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 Sail Sydney
There were no real surprises in the senior competition at Yachting NSW’s Sail Sydney four-day regatta, the former SIRs, sailed on Sydney Harbour in early December, but the talent in the Youth classes proved to be exceptional.
Hosted by Woollahra SC, and assisted on water by Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Royal Prince Edward YC, the only ISAF Grade 1 event in NSW and part of the ‘Sail Down Under’ series, brought a few Beijing Olympians out of the woodwork from the 233 entries, with a good spread from Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, the USA, Chile, Spain, Singapore, Greece, Canada, Japan, Finland, Hungary, Switzerland, Norway, India, Korea, Norway, Croatia, Poland and Italy.
The regatta boasted six Australian representatives from the Beijing Games. Four of the six won their class, one finished second (Anthony Nossiter in the Finn) and Krystal Weir has gone from Laser Radial to Yngling to trying out the RS:X sailboard.
Two-time Laser world champion Tom Slingsby did what we’ve seen him do before; the ‘comeback kid’ came from behind to make his way to the top of the scoreboard on the penultimate day.
Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (AUS) came out fighting in the 49er class with two third places on the opening day, but it was their string of seven straight wins that showed the mark of the men.
Malcolm Page, who won the 470 gold medal in Beijing, is now crewing for his old training partner from Queensland Mat Belcher. Belcher and Page are a lethal combination. They are equally committed and appear to have similar traits and goals. The two won the 470 with ease; the more interesting results were those of their younger Olympic training partners, Sam Kivell/Will Ryan (Vic) and Stacey Omay/Chelsea Hall (WA) who finished second and third respectively, in a fleet of 19.
All three teams are coached by Victor Kovalenko who has so far helped Australia to win four Olympic gold medals. Kovalenko is worth his weight in gold and the Aussies are lucky to have him.
 The sailing world does tend to concentrate on those in the senior ranks, but there were some outstanding Youth sailors from around Australia at Sail Sydney who came away with some exceptional results.
Most notably, Queensland and Tasmania, which have been a bit lean on Olympic and world class small boat sailors, have risen again courtesy of some money spent by their respective governments on coaching promising Youth sailors. It could not have come at a better time, a time when both states have seriously good coaches available.
 Queensland is lucky to have brilliant sailor and coach Adrian Finglas as its head coach, while the Tasmanians have their version in Richard Scarr, who left Sydney for Tasmania when he married. Both are grateful for funding and hope it will continue.
Under Finglas, Angus Galloway/Angus Gough scored a runaway victory in the 420 class, Joanna Stirling did the same in the BicTechno 293 sailboard, with team member Reece Baillie second.
Mitchell Kennedy and Benjamin Franklin were fourth and sixth in the Laser Radial – and this is just the beginning.
“Our funding runs out in January. I hope the Queensland Institute of Sport keep the money coming – the results are speaking for themselves and there’s so much talent here,” Finglas said.
Di Pearson
Neville Crichton’s 100 foot Alfa Romeo sounded a warning bell for the Rolex Sydney Hobart when he capitalised on a costly mistake aboard Wild Oats XI to take a resounding victory in the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge.
“The difference was Ricko getting a twisted sail. Today’s race was a bit of fun, but it’s more fun to win,” said Crichton.
Crichton’s prediction for the blue water classic is the crew who makes the least mistakes will win.
If the 14 nautical mile sprint around the southern end of Sydney Harbour is anything to go by, Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats XI crew have been given a rude reminder that they’ll only beat Crichton by sailing a perfect race. The Mark Richards skippered Wild Oats XI was leading Alfa Romeo around the track until the final downwind run when a nasty wrap in their spinnaker, referred to as a ‘wine glass’, cost them the silverware.
The ‘wine glass’ connotation was not lost on the opposition as Oatley funds the cost of running his boat from his vineyard proceeds.
“The boats have always been very evenly matched and always will be, I’d say. Bob said it’s not very often a wine glass gets on top of him, but it got on top of us today,” said Richards.
“It’s good to give the team a kick in the pants and to realise you’ve really got to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s otherwise you are going to get beaten,” added Richards.
 The biggest spectator fleet in the event’s 16 year history wasn’t disappointed as the 19 starters set off up the harbour under grey skies in a nor’easterly breeze that fluctuated between 12 and 16 knots during the afternoon.
Wild Oats XI and Alfa Romeo, both Reichel Pughs, shot out of the starting gate off Steele Point, the two boat-for-boat up the first beat in an America’s Cup style match race.
Crichton was aggressive on the helm, calling starboard on Wild Oats XI’s skipper on the first windward beat and forcing him to tack off, the two boats so close the crews could have shaken hands.
