set. The time for friendly banter was over. It was now time to get serious and go racing.

Both Clubs had high expectations of success, however, after the first few races, it became apparent that whilst racing was very close, the RPAYC sailors generally had their measure and showed that they were going to be very hard to beat. Team RPAYC regularly had 3 to 4 sailors in the top five of each race.

MVP, most valuable player for RPAYC was Phil Burgess who managed traffic control brilliantly, tactically pinning RSYS boats into a corner while letting two or three of the RPAYC boats to get away at the front of the fleet. Our star British import Dave Burke (GBR-30) dominated the Blue Fleet and I was lucky enough to sail (AUS-03) to the top of the Red Fleet.

Other stand out performances from RPAYC sailors included Greig Ebeling who put in a rock solid performance, Simon Grosser who recorded his first race win at a bigger regatta and Greg Thomson who was at the front of the fleet more often than not.