Lacco Cup joins up with the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School

On Sunday 21 February, we got the Lacco Cup underway with a great turnout of 16 Div 2 boats; a preferred choice by many over the aggregate race on Saturday.

A special shout out to Deb Kwasnicki and Jo Fisher, operating the tower for the first time, doing the job really well and having a lot of fun along the way.

It was great to welcome Avalon C91 back to the racing fleet and also Guy and Christie doing their first race in Tarni C93.

It was a soft southerly at the start and a tricky time on distance exercise against the ebb tide for the box start. Jack Abbott was helming Avalon and with all the 2K training he’s been doing, he nailed it with, Jessamine, Ruby Anne and Elise all getting good starts to set them up for the race.

The breeze didn’t build as predicted by the weather models, so the course was shortened to home the second time around C mark. For fixed mark racing there is a special Sailing Instruction – When S over H is displayed at a mark, boats round that mark, round No 8 and sail to the tower finish.

A tricky aspect in the light breezes when they are marginal for the smaller Div 2 boats is how long to let the race run. In this case balancing the front and the tail of the race to cut out the third lap of the race seemed about right. The leader finished at 11:47, the mid fleet boat at 12:01 and the tail completed the race at 12:09. Unlike laid courses, we can’t adjust the length of the legs, but that’s the fun of the Lacco Cup.

After racing, it was great to catch up on the Western lawn for a chat and to share some refreshments with the students of the Melbourne Indigenous Transition School.

Well done to Jessamine taking the win over Ruby Ann and Elise.