Three fleets battle in Princess Royal Harbour handicap courses, Crazy takes tight Flying Fifteens glory

Three fleets competed in handicap start harbour course events last Saturday held in a steady southerly that hovered around the 14-knot mark before dropping out towards the end of proceedings.

Four Flying Fifteens competed with Eden Gray in Flying Flounder away first followed three minutes later by Wayne North in Frequent Flyer and Aileen Lucasin in Crazy.

The scratch boat Forever Young began his chase two minutes later.

Gray held the lead for quite some time until overhauled by Crazy with Frequent Flyer also doing well.

Meanwhile Forever Young was making inroads on the three leading boats and actually slipped into the lead in the latter stages.

Nearing Club Stake on the run to the finish line Crazy took the lead from Forever Young and Frequent Flyer but held her own under extreme pressure to snatch victory by a mere five seconds from Forever Young which was second and fastest.

North after a great effort took third place with Flying Flounder not far behind.

Only two division two yachts were involved in their fleet and both Stephen Lee’s Flasheart and Stephen Brown’s Mary Maitland started together.

Brown meant business right from the start and both yachts were only seconds apart in the early stages but the longer the race went the further Mary Maitland extended its lead and went on to win a handsome victory and record fastest time.

Lee had to be content with his second placing knowing that Flasheart could do better.

Two division one boats also started together which saw Brett Hawker’s Jessie James up against Geoff Oliver’s Excitabull.

Hawker had opted to go JAM but it made no difference as he caught and passed Oliver after each spinnaker run and went on to extend the lead at every mark.

Oliver was having his first outing for several weeks and will no doubt do better in future races.

Hawker went on to an easy win and fastest time in a fine display.