The Stonehaven Cup wraps up

by Amy Livingstone on 11 Jan 2012 The 83rd annual Stonehaven Cup regatta – which was held at the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron (RMYS) this year – wrapped up last night with an awards ceremony held to commemorate the cadets who competed this year.

The Stonehaven Cup, which began in 1927, is a 12 foot dinghy race for cadet sailors aged eight to 18 years. Comprising of two invitation races and seven heats, the Stonehaven is the longest continuously contested junior one-design dinghy trophy in Australian yachting.

Fourteen teams competed for the title this year including three teams from RMYS, seven from the Royal Brighton Yacht Club (RBYC), two from the King Island Boat Club (KIBC), one from Cairn Curran Sailing Club (CCSC) and another team from Bendigo Yacht Club (BYC).

The Royal Brighton Yacht Club completely dominated the series this year. Dorothy Linacre with Angus Roney at the helm has taken out first place after winning both invitation races and five out of seven heats. Cry Havoc which was helmed by Angus’s twin Nick (also from RBYC) finished in second place. Third place went to Aussie 11 which was helmed by Jye Whitehouse-Summers from KIBC and fourth place went to Catani which had RMYS member Leroy Addison at the helm.

The weather was not cooperative this year. The second invitation race which was supposed to take place on Wednesday, January 4th had to be cancelled due to severe thunderstorms. Thankfully the skies cleared on Thursday so they were able to make up for it. The second invitation race was held in the morning followed by two heats in the afternoon. There were three races on Friday as well.

There was no wind on Sunday morning so the first race of the day had to be postponed until after lunch. A cross-wind measuring 35 knots brought the day to a premature close as the young cadets were forced to abandon the second race.

The last two heats of the series were held on Monday, January 9th.

Despite problems with the weather, the 83rd Stonehaven Cup was ultimately successful. Congratulations to all the cadets who competed in the series this year and we hope to see you all again next year.