Bound for Newcastle and the Audi IRC Australian Championships

by John Curnow on 4 Mar 2014 Whether it is by road, rail, air or sea, Newcastle is accessible. This is something that a truly national championship could well do with. Add in a large, 180 berth, 3.1 hectare, protected marina that is around 10 minutes from the racetrack, along with all the onshore amenities you might need if you have some last minute repairs or final tweaks to attend to, and it does become a Lay Down Misère. Yes. The 2014 Audi IRC Australian Championship has a great location in Newcastle.

To be conducted over Easter, which in 2014 is April 17 to 20, the host will be the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club (NCYC).

Audi returns as this year’s IRC Australian Championship naming sponsor. Fitting well with Audi’s love of sportiness and progressive technology, sailing is a sport that offers both qualities, and the sense of competition that is engendered in this Championship event is a great way to really bring the sailing community together. Audi’s managing director, Andrew Doyle, cites this competition as one of the main drivers for the brand’s sponsorship.

'Australia is a national of sports lovers, and in sailing, like in any sport, there’s a wonderful sense of camaraderie and achievement that comes from fighting hard to be crowned the national champion, in any sport,' Mr Doyle said. 'We look forward to seeing the results of this Easter competition.'

The club itself is set to be even more vibrant as crews from around the country gather to see who is best in IRC Classes A, B and C. A modern Clubhouse with great views over NCYC’s marina provides a wonderful backdrop for considering it all and the clubs great BBQ facilities are sure to get a workout too. Indoor and outdoor seating under a large marquee means you’ll be able to find a spot to get all your friends around for the ubiquitous post-race debrief.

Apart from fuel, the NCYC Commercial Centre contains the privately operated, Midcoast Boatyard and Marine, then there’s a sail maker, chandlery and boat broker, if you’ve had enough afterwards or perhaps consider an upgrade is necessary. Afterwards, you can sit and have some calamari or fish at the seafood restaurant and toast yourself with a lovely, local Hunter Semillon.

The accommodation partners for the 2014 Audi IRC Australian Championship are the Crowne Plaza Newcastle, which is located on the Honeysuckle waterfront and the Chifley Apartments and Executive Suites, right on Hunter Street at the Eastern edge of Newcastle’s CBD and only across the road from the train terminus.

With facilities and accommodation sorted, we’ll allow our focus to return to the water. The NCYC welcomes all yachts holding a current IRC Certificate and Category 4 Safety Certificate to enter the 2014 Audi IRC Australian Championship. Prior to the Audi IRC Australian Championship there will be feeder yacht races. On April 5 it will be from Pittwater to Newcastle and then on April 6, Newcastle to Port Stephens. Sail Port Stephens is on from April 11 to 16 and includes the NSW IRC State Championships on April 11 to 13. A great warm up to the main event!

Regatta entry includes berthing and a fun and family friendly social programme. NOR, entry and regatta information is available here. The Championship itself will comprise both windward leeward style racing and a long and short passage race, all held directly off Newcastle.

For most IRC skippers this will be a new venue, so a quick chat with NCYC CEO, Richard Howard, was required. Richard’s pathway to running a club was not exactly typical. This accomplished sailor is actually a solicitor and worked in business consultancy as a corporate advisor and tax specialist, before NCYC Commodore, Phil Arnall, asked him to come on board.

'In terms of the East coast sailing fraternity NCYC is in the middle of the supply chain. We have the benefit of accessibility compared to our counterparts further north and down south.'

'The steel city has changed over the past decade. It is a much cleaner city which continues to gentrify. Having the CBD right on the waterfront of a working port which continues to be developed has really changed the face of Newcastle. Recently the NSW State Government announced that the port is going to be privatised with a significant portion of the revenue obtained from that transaction being reinvested into further revitalisation and redevelopment of the remaining parts of the waterfront which will connect CBD to NCYC and further link the port to the city', said Howard.

'NCYC started in the early 90’s, when a group of like-minded individuals, who all enjoyed sailing in one form or another, got together and decided they would form a club. For the best part of a decade, the club didn’t have a home nor a marina in any form, just a group of mates that decided in the long run Newcastle needed to have a yacht club.'

'A lot of NCYC’s early members who lived in town also regularly sailed on Lake Macquarie. From its beginnings and to present day, NCYC boasts a huge diversity of sailing interest, with some members being racers, others being cruisers and a few even veterans of round the world events.'

In 2001 the club managed to secure a long-term lease of its land from the NSW State Government. Thereafter an ambitious program of development works began to transform the former industrial site into the fantastic facility the Club now possesses.'

Howard continued 'One of the challenges facing yacht clubs that run large regattas is they tend to get fairly well occupied with permanents and berthing regatta visitors can be problematic. We are a little lucky at NCYC, in that the whole concept of recreational boating, regardless of whether it is sail or power, is still gaining traction in Newcastle. As we have only had our complete 180-berth marina for about five years we rarely have 100% occupancy.

Accordingly, hosting a large regatta is probably a bit easier for us, in that we have the ability to move boats around, so as to make sure that we can provide berthing for all competitors. We can certainly squeeze 35 boats in our marina as long at they’re not all 100 footers, probably even a few more if need be.'

In addition to racing, many cruising vessels also use Newcastle as a stopover on their way North or South. At any given time, there would be up to ten or fifteen transient yachts berthed in NCYC’s marina and given the nature of the port and Customs service available Newcastle is a convenient staging point for entering or department Australian waters for yachts, either under their own power or on the deck of a ship.

The Clubs proximity to the CBD and a variety of repair and maintenance suppliers is well and truly a draw card for boat owners. There is nothing that one cannot obtain or repair whilst in Newcastle, be it electrical, hydraulic, diesel, composite, timber or engineering in nature. Having such an array of resources close at hand makes life easy for cruisers and racers alike.

'The Club has really held on to its welcoming culture and has tried to embrace visitors to Newcastle. Quite often visitors to NCYC initially indicate they are going to be here a couple of days and end up staying for a week or even a month!', said Howard.

Of course, having made it to Newcastle, should you need to depart, it is just as easy as the short steam or sail down the harbour to the open sea with Sydney only eight hours to the south and Port Stephens three hours to the north. Alternatively, Wickham train station is 400m from the club where you can catch a train straight back to Sydney or jump in a taxi and in 15 minutes you’re at Newcastle airport which has direct flights to Sydney, Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Brisbane. The other option is to hire a car from Europcar just across the road from NCYC with Hannell Street linking you to the freeway running North and South, but why not head west and into the famous Hunter Valley. More on that another time….

So the answer is yes! You should be bound for Newcastle and the 2014 Audi IRC Australian Championships. When we come back with Part II, we’ll look at the things to do in the area, apart from yachting. In the meantime, you can look here to see what’s on offer.