LIFE, THE UNIVERSE & EVERYTHING (According to Deggz...): RECENT REGATTAS

I've been busy this year with regattas. I raced in the Elliot 7 Australian Title held in conjunction with Gellong Race Week over the Australia Day long weekend. Thats January 26th for the non Aussies out there. I crewed for Justin Mitchell (sailmaker from Toronto on Lake Macquarie, NSW) on his dark blue flying machine 'Mitchell Sails'. We finished 2nd in the Titles, not a bad effort for a bunch of guys that had never sailed together previously. Justin is a good skipper, tactically very sound and we had boatspeed to burn in the lighter stuff. We were the only boat sailing 4 up so struggled a little in teh heavier breezes upwind. We finished with 6 2nds and a 3rd, behind Matt Owen on Walter Turnbull who's well oiled and practised crew sailed to 6 firsts and a 2nd - an awesome effort!

Matt Owen's ' Elliot 7 Walter Turnbull'

It was a great experience with over 300 yachts competing in the regatta. They were quite a sight when they all sailed up Corio Bay on day 2 on their way to the finish of the Bay Race. Needless to say it was difficult to buy a Bundy Rum at the club bar that night!

I had the privilege to crew on Don Algy's Warwick 66 Storm 2 for the Sydney Harbour Regatta held in March. What a beautiful boat! Its for sale if anyone's interested. My old RAAF buddy Cocky is a good mate of Don's and did all the groundwork to get me a seat on the boat. We had a fairly disappointing regatta. The steering broke 10 minutes into the first race on Saturday so we withdrew and headed back to the CYC for a few consolatory drinks. Such is yacht racing. Day two wasn't our day either with extremely light conditions which suited the smaller boats in PHS Division. The 4th race start had all competitors revved up and after 2 Generalk Recalls we managed to get away cleanly. Although the Race Committee disqualified us for some reason. I'm still unaware of teh ruling on that. So, overall we finished 22nd out of 23 boats I think. Still, it was a great experience, working the electric genoa winches, running around helping drop the genoa on spi hoists and retrieve the huge assym spinnaker at the end of downwind runs. It was great to catch up with Cocky again and especially to go sailing with him on teh harbour in such an awesome yacht. I've booked a seat for Airlie Beach Race Week in Sep. So watch this space for more news.