The only Australian pairs class entry for next year’s 3,100 nautical mile row from Geraldton in Western Australian to Mauritius might not have a rowing or sailing background but Clark Carter and Ryan Storey have a taste for extreme adventure and bucket loads of enthusiasm, and they are prepared to learn. 
  Their first extended ocean row proved a steep learning curve for the young adventurers who arrived into Sydney Harbour last month following their 90 nautical mile row from Newcastle Harbour. 
  “It was a big wake up call. We realise now how much more time we have to put into getting ready for next year’s Indian Ocean Rowing Race,” admitted Storey. 
  Dolphins and a shark fin were the few signs of sea life as Carter and Storey nibbled their way through dried fruit, chocolate, nuts and mum’s homemade sandwiches, and tried to see the humour in what they were doing when the muscles started to ache. 
  “I’ve never heard Clark talk so much ... I think he was talking his way through the pain,” laughed Storey. 
  Over a well-earned beer, principal sponsor Sean Langman spoke to the two 24-year-olds about harnessing the power of the wind and waves, and with 16 Rolex Sydney Hobart races to his name, he’s more than qualified to instruct his protégés. 
  “I’m happy to be backing them in their endeavour, they’ve got plenty of ticker in them and they are good ambassadors for the Noakes Youth program,” said an equally exhausted Langman who had sailed in the vicinity of the pair overnight. 
  Prior to the 25 hour row which finished at Berry’s Bay, Carter and Storey had only rowed off Newcastle Heads for a couple of hours in their purpose-built, bright orange 7.1m row boat which they describe as a “cork” when it’s out in the open sea. 
  The pair left Newcastle Harbour at 11.30am and following a seven-hour row they began to experiment with their shift system. In cramped quarters, particularly for Carter who stands at six foot two inches, they took turns sleeping for 45 minutes then rowing for an hour and a half. They were unanimous that this watch system was not the way to go and will instead aim for a one-to-one ratio for their next sea trial. 
  With enough supplies to be self-sufficient for 100 days, 
  Carter and Storey will set off for Mauritius from Geraldton in The Woodvale Challenge on Sunday 19th April 2009 with other competing teams from around the world for the inaugural Indian Ocean Rowing Race.

