Port Phillip Women’s Championship Series – Love a Southerly

by John Curnow on 15 Feb 2015 Bobbing around when you’re meant to be racing is never a lot of fun. Even when you’re bathed in sunshine at the picturesque Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron (RMYS) in St Kilda, at the top of Melbourne’s Port Phillip, you can think of a million things that would be better. So thank you Hughie, the God of Wind, for delivering a truly handy 7 to 11 knot Sou’Souwester to propel the 27 entrants off towards the club’s Mark G, which is located up near Station Pier. For without it, things would have been not only slow, but also potentially quite frustrating for all.

At any rate, the reason for the occasion was the annual Jennifer Goldsmith Perpetual Trophy, which is the opening round of the 2015 Port Phillip Women’s Championship Series. Designed to not only encourage participation, but also provide real pathways for more women and girls to get into sailing, the PPWCS harnesses existing Lady Skipper and female crew races from Melbourne’s five major clubs into the one championship. The addition this year of the Kingston Trophies PPWCS Perpetual Team Trophy adds an important element. Namely building intra-club camaraderie by maximising the number of boats and sailors from each club getting out on the water.

Top Job
The PRO for the event was the host club’s own Amanda Wakeham, who is also on the Women and Girls In Sailing Committee. Wakeham commented about the hot, sunny and breezeless morning, 'We did feel a little bit of a burden when we got to the tower and could not see wind anywhere on the Bay, just the odd little patch. If we postponed, we felt for sure that it would completely disappear, so we chose to get going and maybe look to shorten after the first lap. Thankfully, none of that was required and we got a full race in with that tremendous little Southerly making it all happen.'

'In effect, Course #9 was a classic triangle with a near windward/return after it. I have not run that course before, but I will be memorising it after today! There was a fair amount of traffic out there with our Juniors and then also the Classic fleet going through. RMYS was a busy club with the teams’ trials for the World Championships in England going on in our inner harbour.'

Using the boats on Sunday after the other skippers/crews used them on the Saturday is all part of the plan. RMYS’s Immediate Past Commodore, Linda Goldsmith, was out on Phantom today. Afterwards she commented, '10 knots and sunshine was delivered, which was just great. The lady skippers’ race at RMYS has been going for about 25 years now, but was rebranded 10 years ago in memory of the young club member who passed away after her battle with melanoma. No doubt Jennifer would have been helming the winner today or certainly providing divine inspiration and ensuring the breeze came along to make the race the event it was.'

'We’re very thrilled to be the first leg in the PPWCS and the vibe around women’s racing on Port Phillip is just amazing. There are crews not only forming, but training away for all the great events that are coming up.'

So how did it all happen?
A tremendous question and so one begins with the 1100hrs start. It was pretty benign all over, apart from right in on the bricks that form the breakwater and also up at Station and Princes Piers in Port Melbourne. It was at the former that the first and very limp and shy spinnakers were flown. They were also the first to really step off the line and included boats like Phantom. However, the centre of the line offered the larger vessels like Mrs Overnewton the chance to have their taller masts grab whatever they could and so they were the leaders, very early on in the piece. One craft, Frenzy, was towed up to the line by jet ski, for there was no way they would have made it to the start otherwise. Cloud Nine did not have such support and was left languishing behind, a place from which they never recovered, but finish they did, so well done!

Quickly, one thought of leapfrog as the bigger craft in the middle got overtaken by smaller, lighter vessels, such as Take Five. Back at or below the line was Unami, who had the distinguishing feature of being on Port gybe, whilst the leaders were on Starboard tack or flying a super shy kite. Hello. A beginning. It wasn’t quick, what could be at like 4 knots, but gradually and boat by boat, booms went over to the other side and colourful spinnakers adorned their masts.

Two boats scored well here and they featured at the end, too. They were firstly Bruschetta VI and then a little bit later, Ellipse. Both turned on the pace as the Southerly marched on inexorably to a solid 10 knots. All the while, the S80 battle firstly saw Rock N Roll then Up ‘N Go have a flutter, but Outlaw, far to the left took off and seemed to be either pushing or be drawn along by line with Salamander III.

The charge of the bigger craft was now taken up by the Beneteau First 44.7, Christine, but it was still light and there was a long way to the top mark. Showing that Hughie does understand neither weight nor age, up with the leaders at that time was the heavily laden cruising variant of the Adams 10, Red Dog. At that stage, Dry White even held the lead momentarily. Tigris was still on Starboard, but now with a huge red kite and as she is an apparent wind machine, she was coming up and up and her pace was building accordingly.

You asked. Here it comes.
Time for the Southerly bringing a whole new group up to play, which were lead by a red hot Ellipse. Time for Duckmobile to also join the Port gybe spinnaker action, for after their great start up near the pin end, the new breeze had finally found them. For those on Starboard, who were now all very slow, there was plenty of time to send the boom and kite pole over and make ready on the Starboard gybe, for the Southerly would get to them all about 75% of the way to the top mark.

