Port Phillip Women’s Championship Series – Bump n’ Grind

by John Curnow on 29 Mar 2015 The Sandringham Yacht Club (SYC) hosted today’s third round of the 2015 Port Phillip Women’s Championship Series (PPWCS). Sensational Autumnal weather greeted the crews that had turned out for the Women In Sailing Challenge, which is usually a set of sprint races. What also differentiates it from the other constituent events of the series is that it requires a certain ratio of females on board as part of the crew, and then they must also perform specific and key roles, like helming and trimming.

All was set for a great day it would seem, but the lack of a real breeze meant racing was limited to just the one set of guns. SYC’s Chris Waters was the Race Officer of the day. He’s also a former Club Captain (sail) and a previous Chair of Yachting Victoria’s Keelboat Committee. “I set an axis of 330° to a range of 0.8nm for the WISC and 0.6nm for the J24s, who were also on the same course area. Everyone did two full laps, but I did shorten it to just 0.3nm for the J24s for their second work. We had 8kts at the start and it clocked to 340° at one point and even dropped back to 3-4kts, before going South for the last of the finishers at 8-10kts.”

“The Line Honours vessel, Audacious, crossed in 1hr 10min after we had got them away on time at 1030hrs. We had a horizon of 1330hrs to have them back at the clubhouse for lunch, and with it unlikely that we could turn the entire fleet around and get them away again before 1245hrs I opted to send them in. It was a good day and the teams were appreciative, so many thanks to them and especially my team of volunteers.”

“Our Committee Vessel, Endeavour III, seemed to be quite the attraction today. Thankfully we were not on the newer craft, for one of the J24s had a good bump and grind up against us, as a direct result of not having enough room on the start line and not bailing early enough. Perhaps it was not their best choice of the day… We settled after that, only to then have a near miss at the other end when Dry White came into the finish”, said Waters.

Mea Culpa.

The Beneteau 40, Dry White, was under the auspices of Rosie Colahan today. The listed driver, Rachel Cameron, was not on the helm due to lack of experience and it being a sprint course. Indeed the crew are all fairly green, so all learnings are good learnings. At the finish line there was Endeavour III, anchored of course, and then also More Noise. Both of the yachts were on Starboard gybe at the time, but in a soft breeze and with limited manoeuvrability after evading all the J24s who were rounding the bottom gate just above the finish and then return to the windward mark once more, Dry White chose to slide in close to the boat end. The only issue was that More Noise was also there.

Colahan said of it all, “We had very little wind at the time (1.2kts) and were drifting down to the line with the spinnaker barely full and quite close down to the bow. We had four people on the foredeck in case we need to drop, but unfortunately the communications about how close More Noise were did not make it to the back of the boat. No doubt we would have stolen a lot of More Noise’s wind too, which would have added to it all. Thankfully there were no collisions and More Noise had a result already, as they were over the line. We did squeeze in between them and Endeavour III by slimming up a lot and brining the mainsail (and boom) right in and also sending the spinnaker pole to the forestay. Afterwards I explained to the crew that it is the same as having a rear end collision in a car. It’s your fault, so mea culpa. More Noise was very magnanimous, so thank you and cheers.”

Now the bulk of the fleet hailed from other clubs around the Bay, but the club with the most boats out there was the host. Vessels reported the North breeze that got them away, which ultimately competed with a land breeze from the East along with promised Westerly before it was meant to go South. Often it was all points of the compass and as we just saw, it was pretty much nothing when the middle of the fleet came home.

Not only did Audacious do well against the clock, for they were eight minutes ahead of the next boat, Frenzy, who in turn were then almost two more in front of Ellipse, Audacious also placed well. A win in IRC over Ellipse and More Noise was one better than their second place in the other ratings category, the Australian Measurement System, and then also in the Handicapper’s PHS. AMS was won by Le Cascadeur, with Frenzy in third and PHS also went to Le Cascadeur with Ellipse in third.

Tracey Baldwin was helming Audacious today. She started at RBYC some 12 years ago on an S80 doing pursuit races, then moved onto racing boats and thence Audacious, where she’s been a regular for the last five years. “I love match racing and a health dollop of offshore stuff too. We do have to work around the boats busy schedule and it is a distinct privilege to get to take her out. We, this predominantly girls’ crew, have not been out since last year’s BLiSS regatta, so it was more than good for us to get out and enjoy the spectacular conditions. Many thanks to Greg Clinnick and Paul Holden for throwing us the keys.”

“We had two guys on board as mentors and need to thank Ken Christensen and just as importantly Kate Clarke for giving him the leave pass to be our afterguard today. It was also good to have Alison Green on the main and Julie Mackay did the bow today for a change and did really well. Well done to all of the team. The majority of our female crew only come for WISC and BLiSS, so it is special to have a grand result from it all. Thanks to Sandy for the event and race management for a good race. Bring on the Shirley Freeman Trophy and then the BLiSS at our home club for the final round of the PPWCS”, said Baldwin.

