Mordialloc Sailing Club, Combined Racing and BBQ with MMYC for

MJ Peterson & M trophy races

Saturday 5th February

Every year Mordialloc Motor Yacht Club and Mordialloc Sailing Club alternate to race each other, socialise and build on our strong inter-club relationship. This year it was MSC’s turn to host us, so we swapped Sunday for Saturday and trailables for off-the-beach boats.

This leads me to ask “what do you get when you put 12 MMYC sailors into 6 MSC Pacers and a number 13 takes off in a Sharpie”, the simple answer is a whole lot of fun.

Our teams

John & Paul (Siobhan and Panache)

Carol & Mick (Captain Moonlite and Sarah)

Stuart & Shirley (Ultima Thule)

David & Sue (Mojo)

Mario & Clive (Hot Stuff)

Derek & Pat (Tuscany)

And Peter (Moondancer) off on a Sharpie

The sun was shining, the wind was kind and the boats were rigged. Commodore Drew Henry organised and designated a yacht to each team, a course was set and a briefing held.

With the race starting off the beach, a Le Mans start and crews holding their boats in the water, the skippers were eager to run and jump in the moment the starter said go.

I was in Pacer “K” with her Blue sails, Mick climbed in, followed by myself and off we went. Looking around I could see David and Sue close by. We set course, trimmed the sails and made our way to the first mark and our first trip around the course.

The course, described as an M course was nothing like anything I have done before, but looked fun. You pass through the start line then off to the windward mark followed by 4 downwind legs gybing at each mark through the start/finish line and off you go again, 4 laps which equates to 2 continuous races and lots of gybes (opportunities to tip over and go swimming).

Pacer J- David and Sue, Pacer K- Mick and Carol

It was a fun day, calling starboard on a Sharpie, getting in the way of a Sabre, some of my fellow MMYC members went for a swim, we had the odd close call ourselves, Peter whizzed by with a big grin on his face at the helm of the Sharpie.

Every one made us feel so welcome, as for results, Mick and I won both races in our group (not crowing though!).

Next year Mordialloc Sailing Club visits us.

• With thanks to Carol Flanagan for the report.