All credit to Ellipse, who had carved their way through everyone to lead and another happy yacht would be Duckmobile, who were making the most of the opportunity, too. Tigris had applied the throttle and was very hot on approach and probably held their asymmetric spinnaker longer than any other of the leaders, which ensured they were in touch with Ellipse.

Take Five and Salamander III had momentary spinnaker issues, as the sight of all the classic yachts carving South to R2 had everyone going ooh and ahhh. Special moments of silence were reserved for Mary Louise III (8mCR) and Acrospire. Back with racing and the ones who took the medicine early came flying in to the mark. Ellipse were early with the drop, then came Tigris, Frenzy, Bruschetta VI, Jungle Juice, Salamander III, Duckmobile, Silhouette and Up ‘N Go. Outlaw and Hyperactive concluded the top runners and it would be this collection, often in slightly different order at each subsequent mark on to the finish.

After rounding the mark, Ellipse travelled on a short way before taking back onto Starboard and hit the strongest breeze yet and skipped away further. Others soon followed, except for Bruschetta VI, who stayed out on the right. Unami, who was very much last over the line, was now fourth last and it was just one example how things change on a day like this. The Bluebird, Drambuie was in second last, with Cloud Nine occupying the last spot on the track.

Hyperactive had tacked immediately after the mark and this paid handsomely on her sistership, Bruschetta VI when they finally crossed more than halfway down to the wing mark. Ellipse had stepped out over Tigris at said mark, which had in turn moved away from Frenzy. Jan Fielding was driving and looked to be very happy with conditions tailor made for the Flying Tiger 10. Duckmobile had climbed up and the Adams 10s had slipped back as waterline length came into play, which is why too Bruschetta VI had gone back into sixth place.

Down at the bottom, Tigris performed a lovely gybe set of the their spinnaker and one could see those crews that had been out practising, for the sails and strings all did what they were meant to. Bruschetta VI was another to have the gybe and hoist all performed faultlessly and mighty speedily. The Adams 10s, Jungle Juice and Salamander III, made up much of the lost ground on the tight reach. A slow hoist on the latter saw some krill fishing being performed, but mercifully, the spinnaker did not end up having a love affair with the keel.

Silhouette must have felt sorry for them, as they promptly offered up a flag version of their own spinnaker and took a moment or two to sort it out. At any rate, the positions settled down and they scooted off back to Port Melbourne before returning directly to the mark on St Kilda beach and thence on to the finish. Bruschetta VI and Phantom were the only ones to look at the beach along the Esplanade as they headed back into the breeze and it must have been a good thing, as we are just about to see…

Grinning all the way…
Now it is easy to talk about Line Honours, for they showed a clean transom to all comers. It was last year’s overall winner, Ellipse, which was helmed by Gretchen Mohan. A completely thrilled Mohan said of her history in the sport and the race itself, '20 years ago I did some Wednesday afternoons here at RMYS. After the kids grew up, say around five years ago, I did a Go Sailing day and then joined on the spot. Now I am doing a lot of ocean work. I just love it. I do some skippering on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but it is on the deliveries where you rack up some serious miles on the helm.'

'Both owners, Jack Setton and Al Kaminski were on board today and it is an honour and pleasure that they allow us to do this. I loved the race, even if the start was frustrating, especially as we were not a main feature there. Our two tacticians, Jack and Matt Setton did have us out on the left of the line, so that was good for getting the new breeze.'

'I think the success was that our crew work was terrific. This is what set us up and also made it so enjoyable. When we found that first pocket after the start, we got the biggest spinnaker up and then closely read the Southerly, making the most of what was on offer. Definitely it was all about reading the wind and crew work, as Ellipse, a Northshore 369, is a great boat.'

'Normally I do main, so taking the wheel is joyous. Sailing is such a pleasure and what a wonderful thing to do with terrific friends and then you also meet other great people.'

Count me in!
Apart from their place over the line, boats were also scored under the two measurement categories, namely IRC and AMS. In the former, Ellipse was the winner, with Jungle Juice (Celia Dymond) and Salamander III (Monica Jones) behind her, in that order. AMS was won by the J24, Hyperactive, with Kristy Harris on the tiller and then it was Ellipse and the 11m One Design, Frenzy, in third place. The latter had Stephanie Strong helming today.

An Event Handicap was applied to all the crews and it was indeed the premier category for the trophy over the ratings variants. In third place was Le Cascadeur (Leo Eeckman) from Hobsons Bay Yacht Club and then Hyperactive from Sandringham YC, but the winner was Bruschetta VI. Paulina Mattila was skippering Hugo Ottaway’s J24, and it is a notable achievement for two reasons. Firstly, she hails from Finland and secondly, Paulina jagged a win from her maiden outing as Skipper. That’s tremendous work.