 Lisa Ratcliff

  Racing was delayed on the final day of the OAMPS Sydney International Regatta last month as course officials waited for the expected nor’easter to fill in, the 49er, 470, 420, Moth and Laser 4.7 classes waited patiently ashore.  
  Two instead of three races were sailed in the 49er, cutting their series by two races. Paul Campbell-James/Mark Asquith (GBR) took home the trophy by three points, with Nathan Beijing Olympian Outteridge/Euan McNicol (AUS) second and David O’Connor/Iain Jensen (AUS) third. All three are vying for places to the London Olympics. 
  Outteridge was disappointed that the series was cut short. 
  “We came here to have 12 races, instead we got 10. It was great breeze out there – we could have got at least one more in. Having said that, I’m happy with how Euan and I finished up here,” he said after sailing in an increasing north-easterly breeze of 14-16 knots, described by the fleet as “perfect”. 
  Gabrielle King (AUS) watched her chance at Gold slip by in the final race of the Laser Radial Women’s and had to settle for Silver. 
  King, the 2007-2008 ISAF Youth World champion in the class who made her transition to senior competition at SIRs, won Races 7 and 8 to take the series lead on countback, however, in the final race, King fell by the wayside with a sixth place. 
  “I was leading the last race, but on the final upwind leg, I broke. I just stopped. I watched them all go past me, and there was nothing I could do about it,” said King who will pack up and get ready to head to Melbourne and will also go on to the Laser Nationals in Perth. 
  Nineteen year-old SIRs newcomer Richard Ellis (NZL) skated home to defeat triple Olympian Jessica Crisp (AUS) by one point in the RS:X sailboard Open fleet. 
  South Australian sailor James Paterson (AUS) had a runaway win in the Finn class. Paterson, whom Olympic coach Mike Fletcher has earmarked as a good Olympic prospect, lived up to the coach’s hope, beating another Aussie hopeful, Warwick Hill by nine points and third placed Chris Caldecoat (AUS) by 14. 
  Klade Hauschildt (AUS) won the Men’s Laser Radial after winning the Radial Nationals last year. He did an exceptional job to overcome some of the top Laser Radial Men’s sailors in Australia for the gold medal. 
  “It was a pretty difficult regatta for everyone – wind from every direction and strength and a lot of shifts – there was lots to think about. The men’s fleet has improved a lot since last year, so the win was a satisfying one. I’ve put in a lot of training and it’s paid off,” the Queenslander said after enjoying winds that reached 22-25 knots. 
  In an all-Australian fleet, Shane Hughes/Felix Paterson sailed well throughout the 470 competition to take the gold medal from Stacey Omay/Chelsea Hall and Tom Brewer/ William Ryan third, the latter two finishing their close series on equal points. Competition was close and Olympic medal-winning coach Victor Kovalenko says the depth of talent is strong in the class. 
  The 420 class was an-all Australian affair too, and talented Byron White/Jay Griffin led the OAMPS Sydney Harbour Regatta from Day One. Racking up three straight wins, and adding a further two, they were always going to be hard to beat. 
  In the Moths, Sydney 2000 49er bronze medallist Charlie McKee (USA) won from Scott Babbage (AUS) who finished fifth in the 2008 Worlds. A second American, Bora Gulari came in third in the class which included 2008 world champion, John Harris, who finished fifth. 
  Stephen Collings took out the Laser 4.7 from Thomas Vincent and Nicholas Howe in the Australian only field. 
  Collings sailed a superb regatta, his final score 13 points ahead of Vincent. 
  Bubbly 18-year-old Hannah Nattrass, the Bronze medallist skipper from the 2007 Youth Worlds in the 29er class stole the gold medal from under the noses of New Zealanders Dan Meehan/Alex Morris and Angus Rankin James Dahl (AUS) who had sailed well all week.

Di Pearson

 
  The owners of two renovation projects and two newly built boats were nominated for the 2008 Hal Harpur Award, run by The Wooden Boat Association of NSW, at a lively meeting attended by more than 70 timber boat devotees. 
  Three of the projects had quite young people involved as principals. The award was given to young David Hardy of Coal Point, NSW, for his restoration of a 20ft clinker half cabin Toby2, rescued from the waters of Middle Harbour and transformed fro a $200 wreck into a splendid, pristine motor launch of yesteryear. 
  Peter Gossell, head of the threeman judging panel, said the other three nominees were equally commendable for their achievements. 
  Dal Harper for building an exquisite, 15ft double-ended rowing boat; Matt and Ron Balkwell for finishing off an 18ft putt putt, Ruby Too; and Henning Therkildsen for the 12-year reconstruction of 25ft motor cruiser Pippen. 
  The award was presented by Chris Dicker, last year’s winner, newly returned from a six month cruise up north with his wife Gilli in their restored cutter Westwind.

Maria Island Race  

  Todd Leary’s She’s the Culprit has been declared as the winner of the IRC Division of the recent 2008 Tasports 190nm Maria Island Race held over the weekend of 21-23 November after a ruling that Creese Property was not eligible for that division.  
  She’s the Culprit is a modified Inglis 39, recently purchased by Todd Leary from Bellerive Yacht Club, and is one of six Tasmanian yachts nominated for last month’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. 
  The Sailing Committee ruled that while Creese Property was a valid entry for the Tasports Maria Island Race, the boat was not eligible for the IRC Division as no valid IRC certificate had been supplied with the entry form. 
  The top three placings are now: 
  1, She’s the Culprit (Todd Leary); 2, Pisces (David Taylor/Graham McKibben); 3, Archie (Sally Rattle).

