Hi all,

Another Regatta at Lake Bullen Merri was held over Easter, we had 6 Mosquito's (were was Rob Lott?), great camping, great company, good wine and a good time was had by all who attended.

with nearly 100 boats competing some of the mark groundings were interesting at times.

Division 1 was made up of Taipans & A class, while division 2 had the Mozzies and Dolphins, there were also 14 Cobras sailing their State Tiles so they had there own start for all but the 1st race.

Race 1,We had 25 boats starting in our division, just as the start gun went the wind shifted and it was a struggle to cross the line on Starboard a few of us tacked early and made a sprint for the 1st mark, unfortunately Phillip Warren- Smith, Andrew Neeson and Gordon Hyde, missed the flags and were late starters.
The wind was up and down with some trapeze work and some hopping for a little more breeze(a trend for the weekend).
Results were 1st home Ross Bennett on No turbulence, 2nd Jon Guymer on Prestissimo and John Buzzo on Courageous came in 3rd.

Race 2:Ross, Andrew and Gorden started at the pin end on port Jon and Phillip went boat end on Starboard, with 2 legs to go Ross, Andrew and Jon were close together, Gorden came around the Mark tacked went to the corner and tacked again and made up about 1/2 a leg at had hit the lead to round the last mark to the finish area, Andrew was next around the Mark closely followed by Ross and Jon, on the final leg both Gorden and Andrew let Ross through to go on to a another win, Gorden second, Andrew 3rd with Jon in 4th.

Race 3: the wind dropped out and the race abandoned.

Race 4:A predicted wind change did not happen and the start was a port start and a reach to the 1st mark,Ross lead all the way to win with Gorden second sailing Andrew Neesons boat with his own sail, Jon was pushed back to 3rd in a photo finish.

Race 5: Again a wind shift seconds from the start caused an early tack to Port, Jon and Ross managed to get away with Jon rounding the A mark first closely followed by Ross these 2 boats sailed the next leg side by side passing a few Taipans who were heading for the wrong mark, Ross then sailed away from Jon and was never headed, Gorden was 2nd home followed by Phillip(I think.)

The last Race was a Sternchaser which ran out of wind almost before it started but to Phillip's and John Buzzos credit they sailed well to 1st and 2nd Mossie's home which gave Phillip the trophy for the leading mosquito in that race, donated by Gary Lane who injured his elbow a few days before the event and could not sail.

It was interesting to note that although the Cobras have a similar yardstick to the Mosquito and they started 10 minutes in front. we passed most of them (read all for one of the mozzies)in nearly every race!