'I was working at a university in Helsinki that has partners here in Melbourne and next thing, here I am. The rules of the transfer were that I had to stay close to the sea and be able to walk to the nearest club. I have been here for 16 months now and really loving it. So far, so good, and it’s a lot better than being -15°C, which is what it is over there right now, with just the four hours of sunlight. So clearly everything is OK.'

'When I started sailing in Melbourne, it was with Linda Goldsmith on Phantom, so it is extra special to take out the trophy named after her sister. It emphasises the generosity of those that welcomed me and also provided the opportunities for me to do all that I have whilst here. This makes the win something quite surreal and I thank the Goldsmith family very much for all their work putting the event together.'

Of collecting the gold, as it were, Paulina said, 'I’m really very happy with the silver (necklace), because I prefer silver on me and it is also my first piece of Tiffany & Co jewellery. The crew were tremendous, so many thanks to Shane Campbell and James Torode on the bow. Hugo is fantastic, he pushes us to grow and we have developed so much as a crew. I love One Design because of the tight racing and all the factors you need to think of. It’s just great fun.'

'From here we’ll be continuing with Thursdays and then One Design racing on Sundays. Gareth Evans will return to the crew for those. The State Championships in April will roll around soon enough. So skippering will have to take a back seat for the moment, but I certainly liked it. I have the flavour now. My focus goes back to being sailor, but it was good to see things from different angle. I certainly had another perspective afforded me on how the boat works and the best way to manage your crew. All in all, I am sure it will make me a better sailor. At least it was not very windy out there and thanks to RMYS for today. It’s women specific events like this that make the first step that little bit easier.'

So given that the new team trophy is part of this year’s PPWCS, it is easy to see that RMYS have got off to a flying start with 16 of today’s entrants. Hobsons Bay YC had three, Royal Brighton YC had one, Sandringham had four and the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria had three. Given the complexity in the calculations for the results of this trophy, the statistics for it will be published in the next release. RYCV is hosting the Val Hodge Trophy, which is on Sunday, February 22.

New Wings
Alexandra Doran was driving the RYCV vessel, Duckmobile, today. She is part of the crew from Children of Phoenix, so named for the marvellous charity that assists children who are victims of abuse. A lot of the crew learned to sail on that boat and have always been dedicated, happy and wonderful competitors. The Elliott 10.5 is going off to do some cruising in the Pacific, so rather than disband, they have opted to spread their wings a little and spawned two crews of blue birds and ducks to keep it all very avian. Sam Smith, Paige Butcher and Susan Jones will race the little Bluebird, Drambuie, who were unfortunately a DNF (did not finish) today.

Doran said, 'The rest of us are on Duckmobile, which is an X-Yacht 362 Sport. Kathy has been doing some coaching and is calling the tactics before she sets off on Children of Phoenix. The crew consisted of Ann Elmsley, Hester Freeman and Rebecca Williams. Also out on the water today were our regular, Silka Gebauer, and also her Cousin’s daughter, Anna Stoelken, all the way from Germany. Anna is a dinghy sailor and did the main, really excelling at that. Finally, there was Kay Watkins, who is a newbie and really pleased to be on the water.'

So this crew de force has built enough mass to have its own gravitational pull and more sailors continue to flock to this merry band. 'It is lovely that we have got the confidence up to get onto other boats, especially as we do not have a huge experience pool amongst our greater CoP family. Hopefully we will get some more crews out for our turn next week. We have put in the request for the same weather, by the way. A good Duckmobile day today…'

In the end, look for the Children of Phoenix T-shirts, which they promise will still be proudly worn to keep fostering awareness and promote this great cause.

Finally then, sincere appreciation and genuine thanks go to a true gentleman. David Ellis, the Club Captain at the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, showed tremendous generosity to firstly provide today’s media launch, which was actually built by his Father, and then also drive it.

Also the recipients of many thanks are the proud sponsors of the PPWCS; Club Marine, Kingston Trophies, AUS Sailmakers and Custom Yacht Covers and also Yachting Victoria as the event organiser. Of course, Club Marine is Australia's largest provider of recreational boat insurance. Ian Mann of Kingston Trophies donated the perpetual Port Phillip Women’s Championship Series Trophy in 2013 for the inaugural event and is the person behind the new Teams Trophy as well. Sam and Liz Haines of AUS Sailmakers provide an Encouragement Award for each race. Finally, Sue Bumstead from Custom Yacht Covers provides the Encouragement Award prizes based on the whole PPCWS.

Details and full information about the PPWCS can be found at http://www.womenandgirlsinsailing.com.au or go and like https://www.facebook.com/WomenandGirlsinsailing.