Heaven Can Wait, but how's your night sailing?

by BW Media on 13 Sep 2009 Whether it's true technically or not, sailing at night carries additional risks for the leisure sailor, as ambitious 16-year-old Jessica Watson has just discovered, so it's a good idea to experience night sailing under friendly controlled circumstances when you first try it.

Heaven Can Wait could be your answer.

Why is is riskier and what on earth is 'Heaven can Wait'?

It's riskier first, because when one is not used to interpreting lights it is easy to confuse lights on the shore with important navigation markers, and it can be challenging to interpret the many variations of lights on other vessels.

Second, until two or three days have passed and you are used to the changed rythms of sleeping in four hour - or three hour - spells, you are possibly less alert than you should be.

If you are not comfortable with sailing at night, there could be no better introduction than joining the 'Heaven Can Wait' 24 hour race. 'Race?' you say, 'I don't want to join a race! I'm a cruising sailor only.'

But this 'race' is different. The only problem is, you need to be somewhere near Lake Macquarie on the NSW coast this October long weekend.

The Heaven Can Wait 24 hour race was conceived and promoted by Lake Macquarie resident, keen sailor and cancer survivor Shaun Lewicki as a major annual sailing event on the lake, to promote sailing, the Lake Macquarie/Newcastle/Hunter region – and to raise funds for cancer research.

The inaugural Heaven Can Wait 24 hour event was held on Lake Macquarie during the 2006 October Labour Day Long Weekend and attracted over 30 boats. In 2007, it was again held on Labour Day Long Weekend with the fleet almost doubling in size.

The 2009 event, the Heaven Can Wait 24 Hour yacht Race has been scheduled by the Heaven Can Wait Yacht Club for October 3-4, 2009 and a significant growth in fleet size is again expected.

For many crusing boat crews, this is their first and safest overnight adventure.

If you own a sailboat that can comply with YA’s Category 5N requirements, start planning now to come along and make your own little bit of history on NSW’s Lake Macquarie during the October 2009 Long Weekend.

You can expect to sail between 100 and 150 nautical miles on multiple laps of Australia largest salt water lake.

Proceeds will benefit the NSW Cancer Council and the Royal Volunteer Coastal Patrol

To learn more about the Heaven Can Wait sail, go to their http://www.heavencanwait.com.au/!website.