Meachen's Mischief maintains fine start

After finishing the Royal Malta Yacht Club's previous regatta with three 'bullets', Martin Meachen and the rest of his crew on board Mischief again managed another two first places in the BOV Spring Series to seize top position overall after a hard-fought sail.

This is Meachen's first taste of 'round-the-cans' racing. Continuing where he left off in the previous week's coastal races, there seems to be no stopping the rookie.

Although the first race was won by Lee Satariano, on board ArtieGo, these were tricky windless conditions where none of the competing boats finished the race except for Satariano himself. However, the tables were turned and Mischief sailed a flawless two races following a disappointing first race.

Time Out was second with some greatly improved crew work in the testing windy and wavy North Westerly conditions experienced throughout the day on Sunday.

Mario Sant helmed Time Out to take second and third in Sunday's races, thus claiming second overall.

Sailaway, skippered by Ray Schembri, finished in third place on board his Elan 31. Sailaway is quite a tender boat and winds in excess of 15 knots could make her a handful to handle.

However, Schembri turned in a good day's sailing and clinched third overall. Unfortunately, the conditions did not favour Orlando which had to settle for fourth place.

The first coastal race of the BOV Spring Series was a passage race round Comino, but the wind shut down and most of the fleet did not manage to complete the distance in the time allowed. Race 2 and 3 were 'round-the-cans' events held in the waters opposite Tower Road in Sliema where a large number of people enjoyed some great sail hoists and douses during the regatta.

The RMYC's next event is the Double Handed Round Malta race, sponsored by International Paint, on Sunday.

This will be followed by the Gewiss Marzamemi Weekend Regatta on May 1.