Wild Oats XI led Alfa Romeo around the course, rarely more than two boat lengths apart as the skippers sailed their own races, only meeting to cross tacks and at rounding marks. Then, when it looked like Richards had the supposedly ‘fun race’ sewn up, a spinnaker malfunction allowed Crichton to pounce.
Third over the line was Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats X, skippered by Iain Murray, and fourth was Sean Langman’s 100 foot Investec Loyal with its A-list sporting line up including Grant Hackett, Phil Waugh and Phil Kearns.
Last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart overall winner, Bob Steel’s TP52 Quest, skippered by Mike Green, was named overall winner from Geoff Ross’s RP55 Yendys and Stephen Ainsworth’s RP32 Loki.
Dick Cawse and his crew have continued their dominance of the CYCA’s Ocean Pointscore series with the Lyons/Cawse 60 Vanguard scoring another line honours victory last month.
Vanguard led from start to finish with Leslie Green’s Swan 601 Ginger their closest competition throughout the three lap windward/leeward course set off Sydney Heads in an area known as Macquarie Circle.
With slightly sloppy conditions and only a little swell remaining from the previous night’s southerly, it was a case of patience and working the boat gently around the course.
“Given the soft conditions today, we had to be patient. It was a case of coaxing the boat throughout the three legs and keeping the superstars aboard Ginger behind us,” said Dick Cawse.
Vanguard crossed the finish line eight minutes ahead of Ginger with Noel Cornish’s Sydney 47 St Jude third over the line a further 17 minutes behind.
Taking the IRC win was St Jude in the boat’s last hit-out before she takes to the start line of the Rolex Sydney Hobart.
“What a confidence boost this win is,” said an elated Noel Cornish, after being informed of his IRC win.
“The boat felt like it was performing really well today. It’s now time for us to knuckle down and continue with our preparations for the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart on Boxing Day,” concluded Cornish.
Second in the IRC Division was Darryl Hodgkinson’s Beneteau 44.7 Vivacite, with Vanguard placing third.
Vivacite scored the PHS division win, with Rod Wills’s X-43 Great Xpectations second and St Jude third.
Vanguard leads the Ocean Pointscore series by three points from Paul Clitheroe’s Beneteau 45 Balance and St Jude a further one point behind in third place.
Racing re-commences in 2010 with the next Ocean Pointscore race conducted as part of the 174th Australia Day Regatta on 26 January 2010.
Jennifer Crooks
 Mach 2 ‘foiling’ boat up for grabs in charity auction
A high tech Mach 2 boat – best described as a foiling Moth speed machine – worth approx $20,000 will be auctioned on eBay to raise money for international children’s charity, Variety.
The donated boat is courtesy of McConaghy, which has signed on as a partner of Australia’s largest sailing event, Audi Victoria Week. Variety is the event’s official charity and proceeds from the auction will provide equipment, facilities and experiences for children with special needs.
“McConaghy are well-established, highly respected leaders in their respective field, who are recognised for advanced technology in the construction of state-of-the-art yachts, components and industry in general,” said Audi Victoria Week Chairman, Andrew Neilson.
The owners of McConaghy, Mark Evans and Jono Morris, say the aim of the partnership is to support the sport of sailing and benefit the community.
The Mach 2 will be on display at the Melbourne Docklands and Waterfront Geelong during Audi Victoria Week and the auction will be launched on Thursday 21 January.
Audi Victoria Week is expected to attract more than 450 competing yachts over six days of competition from 21-26 January, 2010.
Di Pearson
Martin and Lisa Hill and their Estate Master crew won the Farr 40 class, while a bunch of Tasar sailors won every race of the Sydney 38 class to each win their class in the three-day Rolex Trophy One Design series sailed on the Macquarie Circle, Sydney last month.
Estate Master led the Farr 40 three day series from Day 1, but as Martin Hill said, it wasn’t as easy as it sounds.
“We had to fight every inch of the way, especially today. Kokomo (Lang Walker) won the first two races and we knew we had to keep him behind us in the last race to win the Trophy,” Hill conceded.
“It’s all coming together nicely for the Farr 40 Worlds – I’m getting a step closer to winning a Rolex watch,” Hill, Commodore of Middle Harbour Yacht Club, laughed.
The same top three yachts that led the nine-race series on Day 1 finished the series that way: Estate Master, Kokomo (CYCA) and Guido Belgiorno-Nettis’s Transfusion (MHYC).
The Sydney 38s contested six races over two days and Ian and Shane Guanaria’s The Tavern could not be beaten. In an almost unheard of circumstance, the crew won six from six races.
“Bloody awesome,” said Shane Guanaria, whose father could not make the series. “I rang Dad yesterday in England to say we had won all three races and he was pretty excited. He doesn’t know about today yet, but I know he’ll be thrilled,” he said.
