Women in Sailing Challenge Regatta 2026 brings out female helms
by Rosie Colahan 5 Mar 13:57 PST
1 March 2026
VC Cath Furey, Alice Ekberg winner WISC Div 2 AMS, PHS, ORC with Div 1 winner Robyn Ragauskas © Rosie Colahan
Sandringham Yacht Club staged their annual WISC (Women in Sailing Challenge) regatta on Sunday 1 March for their two race short course racing division which included hosting Race Day 2 of the Port Phillip Women's Championship Series (PPWCS) attracting boats from other clubs.
An additional cruising division with a longer single race encouraged more female sailors to take up the helm for the day.
The arrival of autumnal weather patterns in the lead up to the event, gave a forecast for overcast conditions with a high chance of rain and possible thunderstorms with Northerly winds 15-20kn and played out with with generally calm seas and short bursts of NNE gusts to 25kn as the day progressed. Fortunately the rain held back until all boats were safely back in their home marinas.
Competition in the racing divisions came down to the wire for podium positions. Division 1 PHS saw a dead heat tussle between SYC boats, with regular helm Robyn Ragauskus and her all female crew taking out the perpetual Doris Little Women in Sailing Trophy, holding out two J70s from the SYC Young Members program, pipping Zephyr helm Allie McLennan on a countback to place second and holding out Carla Martens to third place.
Bullet had a great day with overall performance also winning AMS and ORC.
In Division 2 PHS, Alice Ekberg took up the helm for the day on the family Beneteau 36 Ragnar and with a perfect scorecard won AMS (on countback from Fun & Games) ORC and PHS overall. Tao Hsu in her maiden race as helm on J24 Hyperactive tied for second place PHS with Susan Tuma on her Radford 35 Fun & Games placing third.
Jolene George helming RMYS Northshore 38 Weekend Option filled third spot for AMS and ORC to complete the podium.
Full WISC results are available here
The Cruising group had an earlier start around fixed marks with four boats entered with 3 out of the 4 entries being Beneteaus.
Kate Woodlock took up the helm on Beneteau 38.5 Firefox, taking out PHS honours ahead of Gemma Coulter steering Beneteau 47.7 First Light to second place.
Swarbrick 111 Razzle Dazzle helmed by Susan Cramp placed third with Beneteau 473
Valeria Lema (Cyan Moon) completing the fleet.
Robyn Ragauskas, who leads the highly successful Women's Development Program at SYC, was proud to see women from the training programs taking up the challenge - "Congratulations to everyone who took part in this Sunday's WISC Regatta. We had 17 boats take part which is 17 women on the helm and around 80 women on the water - woohoo!!"
The next PPWCS Race Day is now only 10 days away on Sunday 15 March with Royal Yacht Club of Victoria hosting the resail of their signature Val Hodge Trophy Race, previously abandoned in February due to high winds. For RYCV women it will be a full on weekend with their International Women's Day event on Saturday 14 March luncheon event - "Our Bodies, Our Stories: Women's Health Across a Lifetime". It promises to be a must do event for socialising off the water, so book now and bring your friends.
With only three remaining race days in the PPWC Series, for those keen to participate in Australian Women's Keelboat Regatta (AWKR) on King's Birthday weekend in June, this is the ideal time to get your team together now and get serious with your training for this pinnacle regatta which attracts interstate competition as well as local women.
Progressive PPWCS results have now been updated.