Whatever Wins again - Skandia Geelong Week

by Traci Ayris on 28 Jan 2008 It’s shaping up to be a great sailing season for Darryn Dyer and his crew on Whatever. Fresh from a RL24 National Championship win at Lake Macquarie, Dyer has triumphed for the second time at Skandia Geelong Week, taking out Division One in the Four Points By Sheraton Trailerable Yacht Australian Championship.

“We had a great time once again because this is always a well-run regatta. It was great to find a good number of boats in our section and the competition was really hot,” Dyer said.

In the six race series, Whatever recorded three wins, two second’s and a third. Dyer’s main challenges came from two Noelex 25’s; Herman Van Ree’s Executive Suite which finished only two points behind Whatever and Phil Clements’ Rum Runner a further seven points down.

A second-time victory certainly made the road-trip worthwhile for Dyer, who usually sails with friend Rob Telfer, his 18 year old daughter Rebecca and son Mitchell 15 on the Gippsland Lakes. Dyer attributes his win to a combination of crew-work and good management. “You can’t sail a boat properly without good crew and my wife is the ground crew who looks after us”

The 36 year old fibreglass trailer yacht has undergone a transformation since the Dyer family first purchased the RL24 and the modifications are obviously paying off. “It was basically still a cruiser but we de-rigged and stripped it out, put in a new mast, bought some great Kevlar/Mylar sails and rudder and lightened it up as much as we could legally”

If work allows, Dyer intends to run for a Hat Trick at Skandia Geelong Week next year on his curiously-named trailer yacht. “When we first bought her we didn’t really like what she was called so I decided to rename her. We mucked around for a while and didn’t come up with anything much and one day I just said to the kids ‘we really need a name for it so what do you want?” and they said, as kids do “oh whatever!” and the name just stuck!”

In Division Two, the trailer yacht fleet also enjoyed some close competition. Simon Walsh and his RL24 DK finished on top with four wins and a second place in their six-race series. Simon Vaughn on Lowana 5 finished one point behind Walsh to take second place with John Carl’s Zilzie Express posting a very commendable third position on handicap.