2019 Ten Rater Metro Championships


Sep 15, 2019

Champion Lakes Radio Yacht Club was the host for the Ten Rater Metro Championship which was held at Austin Lakes this year. Unfortunately, the club’s regular venue at Champion Lakes was unavailable due to the State Rowing Championships being scheduled there today.

/Ten Rater Class/wametro1We arrived at Austin Lakes with the promise of a pretty good day’s sailing. The breeze was fairly light early in the morning wafting in from the south east. The forecast said that the wind would build and shift towards the south west in the early afternoon. Easterlies in Perth tend to have quite a bit of change in direction associated with them. In addition, they have a habit of fighting with the incoming sea-breeze.

Our Race Officer for the day was Sean Wallis. He set a couple of top marks which could be used, which was just as well, as the wind moved around. Races got underway on time at 10.30am, consisting of three full laps and a beat to the top of the course to finish.

Seven boat hit the line, but unfortunately, Roger had a few issues with a new transmitter not holding its binding. The fleet consisted of 4 Diamonds, an Aero 3, a Sanga and a Blade 5. In the light conditions, the Blade was super quick. Ian Sherriff put up a great start to the day, taking out the first heat and following up with a series of top places.

/Ten Rater Class/76As the wind built, the Diamonds came back onto the pace. Chris Woods and Jeff Green were quick as the pace of the racing increased. In the meantime, Glenn was making consistent finishing positions. At lunchtime, there were only two points separating three skippers as Glenn was holding a one point break over Ian and Jeff. Chris and Graeme Howie were right behind as well.

During the lunch break, the wind dropped out all-together. This is a typical situation as the sea breeze tries to overcome the easterly. Bit by bit, the sea breeze won out and the course was adjusted towards the south west.

Soon after lunch, Rob Mews arrived to assist Sean, and he was kept busy changing the course to suit the wind direction. Sean and Rob did a great job of maintaining really true courses with clean starting lines.

Glenn’s Sanga found the slightly stronger winds to its liking, as he started to exert a strangle hold on the event. Jeff Green was doing all he could to maintain pressure on the lead. Meanwhile, there was a battle royale taking place for the final podium position.

/Ten Rater Class/wametro2Over the course of the afternoon, the fleet often rounded the top marks bow to stern – all boats in a line. The closeness of finishing positions had Sean on his toes trying to ensure he got the right order over the finish line.

Unfortunately for Rob, the battery for the motor concked out towards the end of the afternoon, and he was forced to row. Those who know Mewsie will attest that he is not built for rowing, and we suspect that he will have a few sore muscles in the morning. Chris Woods kept Rob busy too, by hanging his boat up on a marker on more than one occasion.

Denton battled on through the day, making a number of good starts, but found the shifting winds a bit more troublesome to deal with, getting caught out on a number of occasions on the wrong side of shifts.

The next Ten Rater event is the Ray Tilbrook Memorial in a few weeks-time, to be followed by the WA State Championships.

So for today, we would like to thank Sean and Rob for making  themselves available for managing the day. We would also like to thank Roger for collecting the Mullet at short notice, as well as Denton for providing the equipment needed to run the day.

 

Results

Click here for detailed results
PosName/ClubSail No.
/Design
NettTotal
1DAWSON, Glenn
CHAMPION LAKES
AUS 76
SANGA
17.026.0
2GREEN, Jeff
PERTH RSC
AUS 95
DIAMOND
29.041.0
3SHERRIFF, Ian
CHAMPION LAKES
AUS 57
BLADE-5
39.053.0
4HOWIE, Graeme
PERTH RSC
AUS 30
AERO 3
43.059.0
5WOODS, Chris
PERTH RSC
AUS 24
DIAMOND
47.064.0
6ROBERTS, Denton
PERTH RSC
AUS 65
DIAMOND
75.094.0
7PAUL, Roger
PERTH RSC
AUS 86
DIAMOND
101.0125.0

Category: Western Australia
Posted by: ARYA Publicity