Strong youth element.

The clan of the series could well be the great Strong family. The figurehead is the 23-year-old Steph Strong, who is no stranger to doing well and has been a competitor in many mixed and all-female events. Strong said, “I would be lost without the family. Normally were on a J24, and our group comprises of me, Megan Aulich, Kate Aulich (they are sisters my cousins and), Claire Hunting, Sasha Phillips, Jessica Strong (another cousin), Frea Vickery. Today we had me, Freya, Sasha, Kate and Megan and then my Uncle, Stephen Aulich, who was the token boy.”

“We do like to be up front as we’re all reasonably competitive and former Off The Beach (OTB) and Int’l Cadets sailors. It has all progressed from there. Most importantly, we’d all like to thank John Evans for the use of his boat. It is such terrific support and the 11m craft are fast.” The crew are very much a feature for Line Honours and Strong said of today’s winner, “They got ahead and kept moving when the breeze dropped off, but well done to them. They sail well and had good pace! It was a lovely day to be on the water.”

“The PPWCS offers great racing, but it would be nice to see more boats out there. We hope that it keeps on building. What a terrific turnout we saw for the first round at St Kilda – the rest should be like that. We are enjoying the racing and it is wonderful to have all the events under the one banner and also a delight to have a competitive women’s series.

Emily Close is just 17.5 years of age. She grabbed the keys to her father’s boat, More Noise, to do the series. “I did not drive today, but did for the first round. I was trimming today, especially the spinnakers and also talking with Marissa McManus (helm) about the ever-changing wind. I’m enjoying the series and learning more about it, especially getting info from other girls. Often we go into more detail and I really like this.”

I have done some OTB stuff, especially in the Tasar with friends from Wild Side and also my little nine-year-old sister, Darcy. She went out with Dad (Jason) today. So thanks Dad for lending me the boat and I am delighted to get the reigns. Look out, I may get very serious!”

As for the incident reported above, Close said, “It was good that they did not touch us and we sort of fended off as well. Pete Chalkley even got our boom in his head during it all. I do need to thank Marissa for all she has done. She has driven WISC for the last six years and has now retired. I know everyone appreciates all her efforts and it was wonderful to have all her knowledge and experience available to me.”

Digging the Ditch!

It is interesting to note that at a time when all eyes on both sides of the ditch are intently focussed on the MCG and the World Cup that a group of sailors from Port Phillip are over in Auckland taking part in the New Zealand Women’s Keelboat Regatta. They come from clubs all around Port Phillip and have never sailed the One Design Farr MRXs that are exclusively used for the two-day regatta. None of that mattered as they took the very same Esprit de Corps that the PPWCS has and applied it over there. All hope that it is infectious and provokes some more trans-Tasman travel.

As mentioned previously, the PPWCS has now added the Kingston Trophies PPWCS Perpetual Team Trophy to the array of prizes. This is the award designed to build intra-club camaraderie by maximising the number of boats and female sailors from each club actually getting out on the water.

You may think that a Cray Supercomputer is needed to perform the calculations, but the Chair of the Women and Girls in Sailing Committee, Rosie Colahan, provided us with a simplified version. “The Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron certainly started well, but two rounds with minimal participation sees them only just above Hobsons Bay YC and the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria. As this round was all about women holding key positions on board, Sandringham is now well and truly part of the mix for the second and third places with those two. Having the most boats for this round, which effectively holds bonus points, has really boosted them along. Royal Brighton YC has just not fielded enough crews so far and languishes well behind. Perhaps today’s Line Honours win by Audacious will see more of her home club vessels come out for the remaining two rounds.”

Many thanks to SYC for providing today’s media launch. The event organiser, Yachting Victoria, would also like to thank the proud sponsors of the PPWCS; Club Marine, Kingston Trophies, AUS Sailmakers and Custom Yacht Covers. Of course, Club Marine is Australia's largest provider of recreational boat insurance.

Now it is a hefty treasure trove as such… Ian Mann of Kingston Trophies donated the perpetual Port Phillip Women’s Championship Series Trophy in 2013 for the inaugural event and is the person behind the new Teams Trophy as well. Sam and Liz Haines of AUS Sailmakers provide an Encouragement Award for each race. Finally, Sue Bumstead from Custom Yacht Covers provides the Encouragement Award prizes based on the whole PPCWS. Ultimately, this all means some boats and skippers will do well with the loot.

The next round of the PPWCS is Hobsons Bay Yacht Club’s Shirley Freeman Trophy on April 19. Details and full information about the entire series can be found at http://www.womenandgirlsinsailing.com.au and whilst you’re at it, go and like https://www.facebook.com/WomenandGirlsinsailing.