MYC Women Skippers and representative team members enjoy success at Sunshine Coast Ocean Regatta (SCOR)
The sixth year of the revival of the historical Sunshine Coast Ocean Regatta held over the weekend of July 13 and 14 heralded a record number of 16 entries and brought much success to MYC boats and crews.
The weekend provided varied sailing conditions, perfect for testing boats and crew skills. Saturday emerged a day of light wind sailing, where picking the shifts and areas of stronger breeze brought great rewards. Alas if you missed them, ground was quickly lost. Three windward- leeward races- twice around the track were completed during the day with the third race extended in distance.
In stark contrast, Sunday met vessels with winds around 20knots gusting to 25kn with building swell and chop. Reefs were quickly put in and headsails downsized on most vessels. Despite the beautiful clear blue sky, crews were well rugged up against a cold NW to W wind.
Two windward- leeward races (again twice around the track) were completed followed by a bay race taking vessels to a windward mark, then onto the Gneerings Eastern cardinal mark, back to a laid bay mark with a final 0.3nm beat to the finishing line. As the day progressed the wind gradually abated as the forecast had predicted and reefs and larger headsails quickly re-emerged for races five and six.
Six MYC vessels competed including Karen Young’s ‘Galatea’, a Swarbrick S11; Tanya Kelly’s ‘Spartan’, a Beneteau First 34.7 (with nice new carbon sails); Lindsay Wardell’s ‘Blue Eagle’, a 1987 Petersen 32; Mark Coghlan’s ‘Ocean Warrior’- a Scanyacht 391, John Stark’s ‘New Tricks- one of 3 Corsair 750 Sprint Trimaran’s in the event and Peter Bradford’s ‘Bare Necessities- also Corsair 750 Sprint Trimaran.
Del Morrison, a member of the MYC Women’s Representative Sailing team skippered Trevor and Deb Gourlay’s ‘Liquidator’, a Farr 30.
The IRC division was a hard-fought battle with three boats finishing on equal 9 points. In race five, only one second separated ‘Hasta La Vista’ (a Sydney 38- Harley Cowlishaw) in second position and ‘Italian Job’ (a Mumm 30- Tom Johnston) in third place. This cost Tom the chocolates and saw him finishing in third position in IRC, with ‘Spartan’ in second and ‘Hasta La Vista’ in first position.
In the PHS division ‘Galatea’ (15 points) emerged on top of the leader board, followed by ‘Italian Job’ (17 points) and then ‘Spartan’ (19 points).
The prestigious Frank Hurd Memorial Trophy awarded for ‘performance and character’ was awarded to Del Morrison and ‘Liquidator’.
Several other MYC Women’s Representative Sailing Team members crewed in the event including Kristen Davidson aboard ‘Galatea’; Kerry Lorimer, Danielle Kennedy and Susie Rasmussen aboard ‘Liquidator’ Kerry Teed aboard ‘Blue Eagle’; and Abbie Glenister, Kerri Smith, Kristie Hatch and Sarah Johnson aboard ‘Spartan’.
A great weekend of sailing and fun was had by all, with the always odd on-water bloopers. Kites always provide a spectacle, excitement and the opportunity for things to go wrong. Wine glasses, kites launched with clews at the head, beautiful trailing flagging kite, prawning…. all made for great off water banter.
Congratulations to the hosts- Sunshine Coast Yacht Club and to all who sailed and made it such a great event.
