All on the line for a new Vectrix electric scooter

by Andrew Campbell on 22 Jan 2008 Yesterday literally in the shadows of the Telstra Dome stadium and the skyscrapers of the newest downtown borough of Melbourne, the Docklands, twenty teams of sailors put it all on the line for their chance at a brand new electric scooter (yes, that's right) in the 'Vectrix King of the Docklands Regatta.' Very puffy 12-20 knot winds whipped through the buildings and across old shipping yards onto the stadium-like racecourse scattering five new Laser SB3 class sportboats around at breakneck speed.

The Docklands is a new development of condominium skyscrapers and shoppong areas built around the old city shipping piers in the western quadrant of Melbourne. Although the area doesn't seem quite fully populated you fo get the feeling that its a growing, modern and possibly chic part of town. With people all over the docks to see what all the sailing was about, it provided a perfect backdrop for a promotional event like the one we took part in.

Initially Dave Wright and myself were going to race with British Finn sailor Ed Wright calling ourselves Team NATO to reflect our cross oceanic Anglo-Americanadian alliance. However, in a last minute foul up we had to make a swap for Vancouver-native and fellow Laser kid Abe Torchinsky. With Dave in front taking care of business and Abe avidly picking up his trimming duties in the middle we were set up for a shot at the title.

The format was a short twice around skewed windward leeward course barely big enough for the five SB3s. Twenty teams were sent out five at a time for four knockout heats. After a short warm up we started third at the windard end of the line on starboard and pinned our opponents to the port tack layline along the pier above our course. We led around the top mark and were able to extend a bit with a good hoist and two gybes in order to negotiate the narrow gate and bottlenecks created by fan-filled docks.

By winning our race we were able to sail in the final heat at 6:30. Some of the other teams in the finals consisted of Australian Sailing Magazine editor and crew, four Olympic dinghy sailors representing the Australian Sailing Team, and a world champion catamaran sailor. Knocked out early were Olympians, America's cup sailors, and local Aussie legends in a well promoted event.

For the final we tried to pin the Aussie Sailing Team out to the left as we had done in our first heat. The other two teams were behind off the line, but after a pinching lefty we were forced to tack off right. We rounded second and after a quick run we were in the midst of a stellar douse when the jury boat decided we had waited too long to take it down (there was a fuzzy imaginary line on the course where the chutes had to be down for safety sake) and we were forced to take a two turn penalty. Instead of letting the players play and maybe make it interesting we quickly found ourselves in last. We got back to third in the race but not without having a great time.

The SB3 was a great little boat for this type of promotional sailing. They heel over quickly upwind but with skinny blade foils their upwind sailing is average. They have a silly metal bar that runs along the edge of the rail to prevent you from hiking out at all (although Paul Goodison and his GBR guys got knocked out of their round because they were penalized for hiking). It does seem a bit difficult to call it a sportboat if you can't hike. However once around the top mark the boats do light up.

The sporty nature comes out when the mast-head asymetrical chute and launching bow sprit are simple to use and make the boat an absolute blast to heat up and let race downwind. We had a bit of a tight course into the bottom and reaching douses were difficult without retriever lines up the big spinnaker. We managed to get them down alright, but broaches were not uncommon through the fleet. The boats were easily sailed with three and probably a little crowded with four, but with a weight limit of 270kgs (574lbs, similar to a J22) its good for mixed gender sailing or three big guys. The boats were quite a lot of fun and we'll consider the weekend a success even if we had to watch the scooter be ridden away by the locals.