Sail Port Stephens - If you can’t win the yacht race, try Yabby racing

by Sail Port Stephens Media on 13 Apr 2010 Not everyone can win a prize at the Commodore’s Cup at Sail Port Stephens – three days of racing – three winners each in Divisions one and two – but hang on, you get another chance – in the Yabby race to be held at 10.30am at D’Albora Marine tomorrow morning.

The Yabby race was introduced last year by Sail Port Stephens competitors and Yabby farmers Alyn and Danielle Ovenden who live just outside Port Stephens at Karuah, where they have run a Yabby farm '24 hours a day, seven days a week for the past nine years,' according to Alyn.

He and his wife Danielle provide the Yabbies, a small Australian freshwater crayfish, which they number and hand one to each of the 35 Commodore’s Cup competitors at Sail Port Stephens.

'We put them in a Yabby pen and let them run loose until the competition,' says Jody O’Brien, the Sail Port Stephens co-ordinator. 'Alyn and Danielle decide the winners – they are the judges and have the final say. Everyone loves it, especially the kids who are here sailing with their families. There’s lots of yelling, cheering and laughter. It’s so good, we decided to make it an annual event,' she said.

A favourite Australian seafood delicacy, the Yabby is capable of living in virtually any body of fresh water. They are very hardy creatures and are able to withstand long periods of drought, so they don’t mind being let loose on land for a bit of a race. 'It’s like being in a three ring circus and three winners are announced,' comments O’Brien who says the competition will be held straight after the final race briefing in the morning 'somewhere near our event office.'

Ovenden has been missing from the sailing scene since taking up Yabby farming. Formerly, he was a well known ocean racer who has won line honours twice in the Gosford Lord Howe Island race and also placed second in division in the 50th anniversary Sydney Hobart race. His boat was in full racing mode then and known as Collex Onyx, but Ovenden has since fully revamped the yacht and fitted her out for cruising, she now bears her original name of Let’s Go.

Having worked hard on the Yabby farm, he and Danielle are happy to be at Sail Port Stephens. 'We came and sailed here last year on a friend’s boat and loved it so much we came back with our own boat; it’s nice being back on the water,' Ovenden says.

For further information, please visit: www.sailportstephens.com.au