Club Marine Sail Boat Show underway

by Di Pearson on 20 Mar 2005 The Club Marine Sail Boat Show opened with at a lavish cocktail party at the host venue, Sandringham Yacht Club, on Friday evening hosted by Melbourne yachting identity, Kevin Wood.

Over 150 attended, including the Show’s Patron and ocean racing veteran, Lou Abrahams, Federal Member for Goldstein, Andrew Robb, representatives from the Bayside City Council, exhibitors, world class and Olympic sailors and media personalities attended the event that was held in a marquee on a floating barge on a warm Melbourne night.

At the gathering, Wood presented Club Marine’s Paul Wilson with a plaque commemorating their five-year sponsorship of the Show, while Parks Victoria received one for their six-year commitment.

Apart from launching the Sail Boat Show, a number of other important announcements were made.

John So, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne announced details of the
2007 Melbourne Osaka double-handed Yacht Race. Already 60 yachties have expressed interest in sailing the 5,500 nautical mile race, including former entrants, Ivan McFadyen and Peter Tardrew.

Early entrant, Melbournian Peter Coleman, had his yacht on display and many interested parties went aboard to inspect and ask him questions about the race.

Grant Wharington, owner skipper of the super maxi Skandia, told those gathered of his plans for the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race. Melbourne is the only Australian stopover point for what is regarded the ‘toughest yacht race in the world’.

Building of Wharington’s Volvo 70 has already commenced and he told the assembled throng, ‘we are looking forward to racing as Australia’s first entry into the race. We are also looking forward to the reception we hope to get on the Melbourne stopover leg – our home port.’

The race starts in Spain this November. The fleet will arrive in Melbourne in January, leaving on the leg to Rio de Janeiro in late February.

Wharington has had a busy time of late, as he is also supervising major repair work to his super max Skandia which he says will be ready in plenty of time to honour his race commitments in Europe from May onwards.

Jesse Martin, non-stop around the world single-handed sailor from Melbourne was also in attendance. He will spend the weekend at the Show promoting and signing copies of his book, Gitana. An eloquent young man, Martin’s ‘big thing’ at the moment is to get his charter business up and running in Papua New Guinea.

On display too, six new First Class 7.5m Beneteaus acquired by the Sandringham YC Marine Boating Academy run by Rob Irongmonger.

A smart looking keelboat, features include a large cockpit with a well thought out simple layout, hydraulically worked keel, a big storage locker built into the floor of the cockpit, tiller steering and everything easily accessible from the cockpit - a great boat for newcomers to sailing.

‘They’ll be great for training boats, but will be equally good for experienced sailors and a great match-racing boat,’ Irongmonger said.

The Show, which truly is a sailing boat show, held on the premises of SYC, kicked off yesterday and closes tonight.

An excellent venue with a large marquee set up for indoor exhibitors close to the waterfront, only metres away, just about every big name in yacht design is displayed at Sandy’s big floating marina.

Beneteau, Bavaria, DK, Elan, Hunter, Catalina, Jeanneau, Hanse and Dufour are all there and all were busy with some serious buyers in evidence.

It is a battle of the cruiser/racer - the most popular concept in Australia right now. All have something good and different to offer and all were kept busy with their share of customers, each comparing the various designs in the search for their ideal new yacht.

The cruiser/racer concept is a really good one that works. There are those who just want to go cruising, others who want to do both - and then, there is the odd one or two who initially purchased their yacht to go cruising, but found they were so successful in races, they changed their minds!

One such case is that of Alan Whiteley, the owner of the new Beneteau 44.7, Cougar. Whiteley, according to one crew member, took Cougar to Skandia Geelong Week for a bit of fun, but finished second to sistership First National Real Estate, owned by serious grand prix racer, Michael Spies.

That started him thinking…

Just last Wednesday, Cougar unbelievably took line honours in the Melbourne-Grassy Race, beating both David Gotze’s Volvo 60 Indec and Bill Rawson’s pocket maxi Helsal II and the rest of the fleet.

Rumour is that Whiteley, who had not owned a boat for some years, is so bitten by the racing bug now that he plans to contest the northern racing circuit, starting with the Sydney-Southport race.

Dekadence, the first DK46 to be launched in Australia, is also on show. Her owner, Phil Coombs, Commodore of SYC, is more than pleased with his yacht which arrived in Melbourne late last year and has put in some solid performances already. ‘It is an impressive boat and we hope to do it justice,’ Coombs said.

One perspective buyer at the show told me, ‘I don’t know what to buy – each design has its merit. My wife says it’s a bit like being in the shoe shop with too many pairs to choose from. Price will have a big bearing for me, but I’m also looking for comfort because I have a family and we plan to do quite a bit of cruising.’

MTM Boating Group’s David Tootell is Melbourne’s Bavaria representative and he says the Club Marine Sail Boat Show works very well for them.

‘The fee for this Show is very reasonable, the location is perfect and we sold three boats here last year, so I consider it very successful. We’re hoping to do at least the same, if not better, this year.

Televised on plasma screens in the floating marquee are excerpts from the previous Volvo Ocean Race, the Melbourne-Osaka race and the development of Waterfrontcity at Melbourne’s Docklands where the Volvo racers will moor during their stopover.

‘It’s a work in progress that will be completed in stages,’ says Waterfrontcity’s Stacey Fishwick, at the show to promote the venue and to give updates on its progress.

‘The marina where the Volvo boats will stay is due for completion in November and the next stage will have a lot of space for those who want to come and moor up casually; be it for the afternoon, night or a few days, giving boat owners the opportunity to enjoy dinner out at a number of excellent restaurants along the Docklands waterfront, or come for the Australian Open and the other numerous events hosted in our city,’ he enthused.

Whilst patrons are busy looking around for their purchases, there are a number of things to keep the kids busy too; face painting, competitions and a bit of fun watching the Bunnings Warehouse Boat Building competition – the last one left floating wins!

The Show closes this evening and Sandringham organisers are pleased with this year’s event. ‘It gets better every year,’ said Sandringham CEO Scott Eccleston.