 Peter Campbell

Flatwater Kayak season gets underway in Adelaide

  The centreboard lawn at the Alfred’s in November was crowded with the rigging of Pacer dinghies by six teams currently under the RPAYC Schools Teams Racing programme preparing for a full day’s racing. 
  Volunteer parents from five schools worked together on everything from supplying and manning spectator boats, proudly flying their school’s flag, laying and retrieving course marks, manning start and finish boats and supervising the changeover RIBs and the cooking of sausages for the return of hungry sailors. 
  The weather was cloudy and there appeared to be no wind but undaunted, start boat Lively Lady ran to schedule with PRO Rob McClelland, and the wind kicked into a lovely 13-18 knot southerly with the first race being between Pittwater High School and Knox A. 
  Gear failures were repaired on the water and Avalon Sailing Club pacers were on hand for spare parts. 
  There were a number of upsets, and the usually strong Mater Maria Sailing Team, that has won this event for the past two years had its fair share of losses, but also had some strong wins which was great experience for their very young sailors who have joined the team in recent weeks. 
  Pittwater High being the dominant school on the day were led by their two experienced Yr 12 skippers, Jason Waterhouse and Jenna Walters who controlled their team’s tactics. 
  There were capsizes on starting lines, many boats called back for premature starting, some who came back unnecessarily, and many teams received penalties during the racing which is all part of learning Teams racing as against Fleet racing. 
  The Abbotsleigh girls, led by skippers Stephanie Doyle and Milly Bennett showed their usual determination and ever-growing sailing skills. The very young Yr 7 sailors of St. Lukes captained by Amy Farrugia, were often overawed during racing but team mate, Bree Whitton, was always up for any challenge when racing against such schools as the well-trained Knox A, captained by Paddy Mooney. Knox B were also out in force but not so lucky when it came to the final results. 
  The point score results which will carry over to the next Regatta on Saturday, 21 March are as follows: 
  PHS (9 wins), Knox A (8), Mater Maria (6), Abbotsleigh (4), St. Lukes (2), Knox B (1).

Mater Maria Catholic College Sailing Co-ordinator Gaye Lee.

World’s fastest sailing boat  

  The British speed sailing craft Vestas SailRocket, piloted by 38-year-old Australian Paul Larsen, has become the world’s fastest sailing boat by attaining an average speed of 47.36 knots over a 500 metre course. 
  With winds averaging only 22.6 knots, the ultra-efficient craft reached peak speeds of 52.22 knots during the run down of the Walvis Bay speed-strip in Namibia last month. 
  The speed achieved is enough to give the team the ‘B’ class world record and Paul Larsen the Australian National record. Although there was more drama than just breaking records. 
  On the second run Larsen sheeted the solid wing in hard to get full power. Vestas Sailrocket accelerated to a speed of 52 knots before taking off from the water like an airplane at the end of the runway. 
  “As soon as the whole nose lifted I thought ‘Oh shit ... we had discussed the possibility of this and here we are’. 
  The nose just kept coming up and I was pure and simply flying. No noise, no spray... she just kept going up until I was vertical. I waited for an impact but there was none. 
  When she went fully inverted and there was still no impact I knew I was a long way up ... At this stage I thought ‘when she hits upside down... get out as soon as you can’. 
  She slammed down hard but Larsen only suffered a few bruises and a smashed helmet.

