"Ocean Girls" from Royals take on the AWKR

In June at the 30th Australian Women’s Keelboat Regatta was run by RMYS. Royals fielded three teams. Catherine North’s X36 Duxelle, Cath Beaufort’s S80 , Up and Go, Clare Olding in the Summit 35, Vertigo. Each team has their own pathway to this point be it taking up ocean racing late in life and sailing around the world or a strong history in one design racing. This is Vertigo’s story.

For the past 12 months, a team of young Royals sailors has been out on Sundays learning how to handle a racing keelboat. The team was led by Clare Olding who grew up sailing Cadets at RYCV and by age 21 has already clocked up more than 5000 Nm of offshore sailing and numerous offshore races. She was joined by a range of sailors, some of whom have come up through the OTB classes and some who have only started sailing in their early 20s.

Clare on the helm of Vertigo Photo Andrea Francolini

After 12 months of regular training, they teamed up with a few of Royals more experienced keelboat sailors and entered the AWKR. The team consisted of:

• Maddy Scambary Speller doing bow for the very first time
• Abbey Argus Smith on mast in only her second keelboat regatta
• Rosy King (age 14) on sewer and kite packing in her first regatta
• Josie Caharija in her first regatta
• Ishka Prescott in her second regatta
• Prue Standen on office
• Clare Olding on helm
• Allison Wilson on Main
• Jasmine Galbraith on tactics and strategy

They finished a windy and cold series 3rd on AMS and 2nd on PHS including storming race 6 to take line and handicap honours. This is a remarkable achievement for a young team with limited experience but a ton of enthusiasm, mentored by a great team of Royals’ more experienced female sailors. Planning for next year’s event has already begun and we can expect great things from this gang of youths.

Claire the skipper of Vertigo together with her father Tim will co skipper Vertigo in the upcoming 50th Melbourne to Hobart race.

Photo Credit: Andrea Francolini

Disclaimer: The author is the owner of Vertigo and the father of Clare and is extremely biased.

Patriot, the clear winner in a race of snakes and ladders. 

Local knowledge as the winds softened gave Jason Close, skipper of the J133 ‘Patriot’ the advantage to win overall in a fleet of 34 yachts in Saturday's ORCV Winter Series 30nm race to Blairgowrie.

The mixed fleet competing in the racing and cruising divisions started out just after 9.30 am using a shortened course start line off Ricketts Point on the thirty-nautical mile race towards Blairgowrie.  

Blue skies and good wind at the start Photo ORCV Media

“The decision to shorten course and move the start by six nautical miles was a great decision” explained Mark Nicholson skipper of the J121 Javelin which finished six mins behind Close’s Patriot “this adjustment to the course allowed for most of the fleet to get past Mornington and a better location on the bay to be when the winds lightened.” 

Close, Patriot skipper went onto to explain “We had a great start on a reach for about 1.5 hours at 60’ to the wind and as predicted the winds starting to soften about 2 nm prior to Mornington.  Soon after, we saw the fleet all start to catch up”

“We always aim to sail fast as we can to the next wind transition and closest to the Rhumbline.  Coming from dinghy sailing, when the winds are light, we try to keep our crew’s weight leeward so the boat is as balanced as possible.” continued Close. “We’ve learnt to sit still and move around slowly in order to keep the boat moving forward in what wind there is.”

Faced with the mussel farm and the fleet needing to ‘roll the dice’ to decide do they go inshore or further out searching for wind.  “It’s always a gamble to how large the dead patch will be as we waited for the winds to swing WSW to SE explained Nicholson “when we saw Patriot, also a local sailor to the area, head towards to the shoreline, looking to pick up the SE change and lift off the cliff face, we followed taking the same gamble.”

Victorious Patriot crew Photo Jason Close

Commodore Grant Dunoon and skipper of the Moody 54 Blue Water Tracks, commented “Our destination races are always popular and with six new skippers taking part in the cruising division.  It was great for most of the cruisers to finish and take advantage of being able to use their motors to get through that dead patch” Commodore Dunoon continued, “what took us forty-five minutes to sail across a windless hole, Ariel II’s skipper Mike Ferguson used his special ‘cruising power’ for eight minutes to motor sail through that hole and on to win the cruising division.

“It definitely was a lot of fun” explained Javelin’s skipper Mark Nicholson “we had a great start in 15 knots and scattered clouds, rain before the rainbow pathed the way to a warm sunny afternoon for crews to bask in as they headed to the finish.”

It definitely was a fun game explained victorious Close “We had good pressure from mark 19 and 10 – 12 knots of breeze, with code 0 flying gave us a nice 9.5 knots all the way to the finish line.”

