Race day two of the Hebe Haven Quest Yachting Summer Saturday Series was marred by bad weather last Saturday June 16. It either rained very heavily with an accompanying 15 knot wind, or was dry and calm—neither conditions were conducive to good sailing, although many of the experienced crews seemed very much at home in the wet conditions.
Talking with the crew of IRC Division corrected time and line honours winner Bits & Pieces after the race, Kay Patterson said that they thought the race might be abandoned due to the conditions.
“When we got half way out [to the start] the heavens opened and it was absolutely horrendous. We had been out there about 15 minutes and everybody was completely wet through,” Kay explained to The Epoch Times.
“We thought the race might be abandoned because there [was] a front coming in, but we stuck with it.”
After some difficulties in setting the course because of the changing conditions, Race Officer Gerry Daughton did a great job of getting the Dragon boats started on time at 2:30 pm. But, it was a different matter for the bigger boats due to start five minutes later. Immediately after the Dragon Boats got on their way, a huge thunderstorm arrived, delaying the second start until 3:00 p.m. By that time, some of the boats had decided to forgo sailing and one or two others were not paying attention to the starting flags and missed the start.
