Shortwave tunes in for family tradition in the West Coaster

by Peter Campbell on 26 Dec 2008
Sydney yachtsman Matthew Short and his family will be following in the wake of his father and his children’s grandfather when Shortwave sets sail tomorrow in the Heemskirk Consolidated Melbourne to Hobart West Coaster Race.

A line honours win in today’s Cock of the Bay Race has emphasized Shortwave’s favouritism for line and IRC handicap honours in the West Coaster, which starts off Portsea, just inside Port Phillip Heads tomorrow afternoon.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia member has entered the TP52 Shortwave in this year’s West Coaster race from Melbourne to Hobart, emulating two races he sailed with his father in the early 1970s.

Like those early races, which were very much a family affair, Shortwave will be sailed by a large contingent of the Short family headed by Matthew and his wife, Christine, and their four keen sailing daughters Kylie, Nikki, Caitlin & Sarah Short.

Also in the crew will be his sailmaker brother Ian and his wife Peta Short and third brother Andrew’s son Ryan. Kylie's fiancé Matt Smejlis is also on the crew as boat captain.

Matthew Short’s father Fred was an early Commodore of the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria and competed in the Melbourne to Hobart West Coaster Race with the Jack Savage designed half tonner Pajen and then with Warwick Hood designed 42-footer Mary Blair.

'We sailed in those races as a family and we decided we wanted to emulate them by entering Shortwave in this year’s West Coaster,' says Matthew Short.

Shortwave is a Judel Vrolijk designed TP52 with the addition of a bowsprit and in early August finished fourth over the line in 2008 Sydney-Gold Coast race, less than four minutes astern of Quantum Racing (Cookson 50), Quest (TP52) and Yendys (Reichel Pugh 55).

Race director Simon Dryden believes that if the weather is in her favour, Shockwave has the potential to break the race record of 1 day 23 hours and 14 minutes, set by Future Shock in 1996, could be under threat.

The 480 nautical mile Heemskirk Consolidated WestCoaster is one of three races the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria is running to Tasmania, starting together from Portsea.

The club has retained the one-off Heemskirk Consolidated East Coaster Race held last year as part of the Rudder Cup centenary, while the third race is the Bass Strait overnight dash to Launceston, with the finish off Low Head at the mouth of the Tamar River.

The course for the East Coaster race will differ from last year’s one-off event, eliminating the tidal influences in Bass Strait along the north-east Tasmanian coast and through Bass Strait.

Instead, the fleet will race on a south-easterly course across Bass Strait, passing Wilson’s Promontory and to the north and east of Flinders Island before heading down the Tasmanian east coast to Hobart.