Koombana Bay Sailing Club held its inaugural S80 South West Championships regatta over the Australia Day long weekend, creating a sea of colourful spinnakers at the north end of the bay.
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Four teams, including almost twenty sailors plus their families, travelled from Perth to compete in the competition after loaning boats from local owners for the event.
Five local boats also raced, adding up to a race fleet of nine one-design boats and over forty sailors on board.
Perth crews came down on Friday to prepare the boats, with some joining in on a Twilight Sail to fine tune their boats.
Formal racing commenced on Saturday morning with one race being held before lunch and two in the afternoon.
The winds in Koombana Bay became light and shifty, creating some interesting sailing with one race even ending in a tie.
After the three races Miss Behavin was in the lead. Rum Runner was one point behind followed by En Garde in third place.
Saturday afternoon saw the clubhouse full of families enjoying a meal by our in-house caterer Drummond Catering, live music by Wasted Sunday, and, of course, the Sky Fest Australia Day fireworks display by the City of Bunbury.
The breeze had filled in by the morning, and unexpectedly stayed in for the whole day of racing which was a pleasant surprise for all crews.
Two races were held before the lunch break, seeing Miss Behavin take the win twice.
The second race saw En Garde second with Rum Runner third. The third race saw Rum Runner second and Escape in third.
After lunch, the racing heated up and the Perth crews had worked out their boats and pushed the local crews hard.
Miss Behavin secured two more wins creating an obvious series winner. Race six had Rum Runner second and En Garde third.
The final race of the series saw Escape hold onto second place and Flying Circus take out third.
Presentations were held at the clubhouse with some very happy but exhausted sailors enjoying a much-needed rest.
Miss Behavin was the overall winner, with Rum Runner second and En Garde third.
Three of the Perth crews took out the consistency placings with Afrayed Knot in first place, El Bandido second and Flying Circus in third.
This event is already scheduled for next year and will hopefully see more Perth crews visit and potentially sail their own boats down for the weekend.
The next race meet for these crews will be the S80 State Championships at Owen Anchorage, Perth over the March long weekend.
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