Mary Maitland scores first and fastest in heat five of Princess Royal Sailing Club winter series

Stephen Brown, skippering his division two yacht Mary Maitland, scored an impressive first and fastest to take the honours in heat five of the Princess Royal Sailing Club winter series last Saturday.

Brown had a disappointing result in heat four in windless conditions, but on Saturday with a steady nor-wester at around 15 knots, he was at his best.

Making up the fleet were Neil Worrell in Zuri, Chris Oldham with Joker, and Brett Hawker in Jessie James, who started 30 minutes behind but had opted to go JAM and didn’t really feature in the harbour course event.

Brown, with four on board including two juniors, was quickly away, along with Zuri which won the start not far off the pace, with Oldham doing well with Joker.

Brown and Worrell were engaged in a spinnaker duel on one leg but Brown got away to establish a huge lead over both Zuri and Joker.

Hawker began the chase but the three from division two were not going to be caught in this race.

Zuri and Joker both had skeleton crews who had to work overtime trying to bridge the gap to Mary Maitland and to keep Jessie James at bay.

Brown was increasing his lead at every mark and went on to a handsome victory.

Joker was next to finish, 10 minutes after Brown, but was relegated to third place on corrected time.

Zuri was only two minutes behind Joker and picked up second place, making it one of Worrell’s better performances.

Jessie James brought up the rear to finish in fourth place.

Heat six, also known as the brass monkey race, will be conducted next Saturday with a 1.30 pm start.

Presentations including mulled wine will be held following racing.