Handicap wins for Mary Maitland, Crazy and Jessie James at Princess Royal Sailing Club

All divisions began their harbour course races with a handicap start sailed in warm weather with a brisk easterly that piped in at a steady 18 knots which meant for quick times around the marks last Saturday.

In division two Stephen Brown was away first with Mary Maitland and the determined skipper and crew were not going to surrender their handsome lead.

The next two boats to start were Cambio skippered by Ian Johnston, who was chasing a hat-trick, and Sicarius skippered by Mark McRae.

McRae opted to go JAM as he had only one other crew on the Diamond-class yacht.

Chris Oldham skippering Joker on the day was scratch boat and a huge handicap to overcome.

Brown was sailing faultlessly with some great spinnaker work and was looking good for a place.

Joker got through both Cambio and Sicarius and was making up ground to Mary Maitland.

Cambio with some inexperienced crew was not sailing as quickly as in recent outings and was found wanting.

Brown, who saw Oldham bearing down on him, held his nerve and the lead to finish two minutes in front to take the honours.

Oldham had sailed an excellent race was second and recorded fastest time in a good workout while Johnston finished not far off the pace to take third.

In division one Harold Keay was first away with Shagabull and a generous handicap followed five minutes later by Brett Hawker in Jessie James.

Keay had decided to go JAM but Hawker showed no mercy and after a few legs had surged to the lead where he stayed without much pressure from Shagabull.

Using his spinnaker as much as possible Hawker had opened up a huge lead to finish well ahead and to record fastest time in a bit of a romp.

Keay to his credit had sailed well throughout but going JAM didn’t help in the end.

Three Flying Fifteens competed which saw Aileen Lucas in Crazy getting away smartly with Crazy.

She was followed two minutes later by Wayne North in Frequent Flyer.

Simon Lucas was the scratch boat and began the chase three minutes behind North with FForever Young knowing that he would have to sail to the best of his ability to have any chance of a win.

Crazy was doing well and even after a rigging fault managed to maintain its lead.

FForever Young had caught and passed Frequent Flyer and was closing the gap to Crazy but to no avail as the finish line was just too far away as Crazy crossed to win.

FForever Young was second and recorded fastest time in a mighty effort and Frequent Flyer wasn’t far away in third place.