The Booti Booti Cup is an interclub competition between sailing clubs on the Mid North Coast, with each club forming teams of sailors in all types of vessels to accumulate sufficient points to claim the Booti Booti Cup.

Being an open regatta, every conceivable type of centreboard sailing boat was represented on the water, with some boats older than the regatta itself.

A comprehensive handicap system saw the boats evenly matched in the final results for each race.

The MG’s sailed their 50th state titles with 60 sailors and their families travelling for the event.

The MG is a two person boat which was developed in the 1960s, and in a testament to the early developers is still an extremely popular class along the East Coast of Australia.

The MG provides for a fast hull with crew suspended from trapezes to try to counter the large sail area in stronger winds.

GLSC commodore, Bill Stokes opened the regatta at the official briefing for competitors before the boats left the beach for the racecourse.

Once on the water the easterly breeze slowly built and challenged the sailors as the wind peaked at about 17 knots before slowly dying in the afternoon, with the third race of the day being held in about five knots of breeze.

On Sunday, the fleet surfaced early, after having enjoyed the festivities of Saturday night.

A light westerly breeze saw the sailors on the water and racing by 10am with up to three races scheduled.

The fleet got one race in before a strong wind warning forced race organisers to abandon racing early for the safety of competitors.

Both Booti Booti and MG competitors waited anxiously for the results as the handicappers for both events crunched through the finishing times, it was apparent just how close the results were to be.

The Booti Booti Cup was won by Port Macquarie Sailing Club for the second consecutive year. The team sailed a mixed fleet of Lasers, Arrow Catamarans and Tasers.

It was a satisfying win for Port Macquarie, with Simmon Gundy taking two of the clubs new junior sailors as crew in his Tasar.

The MG14 state titles were a very close affair with several boats in contention for the title heading into the final race.

The results were determined by a count back between second and third place.

In third place was Jim Kerrison from Gosford Sailing Club,second was Gary Reeves from St George Sailing Club and the 50th MG14 NSW state champion was Greg Junk and crew sailing Ella from St George Sailing Club.

Another fantastic weekend of sailing at Great Lakes Sailing Club will return on Sunday, February 18 with Senior Sailing starting at 1pm.