  For the first time in its history as the world’s oldest continuously-held sailing regatta, a husband and wife will be rival skippers in the 173rd Australia Day Regatta on Sydney Harbour on 26 January 2009. 
  Fred Bevis and his wife Beverley will each skipper their own yachts in the Classic Yachts division of the Regatta, a feature event of the regatta that attracts dozens of traditional gaff-rigged and Bermudan-rigged timber boats, some close to a century old. 
  Fred Bevis, a past Commodore of Sydney Amateur Sailing Club and Hon Treasurer of the 173rd Australia Day Regatta management committee, will skipper Warana, his classic 31-foot sloop built in 1930 of New Zealand kauri. 
  Beverley Bevis, also a member of the SASC, will skipper Tio Hia, her 26-foot gaff-rigged Port Phillip net boat built in 1938 and restored after being found as a derelict hull on Melbourne’s Marybynong River. She is a distinctive double-ender with a beam of 9 foot 3 inches. 
  Both Fred and Beverley competed in the 2008 Gaffers Day conducted by the Amateurs, but in different divisions, Tio Hia placing second, Warana third. 
  “Beverley is already lining an expert crew to sail Tio Hia and beat me,” Fred Bevis commented. “It’s going to be a real domestic match on the water.” 
  More than 120 keelboats and modern and historical 18-footers are expected to line up for the historic event first held in 1837 to commemorate the arrival of the First Fleet in Port Jackson. A further 40 to 50 ocean racing yachts will contest the traditional ocean race from Sydney to Botany Bay and return. 
  Yacht and sailing clubs on other parts of the Harbour, as well as on Pittwater, Botany Bay, Lake Macquarie, Brisbane Waters (Gosford), Lane Cove, Georges River, Lake Illawarra and Chipping Norton Lakes will also stage affiliated Australia Day Regattas, as will the NSW Radio Controlled Yachting Association with their model yachts. 
  The 173rd Australia Day Regatta will start at 13:15 hours from a line to the east of the Flagship, HMAS Stuart, taking the fleet on a course around fixed Harbour marks. The Botany Bay ocean race will start at 11:00 hours from a line north of Shark Island, finishing back in Rushcutters Bay later in the afternoon. 
  Sydney Harbour will, as always, be the focal point of the 2009 Australia Day celebrations, for other aquatic events see page 40. 
  For NOR visit www.australiadayregatta.com.au

Peter Campbell 
  

   Founder and Managing Director John Muir reckons the worldwide and big boat market has never been so buoyant. 
  He said he expected further growth this financial year when the company celebrates 40 years in business. 
  “It is a fact that the market is very buoyant at the moment with more and more new emerging markets in many new countries,” John said. 
  With this in mind, Muir Engineering is currently planning to further expand manufacturing in preparation to meet industry demand over the next decade. 
  Still owned by the Muir family, the company which specializes in anchoring and mooring systems for craft between 10-120m, and exports to more than 40 countries, now employs over 60 people in the Hobart head office, manufacturing and design centre in Hobart. It also owns and operates warehousing and sales facilities in Sydney and on the Gold Coast in Australia, Florida in the United States and Southampton in the United Kingdom with an additional 10 people. 
  John Muir has a strong nautical heritage going back to his great grandfather who worked on square riggers and remote lighthouses. 
  In 1966, after he completed an apprenticeship as a diesel fitter, John Muir began working with his father, Jock, in the family boat building business in the historic Hobart suburb of Battery Point at a time when building timber boats was a special skill. 
  “I initially worked on fishing boats but quickly identified weaknesses in the equipment available at the time. 
  “We specialised first in boat servicing and repair, and given the number of winches we were repairing, I decided to design and manufacture my own. 
  “At the time I realised about specialisation and finding a product that I could make and build and grow a business around.” 
  The Muir Engineering business grew quickly following the move to Kingston and by 1977 the company took its first product overseas. 
  “Singapore was first followed by other Asian countries and markets in the Pacific,” he said. 
  In 1980 they attended their first boat show in the United States, which gave them the growth they needed for their pleasure boat windlasses. 
  John and his brother Ross and father Jock had operated a very successful chandlery, sail making and spar manufacturing business between 1980 and 1995 employing a further 25 people. The business was sold in 1996. 
  John Muir said in the 1990 recession the USA and Australian market crashed, affecting sales, and the downturn continued the following year. 
  “Thankfully we saw the crash coming and had invested significant time overseas – I spent seven months of 1989 in Asia, Europe, Canada, the UK and the USA. 
  “Exporting is a strategy that worked very well for us – in 2008 exports accounted for 65 per cent of our sales. It is difficult to accurately predict but we expect this will grow to be 70 per cent by 2009.” 
  John Muir said the company was privileged to work closely with some of the world’s finest naval architects and builders in Australia and overseas, and along the way has won a number of major state and national business and export awards.