“I made the sails and they helped us win; that’s a pretty good feeling,” said Guanaria, a sailmaker with Ian McDiarmid Sails for the past 15 years.
Swish finished the event second and Gordon Ketelbey’s Zen finished Race 6 in second place to claim third place overall.
The Tavern’s trimmer, 23-year-old Tom Barker, a product of the CYCA Youth Academy, and Guanaria will leave One-Design behind for the time being as they prepare to step aboard Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas’s AFR Midnight Rambler to contest the 2009 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
Di Pearson
 Press & Yabsley unbeatable in 12ft Skiff NSW Championships
Dimension Polyant, sailed by Nick Press and Brad Yabsley, convincingly won the recent 12ft skiff NSW championship taking six wins from six starts. Such was their dominance, they also took handicap honours.
The State Championships, which were sailed at Lane Cove 12ft skiff sailing club, Abbotsford 12ft skiff club and the Sydney Flying Squadron at Kirribilli over two weekends in early December, also serve as the selection process to choose the team to represent Australia at the upcoming 12ft Skiff Interdominions between Australia and New Zealand to be sailed in Auckland Harbour in January 2010.
Sunday’s races were held in a stiff 20 knot nor’easter, with a run out tide which tended to make for lumpy conditions on the water. The five leading boats of Dimension Polyant, Garde, Gemmell Sails, Lincoln Crown and Andrew Short Marine fought a close battle, often one picking up a favourable shift down one side of the course only to see a competitor cruise through on an opposing shift at the far end of the course.
On handicap, Panadol Rapid and Hey Charger took the minor places.
Brett Phillips
 Colourful seaweed puzzle in Jervis Bay Marine Park
Seaweed that has washed up on Jervis Bay beaches recently has had many visitors and locals puzzled because of its bright green colour according to Jervis Bay Marine Park researcher Dr Nathan Knott.
Dr Knott said the seaweed or ‘wrack’ was different to the usual red drift algae that locals were used to seeing, and said he’d seen large amounts of the bright green seaweed washed up on beaches around the bay over the past few weeks.
He said the green wrack was a species of drift algae common to bays around Australia and it had been recorded in Jervis Bay by scientists several times before. While some people may think of seaweed as nothing very special the opposite was true.
“Seaweed or ‘wrack’ can get pretty smelly but it plays a very important ecological role in the bay. It provides food for a diverse range of invertebrates such as amphipods, which are small prawn-like creatures, and polychaete worms, which in turn can be food for other animals such as fish.
“Once the alga is deposited on the shore and exposed to air it begins to decompose – marine animals such as the polychaete worms assist with this and are favourite fare for local fishes such as bream and leatherjackets.
“The alga forms a slick in the water, which some people find unsightly, but when you take a closer look under a microscope, it is incredibly beautiful and full of intricate patterns much like a snowflake.”
Dr Knott said the microscopic examination had also revealed the menagerie of marine animals that had been feeding from the algae.
“A great deal of research has been done on the effects of wrack on beaches and all of it demonstrates clearly that this process is an extremely important one for the ecology of beach habitats, with great benefits to local fish populations,” he said.
Expired emergency flares disposal
The struggle to correctly dispose of expired emergency flares has been ongoing in many previous issues of Afloat with what most readers would agree has had little result from the Authorities and the NSW Government … until now.
The breaking news announced at the NSW Marine Recreational Vessel Advisory Group meeting on the 8th December 2009 is that NSW Maritime are in the process of organising acceptance of date-expired emergency flares at their various offices.
A commencement date and details of acceptance locations are yet to be advised and it is assumed that NSW Maritime will make this announcement in the near future.
Credit must go to the officers and staff of NSW Maritime with further thanks to many volunteer groups such as Volunteer Coastal Patrols (now Marine Rescue NSW), the Boat Owners Association of NSW (BOA), the Boat Industry Association of NSW (BIA) and the many interested boaters who have gone to the trouble of sending letters and recommendations to Afloat, the Government and testing various places of disposal such as at NSW Police Stations.
Boaters can hopefully look forward in the New Year to getting rid of those out-of-date packages in a responsible manner – unless of course they are keeping them in the locker on top of the good ones ‘just in case’!
At long last New South Wales can now join the other states and not be the only one to neglect this essential environmental procedure.
David Lyall, BOA of NSW
 Dragon Boat Celebration
The Port Hacking Dragon Boat Club enjoyed a ‘Celebration Paddle’ on 21 November departing with two boats from the Yowie Bay wharf next to their clubhouse and arriving at Swallow Rock (Grays Point), detouring via Audley Weir.
Once at Swallow Rock there was a BBQ and a Wasa’s Dream boat-naming ceremony in memory of Warren Ford our President who recently passed away.
