Cooloola Cup: A Great Weekend Despite Wind Not Playing Fair!
At last, the 2022 Cooloola Cup happened, sort of. Having been blown out hulls on the previous dates, the weekend of 21/22 May was forecast to have very light winds and from somewhere west.
22 boats from Melbourne to Hervey Bay registered for the event and 20 set sail. The fleet was split 50/50 into two divisions, monohulls and multihulls.
The first race on the Saturday set off on a spinnaker run and returned to the creek in front of the yacht club after a tricky beat to windward.
The second race was a choice to sail to Inskip or to sail to the halfway marker which many single-handers did. Sailing to the Inskip mark was a challenge as the buoy was directly into the sunlight and was difficult to see even though a safety boat was stationed nearby.
Boats went in various directions hedging their bets as to whether what they saw in front of them was the mark, only to change direction and optimistically sail towards turning buoy.
The wind for the return journey looked like it might drop out but little gusts kept appearing and it was a cat and mouse chase to the finish line. Overall, it was a great day’s sail.
Sunday, however, was a different story. It was a glorious Tin Can Bay winter sunny day but the wind was sucking instead of blowing. So, we waited and we waited and we waited some more with the flags on the flag pole hanging hopelessly down, for even a little zephyr to appear.
The wind had other ideas so that when the decision to abandon racing was taken late morning, the sea breeze came gently in five minutes after the decision. Murphy’s Law at work.
Despite the lack of sail on Sunday, everyone seemed to have a good weekend enjoying the sailing, the company, and the good food on Saturday evening by Sails restaurant at a full yacht club.
Many thanks to our sponsors Billy Mitchell from Century 21 and Chris from Tin Can Bay Chandlery for their generous support in prizes. Also a great big thanks to all the volunteers helping with the race starts and finishes and the safety boats. Much appreciated.
by Kay Muir
