Ladies at the helm on Sydney Harbour this Sunday

by Peter Campbell on 14 Apr 2007 Nearly 80 women will be at the helm of yachts on Sydney Harbour this Sunday when the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia holds the Ladies Day Race for the Jill McLay Memorial Trophy, also marking the opening of the Audi Winter Series.

A woman must helm each competing yacht although crews may be mixed male and female sailors. Several women, however, are putting together all-female crews especially for the prestigious event.

Racing will start from 12 noon with handicap starts from the line off Point Piper, from where the big fleet will sail around fixed harbour marks before finishing back at Point Piper.

The biggest of the four divisions (two spinnaker and two non-spinnaker) will be Spinnaker Division A which has attracted 30 entries, including many prominent racing yachts.

Alex Murray, wife of America’s Cup skipper Iain Murray – and an excellent sailor in her own right – will be at the helm of the Sydney 38 Ichi Ban, while Alison Pickering will skipper Love Byte, which she owns in partnership with her husband.

In Spinnaker Division B, Sarah Wilmot will helm the Super 30 flyer Arrow while Ann Penty will steer her husband Bob’s Big Blue, winner of the recent Milson Cup, and Judy Bergman will skipper J Force, which she owns with husband Moty.

Other leading boats entered include Balance (Ruth Dexter), Loki (Yvonne Gorman), Sydney (Victoria Kellett) and Your’re Hired (Ros Morgan).

Most boats will be helmed by regular crew members, including Val Mallett steering Sommerbreeze and Pat Goldstiver at the helm of Trim in Non Spinnaker Division A, and Claire Chalmers skippering Hornblower in Non Spinnaker Division B.

However, owner Michele Colenso, will be on the wheel of Capriccio of Rhu which she skippered to victory in the Cruising Division of the 2006 Rolex Sydney Hobart.

Ladies tackle the Great Veterans.

Three women sailors are forsaking Sunday’s Ladies Day Race to take on the male skippers in the CYCA’s other event of the day, the annual Great Veterans Race.

Joining owner/skipper Catherine Kay aboard Sylphide will be Ann Kirkjian and Sue Sloman as the basic crew of the 1960s vintage yacht, with Catherine’s daughter Claire possibly making up a fourth woman.

Catherine, a French/Australian artist whose watercolours were a feature of the exhibition 'Any News on La Perouse?' at the State Library of NSW, returned recently to Sydney after cruising the Australian East Coast on Sylphide, which competed in four Sydney Hobart Races in the 1960s.

Ann is co-owner with her husband John, an international yachting judge and juryman, of the Sydney 37 Lady Ann. In 1986 she was navigator of Lady Ann with her then 17-year-old son Sean as skipper in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. The family still regularly races Lady Ann in harbour events.

Sue, who sails on Pittwater, is the daughter of the late Bob Sloman who crewed for Bob Bull on Christina when the yacht won handicap honours in the second Sydney Hobart Race in 1946 and again on for Bull when his next boat Nocturne, took line honours in 1952.

'The famous sailing artist Jack Earl also sailed on Christina in 1946 and I have a watercolour he painted of Dad aboard the boat that year, plus an oil painting by Jack of Dad’s 16-foot skiff,' Sue said today

'Dad sailed in Cadets before the War, including the Stonehaven Cup, and was a very active Dragon sailor in the 1950s, building his own boat Quickstep.'

The all-women crew of Sylphide will be up against Lolita, which Nick Cassim sailed to victory in last year’s Great Veterans Race (Sylphide placed third on handicap), Stormy Petrel (Kevin O’Shea), Suraya (Carl Scriber), Rotiaata (Michael Kirby) and Polaris of Belmont (Chris Dawe).

The Great Veterans Race, for the Windward Trophy, is open to yachts 30 years old that have competed in a Sydney Hobart Race.