 A blessing performed by the Buddhist Monks from Campbelltown followed with a traditional ritual of ‘Awakening the Dragon’ which included an eye-dotting ceremony to awaken the dragon and bring out its fire, giving the boats and their crews the strength of the dragon.
Warren’s enthusiasm for life and dragon boating will be sorely missed. He instigated the delivery of a new Swift boat last June, the development of the club’s website, implementing the PHDA group and seeing the club win Club of the Year 2007-08.
For those looking at trying the sport visit www.porthackingdragonboatclub.com or contact Malcolm Wills on 0431 143 503.
Anne Nesbitt
 2010 J-Class Calendar
Capture some of the original 1930s J-Class magic, along with fleet news and photography in the brand new desktop J-Class calendar for 2010.
Taking a month each, the three original yachts, Shamrock V, Velsheda and Endeavour are all featured, along with the replica new builds currently on the water, Ranger and Hanuman. There are further photographs and information on J-Class yachts currently in build, as well as Svea who has already had her lines plans approved by the J-Class Association.
The history of the J-Class is summarised within the calendar and many of the photographs will be seen for the first time. The calendar costs £10.99 excluding postage, or it can be obtained at an introductory offer when joining the J-Class Supporters’ Club.
Visit www.jclasssupporters.com for details of how to join the newly formed J-Class Supporters’ Club.
Titch Blachford
100 Magic Miles
The ninth edition of this Whitsunday ‘bible’ by David Colfelt with illustrations by Carolyn Colfelt will be available from mid-January 2010.
Extensively revised, the new edition contains the latest information on navigation marks, mooring locations, marinas, island resorts, diving and snorkelling, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and Qld State Marine Park regulations, Maritime Safety Queensland sewage discharge regulations, island camping, sea kayaking.
A new chapter, ‘Walking in the Whitsundays’, outlines the new Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service ‘Ngaro Sea Trail’ with its new island walking tracks that provide new opportunities to ‘stretch one’s legs’ ashore taking in some of the most spectacular scenery from the highest landmarks in the islands. Developments in the Airlie Beach area and Hamilton Island are extensively covered.
Available postage free directly from the publisher Windward Publications at www.100magicmiles.com or from Boat Books and selected book stores and ships chandlers.
 Inaugural Tasmanian Yachting Awards
The individual achievements of six Tasmanian sailors to the sport of yachting over the past 12 months were recognised last month when the inaugural Tasmanian Yachting Awards were announced at the Yachties’ Ball in Hobart.
John Bennetto Medal for Offshore Racing: Stephen ‘Rowdy’ McCullum from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania has had more than 30 years of high performance one-design and ocean racing that has made him a ‘must have’ crew member on many top racing teams, including the ketch Tasmania when she won line honours in the 50th Sydney Hobart Race. Over the past 12 months he has competed in major offshore regattas in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.
Yachting Personality of the Year: Adrian Beswick, a member of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, was a major driving force behind the success of the B14 National and World Championships held in Hobart last January. His most public venture was the attempt he and Josh Phillips made to set a world record by sailing a B14 across Bass Strait to beat the record set by Olympian Michael Blackburn in a Laser in 2005. The Bass Strait bid was directly related to their efforts to raise money for research into the disease threatening the Tasmanian Devil population. They didn’t break the record but they are still the only sailors to sail a B14 skiff across the Strait.
Sailor of the Year – Male: Nick Richardson from the Wynyard Yacht Club for his achievements in finishing second in the B14 World Championships.
Sailor of the Year – Female: Dianne Barkas from the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania for outstanding results with her Sydney 38 yacht Asylum.
Outstanding Youth Achievement: Tom Kennedy and Ellie Chesterman from Sandy Bay Sailing Club.
Peter Campbell
Scrivenor CYCA’s Rookie of the Year
For only the fifth time in the history of the CYCA Ocean Racer of the Year Awards, a woman has been recognised for her dedication to the sport of sailing.
Amanda Scrivenor was named Ocean Racing Rookie of the Year, joining an elite list of women sailors who have been recognised by these Awards that includes Adrienne Cahalan (NSW), Lyn Wallace (VIC), Lori Wilson (NSW) and the late Sally Gordon (NSW).
The young CYCA member has shown great enthusiasm in just two years of ocean racing, developing her offshore racing skills under the guidance of Bill Sykes from Wot Yot.
An outstanding sailor who is prepared to go the extra distance, Scrivenor is an excellent role model to other young novice offshore racers. She is also recognised as a top level match racer and is part of the Australian Sailing Development Squad that won the 2009 ISAF Women’s Match Racing World Championship in Lysekil, Sweden.
Scrivenor is also studying for a degree in Marine Science.
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