'Regatta City' A Hive Of Activity

Kylie Rose, Monday, 8 January 2007

FOR IMMEDITATE RELEASE

"Regatta City" A Hive Of Activity

Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron, Brisbane – January 5, 2007:

Since the 28^th of December 2006 the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron was again “Regatta City” and home to over 122 boats and 180 competitors from across Australia.

Today ends nine days of intense racing across four diverse classes of boats. “Regatta City” hosted the Flying Dutchman, Nacra, Corsair and Impulse National Championships each whom chose the Manly address to compete in their major event of the sailing season.

Since finalising the international Sail Brisbane event in early December, “Regatta City” had been preparing itself for these major events.

“Leading up to events such as National Championships it’s important to make sure the small things are covered. However regardless of the preparation, nothing would ever eventuate on the waters of Waterloo Bay without the constant assistance from our Squadron Volunteers”, said Regatta Director Peter Beard as he prepared for the final results of the fleets to be calculated.

Squadron Volunteers are in full force throughout the year however thrive in numbers during a major regatta period such as December and January.

Volunteer Coordinator Dugald Henderson manages the 40 strong crew who not only start and finish the fleets, but also lay the courses and man the communications room to ensure every competitor is completely safe whilst on the water.

The racing was close throughout the fleets with the Impulse sailors competing in 17 races across the event.

“It was great that we managed to get in so many races and the standard of sailors competing was fantastic. Regatta City hosted a fantastic event and ran the regatta professionally. It was great to be able to camp on the grounds throughout the series. National Championships always give you the opportunity to meet competitors from across the country and always carves the way for new friendships”, said Impulse organiser Graham Donnelly.

Toby Whittle from South Lake Macquarie Amateur Sailing Club on the New South Wales central coast is the new Impulse National Champion making the trip to the South East Queensland region well worth while.

The Nacras had the strongest fleet with 60 catamarans competing across five divisions including the F18s which will soon travel to Yeppoon for their World Championships.

The mixed conditions throughout the regatta ensured the fleet had close competitive racing and with the different divisions approaching the various marks at the same time there was always some action to be seen.

Official Race Officer and Squadron Volunteer Odile Anderson said “It’s great to spend time on the water watching people have lots of fun with their racing. It was a great event and we look forward to having the Nacras back on the bay again in the future”.

The Corsairs were due to race their National Championships at Regatta City last season however opted to hold the event during the 2006-2007 period instead. The mix of competing sailors ranges from family members and cadets who enjoy the easy paced racing a Corsair offers.

Although a small fleet the Corsairs enjoyed the racing on the open waters of Waterloo Bay as a welcomed change to their normal river and lake sailing. Once again the crews were able to camp on the grounds at Regatta City ensuring they were always on time for racing.

This season the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron was home for the internationally acclaimed Flying Dutchman National Championships. Although Australia has a relatively small fleet compared with Europe and the USA the racing was incredibly fierce with only a few points separating the results.

Regatta organiser Bradley Ginnivan promoted the event to the Australian Flying Dutchman sailors and although everyone was from interstate, the regular races make their way to South East Queensland to compete on Waterloo Bay.

“It was fantastic that everyone made the effort to travel to Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. Matt Chew and I were the only sailors from Queensland and Matt had the championship in the bag up until half way through the last race where he was leading by about 3 minutes however a classic Brisbane storm hit and they got hammered”, said Ginnivan after learning he finished 4^th overall.

“The Flying Dutchman’s competing in this National Championship have come from as far as Western Port Bay in Victoria and others from the Sydney Flying Squadron. Once family brought with it 6 competitors and 3 boats which was great to see and a huge credit to the class.

“We even had an ACT competitor and one bloke came all the way from Russia just to compete in the Australian National Championships.

“Being a local at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron it was great to race the Flying Dutchman on my home waters of Waterloo Bay. With the event being a huge success there is now talk the World Titles could be held here in 2013 where there is a chance of having about 70 competing boats”, said Ginnivan.

Officer Scorer and Squadron Volunteer David Kemp has been kept extremely busy over the regatta period with 11 fleets to score to ensure the correct results are posted at the end of each day.

“As I calculate the results its evident to see that racing was close. Some titles were down to the last race with is a sure sign things would have been exciting out on the water”, said Kemp as the final results were printed.

General Manager Haydyn Johns was pleased with the overall success of the regattas and the continued enthusiasm for classes choosing the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron to host their major events.

“The Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron is again proud and privileged to have conducted four National Championships for over 180 competitors competing at the highest level in their class. Once again our team of Squadron Volunteers and Members have assisted in enabling this event to happen over the very busy Christmas and New Year period. This continues to place Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron as one of the premier Sailing Clubs within Queensland and Australia for hosting National and World Class sailing events”, said Johns.

Racing concluded today drawing the National Championship period to a close for the 2006-2007 season. The next major event hosted by the Squadron is the Manly to Mooloolaba Commodores Cup on the Australia Day Long Weekend and then the 2007 Australian Open Team Racing Championships to be held over the Easter holiday period.

National Champions

Impulse: Toby Whittle

Nacras: 5.0SQ – Ian Walls and Daniel Smith

5.8SQ – Daniel Tandy and Josh Mortensen

14SQ – Chris Blackford

16SQ – Michael Guinea

F18 – Mal Richardson and Nev Thompson

Maricat – Michael Colecliffe

Maricat Sloop – John Merl

Corsair: Youth – Brady Lowe

Opens – Aaron Hunt

Flying Dutchman: Norman Ridge and Roddy Johnson