Canberra sailors descend on Geelong

by Lisa Ratcliff on 26 Jan 2008 Canberra isn’t well known for its sailing but there is an extremely active sailing community in Australia’s capital which tough it out year round on Lake Burley Griffin, where the temperature regularly drops to single figures and below.

Ocean racing is also an option via the Canberra Ocean Racing Club, owners of a Bavaria 44 called Namadgi that is moored in Pittwater on Sydney’s northern beaches and which this year scored two major handicap victories including winning its division in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

In particular Canberra boasts a very healthy Elliott 7 fleet, six of them making up the bulk of the 10 boat E7 fleet contesting their class championship, the FKP Property Trust Elliott 7 Australian Championship 2008, at Skandia Geelong Week.

Australia Day marked the second day of competition for the Elliotts as they and the other sports boats focused on their own game plan while the fleet finishing the Passage Race from Williamstown to Geelong lit up Corio Bay as hundreds of coloured spinnakers filled Hopeton Channel.

In a light and shifty breeze, which finally filled in from the sou’east and built during the afternoon, two-time defending E7 champion Matthew Owens skippering Walterturnbull from Canberra Yacht Club finished the day with a second in race 3 of the series, followed by two wins in races 4 and 5.

On day one, yesterday, Owen and his crew scored two consecutive wins over Justin Mitchell’s Mitchell Sails which puts them comfortably ahead on the progressive pointscore.

Speaking about today’s three races, Owen said the wind was “quite funny…it was all over the shop” and he praised Stuart Minchin, a fellow Canberran, for his race three win.

Angus Reid from Humungus isn’t enjoying the same success as some of his fellow Lake-racers, particularly today. “We blew out mainsheet block on the deck on the start line in race one and in the last race we lost out spinnaker halyard on the second rounding of the top mark. It was one of those days and it wasn’t my day because we also lost a guy overboard”.

Jimmy Walsh, a well known 12 foot skiff sailor who is skippering the Elliott 7 Woof from Sydney and currently fourth on the series pointscore, summed up his day, “we went OK today but there were very interesting breezes…they came from everywhere at once”.

Ken Mitchell, father of Justin Mitchell who is holding second place on the regatta pointscore with Mitchell Sails, commented dockside this afternoon, “we have had four seconds and one third so far. Twice now we’ve got through Walterturnbull, once yesterday and once today but we let him through both times, we goofed up”.

Series leader and current E7 national champion Matthew Owen spoke today of his previous wins, and the great camaraderie amongst the Elliott sailors.

“The last two years we have burgled two series wins,” laughed Owen. Similar to the 30m maxi Wild Oats XI, which recently took its third consecutive win in the Rolex Sydney Hobart, Owen is aiming for a hat trick at Skandia Geelong Week, although his is a “napkin budget” he laughs.

“The one designs are great, you can race or cruise in them and we have a good size fleet, usually 10-12 at each regatta, and everyone is so friendly but once we are on the race course, there is plenty of sledging.

“Skandia Geelong Week is a great regatta, we just pay our entry fee and everything is set up…everything is done for us.

“We travel a lot, there are guys here from Lake Macquarie and Adelaide, but Melbourne is the furthest south we go”.

On his prospects for a third series win, Owen is low key.

“There are a couple who could knock us off, it’s too early to be too cocky.”