VIPERS REPORT
T
he Viper fleet has had a busy start to the 21/22 sailing season. Apart from Club racing the Vipers have been travelling to a number of local regattas. Sail Freo attracted five Vipers for great racing in good conditions. This warm up Regatta lead to the Viper State Championships held at SoPYC in December. Eight boats competed in generally light conditions over 2 days. Rod Beurteaux, Jon Stubbs and Simon Wilder won 6 of the 8 races for a convincing win. The battle for second was closely fought between four boats with Chris, OKeefe, Kim Leunig and Chris Sutherland taking second place from Graeme Monkhouse, Heather Monkhouse and John Park. Murray Howson came fourth ahead of long time rival Michael Cameron. A gourmet BBQ at the junior clubhouse on Saturday afternoon rounded out the social activities. January saw the annual Rumble in the Reach at EFYC. Strong and gusty conditions greeted the eleven entrants in the Rumble. There were thrills and spills aplenty as the notorious drainpipe funnelled 30 knot gusts in varying directions. The top boat speed recorded was 19.6 knots. No damage
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SOUNDINGS | Dec 2021 ~April 2022
(except to egos) with the $1000 prize money going to Turkish Delight. In February 6 Vipers made the trek to Busselton for Geographe Bay Raceweek. The Vipers and Etchells competed on a windward leeward course set by the RO from the start boat using automated markbots. An interesting sight to see the marks returning to the marina at 5 knots. Rod Beurteaux won the Regatta from Murray Howson with 4 different winners across the 7 races.
There were thrills and spills aplenty as the notorious drainpipe funnelled 30 knot gusts in varying directions.
