Sail Port Stephens 2012 heading for new record

by Sail Port Stephens Media on 17 Feb 2012 Sail Port Stephens, one of Australia’s fastest growing regattas, is now in its sixth year and is ready to set sail from 16 to 22 April 2012.

Entries for Sail Port Stephens 2012 have been flooding in and Commodore Dom Grundy and Paul O'Rourke, the Regatta Director, from the organising authority, the Corlette Point Sailing Club, expect between 170 and 190 entries to contest the nine days of racing.

Dom Grundy said ‘We are way ahead of where we were this time last year. There are still a lot of entries to come through as yet. We are anticipating a record fleet for the Commodores Cup and the NSW IRC Championships. The Sydney 38s are going to have their own division within the IRC Racing fleets. This year the Elliott 7 Australian Championships will be sailed as part of Sail Port Stephens and the event is expanding further with the introduction of our first Junior Regatta.

Paul O’Rourke continued. ‘As the event is growing there is now significant co-operation between the area's sailing clubs. This year we have Port Stephens Sailing and Aquatic Club coming on board and they will be helping us run the Junior regatta. We already have the Port Stephens Yacht Club involved and they help us on the Sports Boat courses with their volunteers. What we are showing is that Port Stephens has the capacity to run larger and larger events.’

Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson said ‘The IRC fleet is looking very impressive with possibly four TP52’s at the front of the fleet. Marcus Blackmore’s TP52 Hooligan is back to defend her NSW IRC Championship title. Bob Steel, the 2010 IRC winner, is coming back with his TP52 Quest.

‘The Commodores Cup fleet is again looking very strong. We are more than double the number of entries we had at the same time last year. Overall Sail Port Stephens 2012 is going to be a very exciting regatta.’

Visit the website Sail Port Stephens http://www.sailportstephens.com.au for the latest news on one of the best regattas in one of the most beautiful spots in Australia.

Online entry is now available here

Notice of Race is available here

Soldiers Point Marina website