A quiet, pleasant Saturday on The Bay!  

  Entrants to RGYC’s Saturday 6 December racing on Corio Bay journeyed to the start line in 25-30 knots. A club course had been set which would take the three divisions into the outer harbour for three interlocking courses. 
  Not long after the start the wind strength increased and came in gusts causing many to gybe uncontrollably as the violent gusts hit. Many decided to drop their kites, others persevered, virtually fighting their way eastwards. 
  Gradually, the weather deteriorated even further! Strong to powerful gusts, some over 50 knots accompanied the driving rain which battered competitors making their way back to the inner harbour and the finish. 
  There were far too many yachts rounding up on the spinnaker runs, suffering gear breakage or damage to mention any by name which should create a big sigh of relief to many! 
  Most yachts were damaged as they struggled homewards beating up the channel suffering broken rigging, torn sails, at least one crew member was hurt enough to require hospital treatment for broken ribs and many more were bruised and battered. 
  A quiet, pleasant day on the bay? Probably a little more than that! A good test of crew’s stamina, a really testing strain on equipment and the emergence of sheer guts and fortitude from crews.

Bob Appleton

  One of Sydney’s best known yachts, Kathleen Gillett celebrated a big birthday at National Maritime Museum on Sunday 7 December. 
  It is 60 years since Kathleen came home to a hero’s welcome in Sydney Harbour, having circumnavigated the globe. After eighteen months in exotic places they returned on 7 December 1948,  
  Kathleen Gillett was already a well-known yacht before it set out on its world voyage. 
  Marine artist and sailor Jack Earl commissioned its construction in Sydney in the early 1930s, working to a design by the internationally renowned Norwegian naval architect Colin Archer. He named the boat after his wife Kathleen. 
  To test its seaworthiness Earl sailed Kathleen Gillett in the first Sydney-Hobart race in 1945, finishing fourth out of nine starters. 
  But the circumnavigation, only the second by an Australian yacht (after the schooner Sirius 1935-37), was his great dream. 
  With four crew members most of the way, he sailed north to Cape York, west through Torres Strait and then across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town, across the Atlantic to Panama Canal and then westward home across the Pacific Ocean to Sydney. 
  Phyllis Finn, crewman Mick Morris’ girlfriend, tracked the voyage and its exotic ports on a map and this is included in the exhibition Kathleen darling… Jack Earl’s voyage around the world 1947-48 (admission free) in the museum building. 
  Also in the exhibition are photographs of the adventure: celebrating Christmas with cake and sweet sherry at 4 am off the island of St Helena, meeting movie star Errol Flynn in Trinidad, passing through Panama Canal made fast to a tug… 
  Jack Earl sold Kathleen Gillett in the 1950s and after this the ketch had a colourful career that included island trading around Papua New Guinea and crocodile hunting near Bougainville. 
  In 1987, greatly changed from its original specifications, Kathleen Gillett was located in Guam and purchased by the Norwegian Government which funded its restoration. The Norwegian Government then presented this historic yacht to Australia as a bicentennial gift celebrating the sea links between Norway and this country.  
  Kathleen was vested in the Australian National Maritime Museum, and has been on display since the museum opened in 1991. 
  Visitors will be able to view the sturdy 13-metre doubleended ketch on the water and inspect a photographic exhibition in the museum building that recalls this Australian maritime adventure. The exhibition ends 22 February 2009.

