Re Sail Women Skipper & Navigator Race & Novice Race

We are re -sailing the Women Skipper and Navigator's Race at the same time of the Novice Skipper's race when the fleet returns from Geelong on August 21st.

The recent Women Skipper's Race from Blairgowrie started in great conditions but soon sailed into a foggy wind hole.  So let's get the race underway again.  For those who previously entered the race, you can update your entry and crew and if you'd like to still join the race, you can do so too.

If you have a Novice Skipper (see definition below) and also female, you can enter one or both races as they will follow the same route from Geelong to Melbourne.

A novice skipper is defined as:

• A first-time boat owner who has competed, as boat owner or in any other capacity, in less than 10 yacht or dinghy races in the past 10 years;

OR 

• A crew member who has no prior experience as a watch leader and who does not normally occupy the role of helms person during a yacht race. 

Entries are open for the Women's race here.  The Novice race entry will be open towards the end of July.

"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

All enquiries to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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