Westward under sail.Famous Tasmanian yacht donated to Museum

by Peter Campbell
The only Tasmanian yacht to have twice won the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, the cutter Westward, has been donated to the Maritime Museum of Tasmania and is expected to return to the State later in the year.
Designed and built by the famous Hobart boat-builder and ocean racing yachtsman Jock Muir for George Gibson, Westward was the overall winner of the 1947 and 1948 Sydney Hobarts.
Muir had another victory when Waltzing Matilda, skippered jointly by himself and owner Phil Davenport, took line honours in the 628 nautical mile race in 1950.
Museum president Colin Denny revealed the historical gift on the eve of the 10th anniversary celebration of the Museum’s move to its current site in the Carnegie Building on Hobart’s waterfront.
Denny said that while negotiations for the return of Westward from Maryborough in Queensland still had to be finalised, he was confident the yacht would be permanently berthed in Constitution Dock, across from the Museum. Already berthed there is the historic trading ketch May Queen.
“This is a most significant gift to the Museum, as a living example of the traditions of yacht racing, including their design and construction from our wonderful Tasmanian timbers,” Mr Denny said.
“It would be most appropriate to bring the Westward back to Hobart and Constitution Dock later this year when the Museum is staging a special Sydney Hobart Yacht Race exhibition.”
Stan Field, a Queensland-based yachtsman has owned Westward for more than 55 years, sailing the yacht extensively, including a 15 year cruise, mainly in the Pacific, but also visiting the Panama Canal.
Mr Field has told the Tasmanian Maritime Museum he would now like the yacht to return to her original home port as part of the Museum’s collection of significant Tasmanian-built craft, such as the May Queen.
Westward is still in excellent condition and is moored in the Mary River at Maryborough on the Queensland coast. The Museum’s Captain Mike Webb flew north recently to make a detailed inspection of the yacht and meet with her owner.
Jock Muir designed Westward as a fishing cruiser for a Sydney buyer soon after Word War II. The sale fell through when the hull was only partly completed and he sold the boat to George Gibson, his former mainsheet hand in Kittiwake from Cadet dinghy racing days on the Derwent.
“Westward was designed … and built as a fishing cruiser, but she raced with the fishing-well sealed over and her propeller removed,” the late Jock Muir recalled in his book Maritime Reflections.
“I like to remember that she must be the only yacht with a fish-well to win the big race.”
Westward in dry dockWestward was launched in 1947 with an overall length of 41 feet 9 inches, a beam of 12 feet and a draft of 6 feet 6 inches. She is heavily constructed of one and one-eighth inch celery top pine planking on laminated blue gum frames with eight inch centres and has heavy stringers and deck beams. She has a roomy deckhouse which almost covers her self-draining cockpit.
Her building virtually marked the start of Muir’s Boatyard and her first race saw the start of Jock Muir’s heyday as an ocean racing yachtsman and yacht builder. Among the few remaining shipwrights who built Westward is Hobartian Bill Foster, an authority on the post World War II days of yacht building in Tasmania.
Describing Westward in his book, Muir wrote: “She was a lovely boat and I still can’t fault her. She has a fairly long keel and stern-hung rudder and I remember in one race she carried a spinnaker across Bass Strait when other competitors were dragging sea anchors and warps. She rated very low under the RORC rating and revelled in gale conditions – as indeed I did.”
Among other well-known yachts that followed Westward from Muir’s Shipyard at Hobart’s historic Battery Point included Lass O’Luss, Waltzing Matilda, Patsy of Island Bay, Lahara, Van Diemen, Wild Wave (she was disqualified from first place in the 1953 Sydney Hobart for an alleged racing rules infringement on the starting line), Maris, Salacia, Balandra, Trevassa and Astrolabe.

Overall winner Top Gun leads Silk on a spinnaker run. Australian Women’s Keelboat Regatta

