Good times and drama in 22nd Lock Crowther Multihull Regatta

by Stephen Barton on 11 Oct 2017 This regatta, the 22nd consecutive one, celebrates multihull racing in Australia in the name of the late great multihull pioneer designer Lock Crowther.

The visiting boats including Geoff Floyd's Corsair 28 '50/50' from Victoria, Mike Kirby's large Schionning Waterline 'Viento' and Greg Bridge's Crowther Windspeed 31, 'Bob', both from Cronulla and Shane Russell's Peter Cherry designed Lynx 'Foxy' from Wangi Wangi as well as the opportunity of catching up with some amazing sailors who have done and continue to do inspiring things in boats in addition to the Pittwater locals made this 16 boat Regatta feel quite special.

As did Beryl Crowther's attendance at the Presentation Dinner.
 
Down a bit on numbers 16 multis is still an awesome sight, but hopefully there will be the optimum number of 22-25 boats sailing next year.

The Friday Ocean Race begins proceedings but with the last minute withdrawal of 46’ Schionning Bulletproof with mast track issues and several other keen boats not available only two boats participated this year so a 'dead heat' on phs was 'organised' for “J'ouvert” and “Bob.” -very amusing Alan (the handicapper) and so egalitarian!

Results aside, the crew’s of both boats enjoyed a really nice day sailing off the coast of Sydney's Pittwater with conditions initially light and shifty but a steady sea-breeze filling in by midday making this beautiful spring day close to perfect. 

A large seal sunning itself on Shark Rock at Barrennjoey Point as we sailed out of Pittwater, really large pods of dolphins and several breaching whales, not to mention this race’s miles long legs along this stunning coiffed and sandy beaches coastline with virtually no other traffic and steady winds and never further away than a few miles from the safety of Mother's Bosom (aka Pittwater) helped make this another memorable offshore experience.

I really would like to share these experiences with more multihulls, do some ‘proper’ offshore racing against more competition and see more multihull sailors accept the challenges and reap the benefits of sailing 'outside' in races such as the RMYC's offshore series, the upcoming Pittwater to Coffs, and/or Pittwater to Southport, the Shorthanded races (if we can get them reestablished), Brissy to Gladstone and these LCMR offshore races in the future. It really is a great boating experience, racing offshore. 

To be frank, I reckon the low Multihull numbers are a bit piss poor when you see the number of Monos racing offshore. It must be time for multihull sailors to step up.

Anyways, the real competition of this Regatta are the four inshore races which obviously have proper and legitimate handicaps applied and I note that Alan Brand and crew on his Corsair Dash 750 “Xena” again sailed very well for the win however they would have been trounced by Joe Finch's bargain priced Burgess trimaran float based catamaran 'Bluey Zarzoff' had Joe sailed the correct course in race two.

However, with a new taller rig only just installed before the regatta (pinched from his Dad's now decommissioned Crowther Twiggy) and all the 'challenges' that that was providing for the young Hoods sailmaker and his equally youthful crew, returning to pass a mark on the correct side was considered a task too hard at the time in the gusty conditions. But what a transformation that bigger rig has made!! This boat goes very fast now.

Talking about the gusty conditions, in the Saturday morning's blustery race, Orca, the lightweight and speedy F-82R of long time multihuller Kurt, got blown over with it's kite up. Apparently, Murphy was helping out on the kite sheet with a well timed override and with land to leeward a big gust hit and even Kurt’s quick thinking to grab a knife to cut the locked sheet wasn’t enough to stop Orca flipping over.

What an amazing effort by him, his crew and the committee boat to have it back on it's feet and sailing within an hour. Impressive stuff! Of course, as you’d expect with Kurt, the sails, including the kite, were in perfect trim seconds after the rerighting. However, with the motor now waterlogged and various bits and pieces wet or missing Orca was retired from the regatta after sailing home. (PS. Orca was back to pristine and racing hard the following weekend!).

 
In those strong breezes race one was over quite quickly so we all had a nice long lunch break with boats rafting up together for a social get together while the committee boat re-righted Orca and got back on station in time for the race two start off Mackeral Beach. 

Winds were expected to drop off in the arvo which they did, eventually, but not before providing some exhilarating rides to Lion Island and up to Juno Point at the mouth of the Hawksbury River with some good tight racing in up to 30 knots of true breeze.
 
Sunday dawned delightful but light shifty breezes created a bit of a lottery in the morning race and boats that were blitzing then found themselves back in the pack and boats that seemed to have wandered off into the ‘never never’ found themselves in the lead.

However, the afternoon race had the most enjoyably steady 8-10 knots of easterly breeze so on this north/south waterway ‘screechers’ were the sail of choice. 

Again the generous sponsorship made for lots of prizes at the dinner presentation. A nice touch is that non-prize winners receive a “Thank-you” for participating with a complimentary bottle of Two Rivers wine. Other sponsors who contributed included Musto, Maui Jims sunglasses, Vacuwash, Multihull World magazine, 316 Fastening Shop, Pittwater Online, Summit Coatings, Johnson Bros Mitre 10, Hood sailmakers, Sydney Heritage Fleet, Geddes Optical and Scott Sails.

Well done to Alan Brand and his trimaran crew John Mitchell, and congrats to them and Paul Pascall on their Regatta win in the ‘Race’ division and to David Bishop and crew on Crowther Catana “Coconut Airlines” in winning the ‘Cruising’ division, and all the staff at RMYC for their help in organising a very nice Regatta. Many thanks.

I'm now looking forward to next year’s Lock Crowther Mutihull Regatta. 

Stephen (J'ouvert)