Foggy Dew's good luck at end of the Rainbow smaller Photo Scott Colquhoun

Top 3 Results

AMS 1st. Patriot (SM133) 2nd Javelin (M9) 3rd Maverick (SM3600)
ORC 1st Patriot 2nd Maverick 3rd Surprise (SM63)
PHS 1st Patriot 2nd Javelin 3rd Maverick
DH 1st Maverick 2nd Blue Water Tracks B1
Cruising 1st Ariel II (SM116) 2nd Hitchhiker (SM42 ) 3rd Bella Vida (4324)
Line Honours Patriot

Full results of the race can be found here https://www.orcv.org.au/results/2021-22/2022MWS/series.htm?ty=15565

Next race in the series 23rd July with entries open here https://www.orcv.org.au/winter-series

ORCV Media

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ORCV Winter Series Race 1 

ORCV Winter Series Race 1 provisional results are in.

Congratulations to PP1 and crew the overall winner. What a great day on the water for all those who raced.

AMS 1st PP1 (AUS31), 2nd Surprise (SM63), 3rd Another Chapter (B71)
ORC 1st PP1, 2nd Surprise, 3rd Wicked (SM4)
PHS 1st PP1, Elegance (B4545), 3rd Surprise DH 1st Maverick
Line Honours PP1 who set a cracking pace from the start.

Full race results https://www.orcv.org.au/results/2021-22/2022MWS/series.htm?ty=92340

The next race, July 9th is our popular race to Blairgowrie. Stay overnight and join the Women Skipper and Navigator race on Sunday. Entries are open for both here https://www.orcv.org.au/winter-series or follow the link in the bio

Spinnaker start on a perect winter day.  Photo Andrew Hewison

Sportsboat screamer as Cool sets the pace

The fleet heading to the first gate Photo Michael Currie

The second race of the ORCV Winter Series saw 45 for the passage down to Blairgowrie, with the fleet drag racing down the bay in record-breaking time. The 25nm run down to the south channel saw some extremely close racing between yachts, with the sportsboats and mid-fleet tussle taking centre stage as the fleet powered along on a wet and cool ride under spinnaker for much of the race.  

PP1 sets going Photo Michael Currie

The Cape 31 ‘PP1’ took out the AMS division, with skipper Cameron Dale relishing in the conditions after seeing the forecast earlier in the week. The wet conditions on board didn’t deter the crew even as the waves built towards the bottom of the bay, with Cameron stating, “We’ve done the Cock of the Bay several times as an upwind course and we’ve been hanging out for a downwind run to Blairgowrie; this race certainly lived up to the expectations – we had a ball”. PP1 is fairly new to Port Philip having arrived from South Africa, however they are soon to be joined by another Cape 31 in Australia, due to arrive in Sydney this year. 

Ragnar starts the "ride" to Blairgowrie Photo Michael Currie

Sunfast 3300 ‘Ragnar’ won the double-handed division, after gearing up and rocketing down the bay at over 17 knots max speed. Skipper Richard Ekberg said he and his crewman Nick are used to sailing 14 foot skiffs and that their Sunfast, now a little over a year old, steered amazingly similarly to the dinghies, especially off the breeze. They both managed to stay pretty dry, commenting “The boat was very well-mannered in the sea state – that’s the most breeze we’ve been out in with this yacht, and the twin rudders really gave us the grip to load up the boat and go for it.”  

Primitive Cool leads White Spirit to the inward gate Photo Michael Currie

John Newbold’s Reichel/Pugh51 ‘Primitive Cool’ not only took out the ORCC division but also set a new race record, pushing past 23 knots boat speed in an elapsed time of 2 hours, 58 minutes and 24 seconds. John said after the race “the conditions suited the boat, with the flatter seas allowing us to really get up and go – it was cold and pretty wet on deck, but the crew were committed to getting that 1% more performance”. Primitive Cool also holds the race record for the ORCV King Island race, and are looking forward to the rest of the ORCV winter series and further ocean racing in the summer season. 

Sydney 38 tussel  Photo Michael Currie

The tightest racing of the fleet was between the Sydney 38’s, as ‘No Mans Land’, ‘Faster Forward’ and ‘Adrenalin’ battled it out mere boat lengths from one another. ‘No Mans Land’ skipper Sal Balharrie had the following to say on the race: “In the last winter series event we were 23 minutes behind Faster Forward, so they were the target for this race – we sat on their hip all day. In the end we shredded a kite, holed a jib and tore the main – and we had the best day”. The all-female crew have only a year of sailing experience together since joining the boat due to Covid, however their goal is now ocean racing and building up their skills as a team. 

Multiple crews commented on how great it was to regroup at Blairgowrie and chat after the race – thank you to the Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron for their hospitality. Congratulations to all competitors who took part; to enter the next ORCV event on the 31st of July, please find more information here: https://www.orcv.org.au/winter-series 

Race Results 

AMS 1st PPI 2nd Reflection 3rd Alien 

ORCc 1st Primitive Cool 2nd Patriot 3rd Wicked 

PHS 1st PPI 2nd Primitive Cool 3rd Ca Bouge 

DH - AMS 1st Ragnar 2nd Silver Cloud 3rd Maverick 

DH - ORCc 1st Ragnar 2nd Maverick 

DH - PHS 1st Lady J, 2nd Silver Cloud 3rd Ragnar 

Line Honours - Primitive Cool 

Full results here https://www.orcv.org.au/res.../2020-21/2021MWS/series.htm... 

Sam Harrington/ORCV Media