The 20th Australian Women’s Keelboat Regatta (AWKR) on Melbourne’s Port Phillip, was the perfect time to recognise the efforts of the event’s Founder, Gai Clough. At a packed presentation night on Monday 14 June, she received the AWKR 20th Anniversary Special Achievement Award.
“I’m just so thrilled that my baby has grown to be such a huge event,” Gai said.
Out on the track 21 crews comprising 168 sailors from Victoria, South Australia and Far North Queensland competed. This included Sabina Rosser, who was sailing in her 20th AWKR hosted by the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron in St Kilda.
Early on it became apparent that a few crews had their eyes on the coveted IRC and Australian Measurement System (AMS) trophies and skipped out to a handy lead. In the Performance Handicap System (PHS), there was always a high level of intrigue and no real shining beacons at the top. In fact, it would go all the way to the last day and last race, with at least four crews making a late and certainly not futile charge at the dais.
Ultimately, Top Gun, the Adams 10 from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria took out both IRC and AMS.
“Four of our six crew, including me, were first timers to the regatta,” said skipper Connor Burdon-Bear. “Erin Foster, Bec Bohling, Steph Strong and I have sailed together in SB3s as the Oceanburo Girls. Kate and Meaghan Aulich completed the crew and were invaluable, in particular for their match racing skills and tactical prowess.”
The J24, Hyperactive, skippered by Robyn Coombs is off to the World Championships in Sweden in August with their all-female crew of Kirsty Harris, Elizabeth Williams, Zoe Kitchen, Rachel Suda and Joelle Roderick. They placed second in IRC after fighting it out with their larger rivals.
Top Gun, the Adams 10 crew from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria took out both IRC and AMS.“The AWKR was a shakedown for us,” Coombs said. “Accordingly, it was a great opportunity to get our crew work in sync under racing conditions. We’ve been training hard and really excited about representing Australia at the Worlds – possibly as the only all female team there!’
Also punching a bit above their weight was the Diane Jackson skippered little S80, Espresso who were second in IRC.
The winner of the PHS prize in the end was the little Scampi 30, Nouannie skippered by Tanya Stanford. The Nouannie crew comprises of Cath Beaufort on trim, Katrina Economou in the office, Paulina Hryniewiecka at the mast, Kate Brown on the foredeck and Lynda Christopherson on the main.
John Curnow

Tired trimmers and tacticians after fickle Audi Winter Series Race 9Tired trimmers and tacticians after fickle Audi Winter Series Race 9

The trimmers and the tacticians went home spent from race nine of the Audi Winter Series on Sunday 20 June after a tricky mid-section that became a guessing game as to which side of the course the breeze would fill in from next.
A 12 knot westerly land breeze under cloudless skies made for a promising start and first lap around Sydney Harbour as the 130 strong fleet tried to put as many miles as possible behind them before the forecast fadeout.
Sure enough, as the daytime temperatures warmed, the breeze headed in the opposite direction and there was a park-up in the middle of the harbour, Windex’s spinning and instruments showing lots of zeroes, while a few on the edges managed to place themselves in the path of a number of private breezes circulating around the course area.
Richard Holstein’s Sydney 38 Next chasing down Larki Missiris’ Sydney 38 Wild One at the top mark.Eventually Leslie Green’s Swan 60 Ginger was the first of the big boats in division A to capitalise on the sou’easter, picking up a handy escalator ride down past Shark Island to finish ahead of Andrew Banks and Geoff Morgan’s You’re Hired and Matt Short’s TP52 Shortwave with its regular family contingent aboard.
Sam Newton’s Farr ILC40 Kirribilli scored the division B win from Ivan Resnekov’s Impi … plus Newton was the lucky winner of the Audi A5 Sportback 3.0 TDI quattro.
Division F recorded the closest finish of the day, just three seconds between Kerry Burke, Rob Carr and Stephanie Cook’s Northshore 370 Mortgage Choice Rumba and Doug Sturrock’s classic Windflyt, while in division E a huge margin of almost 16 minutes separated first and second, symptomatic of the mid-afternoon glass out.
Other divisional winners were Philippe Mengual’s Paca (division C), Chris Rabbidge’s Mean Machine (division D), Robert Breit’s Tigger (division E), Kevin Karaloff’s Chameleon (division G), Andy and David Lukas’s Racy Lady (division H), Kenneth Davis’s Star Struck Deveau (division J) and Paul Williams’s Takana (division K).
In the Sydney 38 division The Goat Syndicate’s S38 The Goat out-sailed Geoff Bonus’s Calibre.

