Pirates Rule in Yesterdays Twilight Sailing

Heavy rain during the afternoon nearly forced the abandonment of the fortnightly optimist racing for crew of yachts visiting Sutera Harbour Marina. However, as the rain petered out  the race officer carried out a  a quick inspection outside the marina nad there was a good land breeze building up.


11 boats made it to the start line which was set as a downwind leg of a sausage course of 3 laps. The start and first leg was interesting with the advantage often going to the following boats as the blanketed the wind from those head and there were a number of  port and starboard incidents on the run and at the first mark.


Heading back upwind the field began to sort itself out and with a slight wind shift I broke tack with the two leading boats and managed to snatch the lead at the windward mark. I maintained a healthy lead despite losing the rudder on three occasion due to a missing retaining clip on the rudder. So Once again Pirates of Borneo rule.I even tried sailing an extra lap to try and catch up and lap the tail enders but just failed.


A successful evenings sailing was rounded of with a twilight dinner at Sutera Harbour Marina Club where prizes were presented to boats which finished in 3rd, 4th and 5th places plus myself for the fastest boat. The sailing has a special handicap system where previous winners pass down the prizes to those that have not won before, which cab surprise some of the participants!


David Ogden
Yacht Watch Service