Sydney Hobart winning skippers of the ’50s and ’60s

Graham Newland

Graham Newland is one of only seven yacht owners to have won two or more Sydney Hobart Yacht Races overall since the famous ocean race was first sailed 62 years ago. 
  He won twice on handicap with his Lion class yacht Siandra, in 1958 and 1960, and also notched up a second and a third. 
  Newland, who died in November, also played a significant role in Australia’s major international wins in the 1967 Admiral’s Cup in England and the 1971 One Ton Cup in New Zealand. 
  Affectionately known as ‘Nude Nut’, he was born and raised in Sydney, where he sailed his first yacht Firefly out of Middle Harbour Yacht Club. 
  He sailed as a watch captain on Gordon Ingate’s Caprice of Huon in Australia’s first challenge for the Admiral’s Cup in Cowes in 1965, winning three of four races. The Australian team placed second overall. 
  In 1967, he had the same role with the boat, chartered by Gordon Reynolds. The Australian team of Caprice of Huon, Balandra and Mercedes III scored a major upset by winning the Admiral’s Cup. 
  For the 1971 One Ton Cup in Auckland, the then prestigious level rating rule, Newland persuaded Sydney yachtsman Syd Fischer to charter the Sparkman & Stephensdesigned Stormy Petrel. Newland, an engineer and by then a renowned ‘yacht doctor’, suggested that her ballast and rig be increased, with new sails designed by Hugh Treharne for New Zealand conditions. The result was a great victory for Australia. 
  In 1977, Newland joined his 1965 Admiral’s Cup challenge skipper Gordon Ingate in campaigning Gretel II for her second tilt at the America’s Cup at Newport, Rhode Island. His wife Lurl also played a significant role, as the ‘House Mother’ for the RSYS crew at Newport. 
  Newland was tactician and starting helmsman in the “Dad’s Army” campaign that went down fighting for the right to challenge the Americans. 
  In a long yachting career, Graham Newland sailed in 15 Sydney Hobarts with two wins with Siandra, two One Ton Cups with a win in Syd Fischer’s Stormy Petrel, four Fastnet Races including a win and a third in Fischer’s original Ragamuffin, a Bermuda Race on the English yacht Firebrand and on Norman Rydge’s Lorita Maria, skippered by Peter Green, in a TransAtlantic Race from Rhode Island to Copenhagen. 
  Retiring from yachting, Graham became a fulltime farmer on a 2,000 acre property named Tarrawong at Goolma near Gulgong. He bought a glider which he flew out of Narromine, later getting his engine aircraft pilot’s licence. This led to buying Cape York Aerial Services with a contract for the mail run from Cairns to cattle properties on Cape York. 
  Despite his declining health in recent years, one of Graham’s remaining pleasures was the monthly ROMEO (Retired Old Men Eating Out) lunch organized by John Brooks at the Sydney Flying Squadron.

Peter Campbell

Alby Burgin  

  Alby Burgin, who skippered his yacht Alstar in the 1999 Rolex Sydney Hobart at the age of 84, died in November, aged 92. He and co-owner Geoff Rundle won the Sydney Hobart with Rival in 1961. 
  Born in Bolaroo in 1915, Burgin sailed in 32 Sydney Hobarts, his first aboard Defiance in 1955, his last in 1999 skippering his own yacht Alstar, the yacht in which he had circumnavigated Australia and sailed to Noumea double-handed. 
  He also took line honours with Boomerang of Belmont in the 1976 Sydney Suva Race, having survived Cyclone Emily during the 1972 Brisbane Gladstone Race. During the 307 nautical mile race, Rival, an 11.6m sloop was rolled right over by a tremendous beam sea and dismasted. 
  Burgin, who was on the helm, found himself in the water, well clear of the yacht when she righted herself, mastless. 
  He was still wearing his safety harness, but the cleat to which his lifeline was attached had broken. Burgin swam back to the wallowing yacht, and as he was struggling aboard, the crew comedian yelled out to him, “What kept you?” 
  Alby Burgin had been a long time member of the Lake Macquarie Yacht Club. Right to the end he was lending a hand at Sailability at Belmont 16 Footers, helping disabled children enjoy Lake Maquarie as much as he did, on a boat he had given to the program. 
  His wife, Helen, died two years ago. He is survived by his two daughters Janice Worley and Eleanor Wilson.