Inaugural Australian O’pen BIC CupInaugural Australian O’pen BIC Cup

On the weekend of May 22-23, the latest style of national level sailing event was born at Lake Tinaroo, North Queensland.
The O’pen BIC is a new boat, suitable for 6-7-year-olds and up to at least 15-16. However, the O’pen BIC Cup did far more than just be the first national event for a new class ... it re-positioned kids sailing. It’s fun, it’s wet, it’s fast and it’s frenetic!
Kids brought their parents along, arriving on the Friday afternoon from Tasmania, Western Australia, South Australia, NSW, ACT, the Northern Territory and of course from around North Queensland. A true national titles!
Friday afternoon involved sailing for the visitors to get to know the boats, then a few get-to-know-you games.
Inaugural Australian O’pen BIC CupSaturday morning got off on schedule at 9am, a briefing and then straight out onto the water. The first ‘race’ a bit of fun, start, capsize, sail to that mark, OK, now turn around, now capsize.
A quick paddle race, three kids to a boat (it takes all of 30 seconds to remove the rig, so making a few paddle boats was instant). Much hilarity and with crews told to mix it up with kids from other States there’s camaraderie before anything serious.
Sunday, Lake Tinaroo put on a beautiful morning, with the calm sparkling lake and world heritage-listed rainforest clad mountains as a backdrop.
We are at a serious national event let’s get racing ... BUT wait for it … we have a few differences with the O’pen BIC.
There’s ‘Speed Slalom’ (windward, then a reaching slalom to leeward); ‘Open Cross’ (a square course, of windward, reach, leeward, reach ... but with a capsize and a 360 turn required on particular legs). Then there’s the ‘Speed Race’ using a Le Mans off-the-beach start and figure eights around the buoys. And, yes, we have ‘old fashioned’ windward-leeward and triangle courses as well.
All sailors had fun, no boat broke, no boat was towed home, even when ‘Rule 5’ was broken, the polyethylene BIC takes the knocks without damage. Was it fun? Seriously, you don’t even have to ask!
Division winners: Open Female won by (Aidan MacGregor, 18, QLD); Open Male (Jack Chester, 14, QLD); Under 15 Female (Emily Wiltshire, 12, QLD); Under 15 Male (Hamish Wilshire, 12, NT); Under 12 Female (Maya Reid, 10, QLD); Under 12 Male Andrew Briggs (11, WA)
Freestyle winners: Singles: Max Wiltshire (Open); Nicci Edwards (Under 15); Maya Reid (under12). Tandem: Max & Patrick Wiltshire (Open); Elyna & Charlotte Overland (under 15); Kristin Wadley & Darcy Cant (Under 12).
Guy Chester

Lake Eyre Yacht Club Birthday Regatta
Cooper Creek will cross the Birdsville Track for the first time in 20 years and to celebrate the Lake Eyre Yacht Club will be hosting a 10th Birthday Regatta on Lake Killamperpunna, Cooper Creek, from the 5-9 July.
To sail on lakes in this area is a rarer opportunity than sailing on Lake Eyre itself. Cooper Creek has not seen so much water for 20 years and we are expecting over 50 craft including kayaks, dinghies, catamarans, and trailer sailers.
The event will be held on Etadunna Pastoral Lease managed by Jason & Patsy Dunn. Lake Killamperpunna is about 160km up the Birdsville Track north of Marree. Today the ‘Track’ is a well-graded highway.
In keeping with the Club’s fun approach to yachting in the outback, events will be laid back and not run under strict racing rules. Participants may choose to design their own events with emphasis on enjoying the rare privilege of sailing in the desert.
A bush camping area on the edge of the Lake Killamperpunna is available with firewood for use in approved fireplaces. The Regatta Camp will have plenty of Cooper water for washing but it would have to be boiled or treated for human consumption. The rest area at Copley is the closest free drinking water.
A 2WD vehicle should be able to get in with care but 4WD vehicle is preferred particularly if towing. Off road campers are OK. Caravans with care. You’ll need to bring camping gear, gas cooking gear, food and drinking water for six days; a porta potty (portable chemical treating cassette toilet with septic approved chemicals) per vehicle; UHF handheld (waterproof or in waterproof bag); adequate clothing and bedding for temperatures from 0 to mid-20s; wetsuits, spray jackets, hats and sunscreen
The Yacht Club has three acres which can be used for free camping for a few days before and after the event but with limited facilities. Town accommodation needs to be booked early. Showers can be bought from town accommodation providers.
There is much to see and do in the wider area of NE South Australia either from a touring or boating perspective. Marree hosts the Australian Camel Cup on the Saturday before the event … a day of genuine outback fun that you shouldn’t miss while you’re out this way.
To appreciate the historical significance and to maximise the personal experience of a visit to this area it is recommended that all participants read (or view): Where Seasons Come And Go by Eric Bonython; Land of Mirage by George Farwell and Back of Beyond (DVD) Hellyer.
David Rowe

Port Hacking Dragon Boat Club’s New South Wales representatives: (Back Row) Ken Fitzgerald, Nicole Brindle, Ken Mobbs, Greg Sutton, Mary Shannon, Julie Davies, Maureen O’Neill. (Front Row) Kay Wills, Janine Goodall, Chris Callinan, Lorrae Fitzgerald, Deb Dunstone.Port Hacking Dragons

The annual AusDBF Australian Dragon Boat Racing Championships was held on April 22-25 2010 in Adelaide, South Australia. This event was held at the refurbished AM Ramsay Rowing Course at West Lakes which features a state-of-the-art starting pontoon, rebuilt finish tower and a fully buoyed eight-lane course.
Dragon boat clubs from all around Australia came together to compete under the State, 500m, 200m and 2000m race categories.
Twelve of Port Hacking Dragon Boat Club’s paddlers competed in the Championships. The 12 paddlers represented New South Wales in both Grand Master and Masters divisions. The squad of 466 was the largest ever to represent the State at a National Championship.
New South Wales won the overall championships and Port Hacking’s paddlers returned home with six silver and four bronze medals between them. For six of the paddlers, this was their first time representing their State and have all enjoyed the challenge so much that they are starting to work on qualifying for next year’s Nationals in Canberra.
Maureen O’Neill