Croatia Yacht Rally goes One Design in 2009

by Trevor Joyce on 14 Oct 2009
It has taken a long time for any yacht builder to realize that a good cruising yacht does not have to be a sailing slow coach but the Dufour 44 Performance has done the job admirably.

The set up below decks provides really comfortable accommodation for three couples and then adds a fourth twin cabin to stow the baggage, (or an extra person), and the galley is really functional. You would not try to sleep in the lower of the two single berths in the fourth cabin, however, if you were predisposed toward claustrophobia.

The real surprises with this yacht came when the spectra sails went up to take the breeze; the three spreader rig, big main and non overlapping jib drove the boat effortlessly; she was fast on all points of sail and our crews suddenly forgot they were in charter mode.

One of the skippers, Paul Jacka, from the Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne races a Beneteau First 44.7 and he commented, 'properly set up this yacht would give my boat a serious run for her money, although I don’t know what the IRC rating is, she is just a dream to steer – especially uphill'. All of the skippers were seriously impressed with the performance of the yacht and all of the partners were seriously happy with its cruising capabilities,

The deck gear is all Harken, there is a pole and spinnakers are an optional extra that we might consider for the 2010 rally next September – but we are resisting going too far down the racing road for fear of spoiling the cruising aspects of the event.

This year we had six 44’s but we have chartered 10 yachts for 2010 in anticipation of a more positive market given the indications that economic recovery from the recent recession is on the way.

During the recently sailed 2009 event we coincidentally had crews from five Australian yacht clubs; Bellerive in Tasmania, Sandringham in Victoria, the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia, Botany Bay Sailing Club in Sydney and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

This fact added a little spice to the equation although at no stage did the competitive element take control. Typically a race would be over the last 10 – 15 miles of a passage between two ports of call on the rally route, with the morning spent cruising to a rendezvous for lunch before a start. Marina berthing is always pre-booked and pre-paid for the night following the race and then a dinner at a nearby restaurant adds the other really critical dimension of a Mariner rally; the social component. And of course the next day is a lay day to enjoy as you wish.

Although the yachts were very well matched for speed there were differences between the crews so the Mariner Boating handicapping system; T.I.T.S was used as usual. The system uses a formula to correct the TCF of all yachts other than the first place getter in each race to produce the same result on corrected time as the winner and that new TCF is then applied to the next race.

In the end there was a tied result for first that we could not break with a count-back, following a dead heat for fourth place in the last race so there was plenty of excitement about who was going to win the day.

The joint winners, Paul Strong and his crew from Bellerive and John Lindholm from Sandringham with his hot shot dinghy sailing mate from Singapore had sailed well all through the six race series although John when sailing upwind had to tack the kids as well the boat – he had three young kids in his crew and they proved you do not have to be adult to sail in a Croatia Yacht Rally.

During the six 2009 races the first was easy reaching in less than 10 knots of breeze, the second two were hard working in 18 knots plus, the fourth was hard reaching in 20 knots plus but with a big hole in the middle and the fifth and sixth were square running with poled out head sails. All of this was on flat water in 25 degree sunshine so the cameras worked overtime during all of the races.

This new racing dimension was added to an already successful Croatia Yacht Rally formula. The rally ambled down the Dalmatian Island chain from Sibenik to Dubrovnik via Trogir, Rogoznica, Vis, Hvar, Lastovo, Korcula, Miljet and Sipan. Croatia abounds in history, the scenery is great, the food is a real surprise and the people are becoming less and less crusty having shed the shackles of 50 years of communism.

September is the 'champagne' month in Croatia and next year the rally will start on the 11th. to further allow the mainstream tourist tide to recede. Croatia gets busier every year and in Dubrovnik this year a flotilla of cruise ships disgorged their seriously obese contents into the narrow streets of the old town and the Stradon looked more like the terraces at the MCG during an AFL grand final than the main street of a medieval city.

If you have an inclination to do the Croatia Yacht Rally my suggestion is to get in quick because the place is definitely changing!

Call Mariner Boating Holidays on +612 99661244 or visit the website www.marinerboating.com.au and go to the brochure in the rally section.