Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club members preparing for Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race
by Ethan Tucker 24 Jul 2024 10:14 NZST
27 July 2024
She's the Culprit - Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club members preparing for Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race © Salty Dingo
In just four days, four vessels from Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club (NCYC) will compete in the Noakes Sydney to Gold Coast Yacht Race. This race marks an escape to warmer waters for many within the boating community and is hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and the Southport Yacht Club.
This year, four boats from NCYC will compete in the event - Paul Beath's Vérité, the She's the Culprit syndicate, the Mako syndicate, and Tom Woods' Saltwater Wine.
Already a challenging race, Tom Woods is taking on the 384 nautical mile race double-handed, however, the ex-world champion is undaunted. "I'm sailing DH with my son, Jaime, in fact, I bought the boat to sail double-handed with him. He's had a very successful sailing career sailing on Whisper in multiple Sydney to Hobarts. I'm really looking forward to taking on the challenge with him."
Similarly, Paul Beath is competing double-handed with veteran sailor Theresa Michelle from Gosford. On the lead up to the race, Paul stated "it's a good race for us as generally you'll get really light weather, it's a nice race to get us to started for the season and get the two-handed systems in place for our Sydney to Hobart campaign."
Meanwhile, the Mako and the She's the Culprit syndicates are fully crewed with newcomer to the Mako syndicate, Emily Sellens, taking the helm.
Emily was both nervous and excited when we asked her about the upcoming race: "I'm looking forward to a bit of excitement on the start line with hopefully a lot more wind than last year's race. We've got a great, experienced crew on board with one newcomer to bluewater racing. It's going to be a fun time on board."
The race starts this Saturday (27/7) at 1pm. You can follow the all the yachts racing on the official website goldcoast.cycaracing.com and the NCYC yachts on facebook.com/NewcastleCruisingYachtClub