Australian Women’s Keelboat Regatta

by Bob Appleton on 12 Jun 2007 Sixteen years ago, two teams of female sailors from Melbourne and Sydney, packed their sail bags and travelled to the first International keelboat championships in New Zealand.

Over the Queen's Birthday weekend, and in it's 17th year, this fantastic regatta involving females who are passionate about the sport of sailing, came from New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania to make it a true Australian Women's Keelboat Regatta!

The Royal Geelong Yacht Club had seven of our ladies involved, sailing on board three boats. A full RGYC team sailed the S80, 'Chikara Chicks Escape' andconsisted of Joanne Norbury, skippering and looking after the trim, (Usually sails on 'Gi Gi'), Genevieve Pop was on the helm (ex cadet captain), Celeste Barron on foredeck ('Gi Gi'), Emma Kirkhope, slaved in the pit (also from 'Gi Gi'), Sue Beretta was on the main (married to a sailor!) and Jade Mackay, also trimmed. Jade was actually a ring in from ORCV, but was excused, and accepted, because the name 'Chikara Chicks Escape' told it all. Each one of them were escaping from dishes, nappies, washing, ironing and - 'him'!

Exercising her skills on the foredeck of the Adams 10, 'Salamander III' of the RMYS, was Raewyn Hansen who normally sails on and controls the foredeck of 'French Connection' and Lucy Townson of 'Stardust' fame sailed on the S80, 'Imaginer'.

[Sorry, this content could not be displayed] In the first race, Lucy was the first to smell success as 'Imaginer' came second in YV results and won the AMS division.

'Salamander' and Raewyn bombed out a bit coming twelfth in YV but fourth in IRC.

The chicks on 'Chikara Chicks Escape' were sort of 'mid range' slotting into seventh place keeping their options open!

'Chicks' improved by one spot to sixth in race two, came fourth in race three and ran a great race four into second spot but slipped a little to fifth place in race five.

At this point at race five, 'Chicks' were lying second to 'Hyperactive' of the Sandringham Yacht Club and would need to finish in front of 'Hyperactive' to stand any chance of winning the trophy.

Meanwhile, the other RGYC reps were having mixed fortunes. Raewyn Hansen and the others on board 'Salamander III' were struggling at the back of the fleet and stuffed up completely in race five to get disqualified, as they were over at the start. That really 'blew it' and just like the Australian team in that first 1991 race, they came 'stone motherless last' in YV, BUT, managed a creditable third place in IRC.

Lucy Townson and associates on board 'Imaginer' scored two seconds, an eighth, ninth and tenth in that order but a fifth in the last race managed to lift their rating to finish in fourth place (YV) for the regatta.

In a more positive view and in AMS, 'Imaginer' skippered by Jane Weymouth had three firsts and three seconds to win the AMS division. Well done!

[Sorry, this content could not be displayed] How did the chicks on 'Chikara Chicks Escape' fare at this stage? In that important race six, they sailed as they hadn't sailed before. Everyone's shoulder to the wheel, heads down, tails up, (what a picture that creates!) no mess ups, good teamwork, you've got to be proud of them! However, coming second in race six was not quite good enough to beat 'Hyperactive' over the line.

The result was that 'Hyperactive' skippered by Kirsty Harris of the Sandringham Yacht Club was first in race six and, won the Australian Women's Keelboat Regatta for 2007 with 'Chicory Chic' coming second! Well done girls, hold your heads high when you walk into the clubrooms!

The history of this now prestigious event is quite interesting. When the gauntlet was thrown down in 1991 for an international keelboat challenge between New Zealand and Australia, there were possible thoughts of 'Keep women drivers off our bays'!! Obviously, the girls found it a major struggle to find sponsors or even supporters for this foray into a pretty much, male dominated field of sport.

In Victoria, a group of ladies, most of whom were from the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron decided that training was a necessity and spent six months preparing for this challenge from New Zealand.

The then Commodore of RMYS, Harry Leggett gave the ladies tons of encouragement and raffles and auctions helped to fund the trip.

Team leader Gai Clough said, 'It was a total disaster, as none of us had racing experience and we were up against tough competition from all over the world. We came 'stone motherless last'. But, what we learned from that experience was to change the face of women's keelboat sailing in Australia forever.'

This resulted in the start of the annual Women's Keelboat Regatta which is organised by the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron. There's no doubt that this regatta has produced some high calibre sailors and has given many newcomers a taste of the team spirit and camaraderie that is part and parcel of sailing.

It also changed the culture within many yacht clubs where today, most crews have one or more females amid this once, all men, sport.

Today, there's many women boat owners and ladies have been accepted as equals within yacht clubs.

Thanks to people like Sarah Phillips who is the sailing administrator at Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron and who organised and watched over this year's regatta. Sarah has helped to make this a very competitive event which has been accepted as a really fun time and has gone from strength-to-strength.

In yachting circles, it is reassuring that the RMYS will maintain this event on it's major events calendar.