Rosie Colahan is ORCV Ocean Racer of the Year

by ORCV Commodore George Shaw (speech) on 1 Oct 2008 In 2002 the White Family, a legendary Victorian sailing family, donated the magnificent perpetual ‘Shenandoah Trophy’. This annual trophy recognizes those qualities particular to ocean racing such as knowledge of boat handling in all conditions, navigation, safety awareness, weather, tides, victualling, sail management and race administration.

One person has exemplified these qualities each year for the last three years, which is why, this year; the award goes to Rosie Colahan.

Together with her husband and sailing partner David James, Rosie has competed in almost every ocean event run from Victoria including:

· 2006 Melbourne to Vanuatu - Winning the double handed division
· 2006 Vanuatu to Mackay race
· 2007 Melbourne to Osaka double-handed race, completed without stopping and without any outside assistance
· 2008 Prepared for the start of the Melbourne to Vanuatu race and when no one showed up they started alone, sailing to North Queensland double-handed for the Whitsunday regattas, where, by the way they won their division at Hammo – Cruising with spinnakers Div 3.

The effort to prepare a boat for a major offshore race like the Melbourne to Osaka or the Vanuatu series is immense and can perhaps only be fully appreciated by those who have participated in those events. Rosie and David had Ingénue prepared for long distance races in the last three consecutive years which is truly remarkable. They also maintain their yacht in survey.

Growing up, Rosie never stood a chance of becoming a landlubber. 'Doctor Dick' loved his sailing and couldn’t wait to throw his three girls and their little brother into their first sabot at Frankston Yacht club. Rosie, being the eldest, was first in at age seven with sister Sally not far behind. Winter didn’t faze them as they moved to the frostbite regattas on the Yarra and Albert Park when their association with Royal Brighton Yacht Club began.

Rosie and her crew 'Oink' (Michael Allnut) took out the Australian Junior Sabot title in Tasmania and the story was featured in a two page spread in the Australian Women’s Weekly. Rosie continued to sail throughout her childhood moving on to rainbows and lightweight sharpies. While studying medicine as a member of the Melbourne University Sailing Club, she campaigned in inter-varsity championships and was awarded the highest sporting accolade from University, a half-blue (only males get a full blue).

It was during Rosemary’s Uni days that she became involved in keelboat sailing. It started with a Hobart to Melbourne return delivery after which she joined the crew of Adam’s Rib, owned by Murray Smitheram. As most of you know, Adam’s Rib is a well-campaigned boat, both on the Bay and in the Ocean and they have participated in all ORCV races as well as the Port Lincoln series.

David James finally managed to talk Rosie into sailing with him on his boat Jubilation. He almost blew any chance of a relationship by taking her in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart with Doctor Dick as navigator. They went on to finish the race without damage or injury after managing to find a way in to Batangabie Bay, south of Eden, to shelter from the storm.

In the early days of their relationship they had Ingénue in charter up north but the plan soon developed to tackle the Osaka race and start to cruise more extensively once Jubilation was sold and Rosie’s daughter, Sophie, reached independence.

Always a skipper, a willing teacher and mentor, Rosie and sister Sally together have fostered the increasingly successful women’s program at Royal Brighton Yacht Club, introducing and mentoring many women into bay regattas and particularly ocean sailing, including a Port Fairy and Apollo Bay team. Rosie is also an inaugural member of WISIG, a group of women sailors working with Yachting Victoria to encourage a greater participation of women in the sport and to develop training options at all levels to better meet their needs.

Rosie has been supportive of all ORCV training events and is the principal medical instructor in the very popular ‘Sewing & Suturing’ training for long distance events as well as championing changes to first aid provisioning and providing sound advice on race tactics and catering for long-distance voyaging.

Rosie Colahan is a most deserving recipient of ‘Ocean Racer of the Year’ 2008.