The return to Coffs!

by John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World Australia on 22 May 2017 The word is out that the new race to Coffs Harbour is on. The phoenix would run once again in the traditional Christmas timeslot, and also be the much easier to digest 200 or so miles. The ‘new’ race would also be geared towards club racers, so they, and their non-pro crews could be out and back, and almost more importantly, returned to work before anyone missed them. Bring it on, for it has a lot going for it. To be honest, turning left, not right at that time of year makes a lot of sense anyway…

Yes, another club has jumped at the chance to run this formerly Christmas time favourite, and it seems they also have a sponsor all set to go too. That is bound to be of interest to clubs like Balmain, Lake Macquarie and even the Shire. So much so that I would not mind betting that Cronulla’s Commodore, Rob Francis’ MBD41 ‘The Banshee’ will indeed be the first entrant.

A family friendly plan, with the organisers possibly even including a Cat4 rally division, that is bound to include some fun on the way back in places like Port Stephens, Newcastle, and Pittwater, is totally bound to get the early entries on the table. And you could well have to do that right now, for it is slated to be on for the end of this year. Yes! That’s 2017. It’s not that big a stretch either, for Paul O’Rourke of Sail Port Stephens fame is the new CEO at the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club, and we would not be surprised to see this club involved in some way.

So a little bit of history now. Brad Greenshields reported in the Coffs Coast Advocate this week that the annual Pittwater to Coffs was not to return, with the headline, ‘Yacht club loses its great race’. Naturally, I read on intently. Yes the damage in a storm last year rendered the marina untenable, with concerns that repairs would not be carried out in time, and so this year’s event went on to Southport.

Garry Innes from the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club said back in September of last year that, “They (the RPAYC) have yet again completely assured Coffs Harbour that the Pittwater to Coffs Harbour yacht race will run from 2018 infinitely.”

Move forward to now, and it’s off, leaving many wondering where it all went wrong. Greenshields reported Coffs Harbour Yacht Club’s secretary/manager, Bob StJohn, as saying that the RPAYC's issue with Coffs Harbour was all about continuity. It was concerned that the yacht club only had a lease on the property from Coffs Harbour City Council until 2020. Like all these things, the race underpinned security for the club, and also filled the local clubs coffers somewhat. The local club is also indicating that they were looking to see if another Sydney club would host a race finishing at Coffs.

Yet look a little closer and there are some concerns no one has admitted to. The inaugural race was in 1991, and participation is down from the heyday in the 90s, where a hundred boats would participate. Indeed I was sitting under the very honour boards in question just recently, and the names were very well known - Xena, Innkeeper, Wild Oats XI, Broomstick, and Nicorette, just to drop a few in.

So the truth is that the race has been losing ground steadily over time. The move from December 27 to Jan 2 or 3 was a big contributor. It’s also true that the shallow marina entrance has caused some concern for some of the larger yachts in recent years.

Over the last decade the media coverage of the race was another factor. Perhaps the powers that be at RPAYC knew that the future of the event in that particular guise was limited. Now looking at the numbers going to Southport, where just 18 boats participated in the 2017 event, you could say that support levels for that destination will have to increase significantly before its viability is enshrined too. No one is impervious to the forces of nature and that race may yet go the way of the Sydney Montague Island, the Sydney Mooloolaba, and Gosford to Lord Howe races.

Making it a 400 miler is way different in a lot of ways to what it was previously. Now you could also argue that it now does not have enough differentiation from the Sydney Southport event some six months later in the calendar, which also offers a real reason to go that far (and beyond).

So leaving the mythical creatures alone, we’ll instead run off to the behemoths. In stark contrast to the last regatta, you have Hamilton Island, which could be set to break last year’s record. It is predominantly deep water, especially at high tide, and also except for those bricks placed here and there. This year it seems it is also to play host to three of the world’s 100-footers. They say Wild Oats XI will be joined by both her near sistership, the new Black Jack, formelry Alfa Romeo II, and Comanche. Yet the dark horse here could well be Scallywag, which is currently under the cone of silence inside a shed at Subic Bay. Ascertaining exactly what mods are going on is a trade secret, so we’ll have to wait and see how big they are, and if she is to appear in the tropics before the Hobart.

Of course the next part is that the fifth Volvo entrant is to be made up of this very team, so who knows if there will be enough sailors to go around… Also this week the news that the next VOR OD boat will be a Guilliaume Verdier semi-foiler with deck spreaders and all, was kind of cool. The flush deck means that she’ll be as wet as she is faaaaast, but excitement is a certainty. And as for excitement, the inshore race on mutlithulls, with the points seriously counting to the overall result will be a real test for the 5-7 person crews (plus OBR) that will make up the teams.

Many expected the next boat to be a multihull, and it would seem Mark Turner sought of did too. “Following our detailed discussions this time around, there is no longer any kind of conceptual barrier to the Volvo Ocean Race going multihull offshore in six years’ time, a decision to make just 3 to 4 years from now. We came very close to going that route this time. In the next decade, it’s very possible that we’ll see multihulls from the new French Ultime class racing across the oceans, most of the time flying above the water, rather than on it – a significantly greater challenge than doing so inshore in flatter water.”

Toning it down a bit, just a little then, and the new Mark Mills 37 for the New York Yacht Club has got many a tongue wagging. Seems their first 20 boats could be met by demand from other clubs and seriously interested private parties. Could we have a new, near 40-footer that could set the world on fire, and finally replace another that has gone the way of the dodo?

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