Festival of Sails at Royal Geelong Yacht Club - Day 5

By Lisa Ratcliff / Festival of Sails Media on 28 Jan21-29 January 2012

Festival of Sails

All photos © Teri Dodds

Farmer's march to a Division A trouncing

Jim Farmer’s New Zealand 52 footer, Georgia, is continuing its march to a Festival of Sails IRC Division A trouncing with six wins from seven races and plenty of breathing space back to Jason Van Der Slot’s TP52, Calm, heading into tomorrow’s final race.

The Audi Centre Geelong Premier Racing Series saw some spectacular America’s Cup style manoeuvring at the top mark in today’s race 6 by Georgia, tactician Chris Dickson’s glory days making a return as he had Farmer throw the boat around the course to the delight of those watching.

A first on corrected time in race six for Nicholas Bartels’ Victorian Cookson 50, Terra Firma, is the only dent in Georgia’s perfect scorecard. Bartels took a bold right hand gamble on the first beat up to the top mark, arriving just behind Michael Hiatt’s Living Doll and ahead of the snarling TP52s.

With Georgia 10 points clear of Calm, now it’s all about the minor placings. A light air forecast for tomorrow’s deciding race is good news for Van Der Slot who is calculating how to hold Rob Hanna’s TP52, Shogun V, at bay and secure second.

It’s tighter at the top in Premier Racing Series Division B. The 3.5 point margin from Grant Botica’s Adams 10, Executive Decision, back to the two Beneteau First 45s, Ikon and Two True, means Botica and his Royal Yacht Club of Victoria crew will be tapping into their reserve tank for tomorrow’s decider.

Bruce Taylor’s Chutzpah38 has a firm grip on its pointscore lead in the Tourism Victoria Sydney 38 series with one race remaining. Taylor can have a reasonably restful night’s sleep knowing Chutzpah38 is six points in front of Chris Lewin’s second placed Another Challenge.

Michael Hiatt advised this morning that Living Doll had cracked its keel after running aground in yesterday’s session and immediately after the Festival of Sails the Farr 55 will be lifted to check for damage. The issue has not cost the boat any speed according to Hiatt who is a big fan of the regatta, saying “It’s such an accessible place, and easy on the pocket”.

The Premier fleet and Sydney 38s raced on a sun-soaked Corio Bay outer harbour where a late morning SSW breeze swung marginally left after lunch and climbed to a consistent 15-18 knot southerly.

Tomorrow’s forecast is for northerly winds 5 to 10 knots with sea breezes to 10 knots developing in the afternoon.

Full results at www.topyacht.net.au/results/2012/fos/index.htm

Families meld in the Melges

The Melges 24s are contesting their nationals at the Festival of Sails at Geelong and among the highly competitive one design class, multiple family combinations are sailing for and against each other.

The four Walters boys, Keal, 16, Harley, 13, Tavish, 10, and Logan, 8, are the youngest family members.

The two older boys, Keal and Harley, are sailing with their dad Heath on Arriba! Arriba!, which is currently sitting third on the Parks Victoria Melges 24 Australian Championship pointscore. “We don’t mind beating each other,” admitted Harley, looking sideways to his brothers for consensus.

On yesterday’s Corio Bay outing he said, “It was really hot so we all jumped over and had a swim when the race was abandoned. The racing is fun and really close, it’s hard to come back if you get behind though”.

This is Harley’s third Australian championship these school holidays, the others being in the Manly Junior and Optimist class. The talented young sailor’s result at the latter was good enough to qualify for the Australian Optimist team.

Tavish, who raced in the Green Fleet at the Optimist nationals in Queensland, is crewing this week on No Comment with his uncle, Murray Walters, while Logan is making up the 30kg deficit onboard Anthony Passmore’s Planit.

It’s a long day for the boys at the Festival of Sails, particularly for the youngest. And if being out on the water for eight hours a day in the sun hiking out on these super quick one design boats isn’t enough, there is the ‘tennis trap’ awaiting each evening – staying up late watching the business end of the Australian Open.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks for the Walters family from Mona Vale on Sydney’s northern beaches. Heath, wife Tracey and the four boys drove to Geelong after a one night stopover at home immediately following the Opti nationals.

“There’s a nice pile of stinky camping gear waiting at home for us,” said Tracey.

“We didn’t really look at the calendar properly before we committed to regattas in Queensland and Victoria,” she admits.

So tight is their schedule that Tavish and Logan will miss their first day back at Mona Vale Public School on Monday.

The plan for the Walters family is to train up and be competitive for the Melges 24 Worlds, which are being held in San Francisco next year.

“The Melges is the ideal class for competitive sailing families where the kids want the speed and excitement,” Tracey added.

Other families sailing in the Melges class at the Festival of Sails are:

Dylan Passmore sailing on Planit with dad Anthony
James and Will Dargaville crewing on board Matilda with dad Jim
David Shanks crewing on Outrage Us with dad Gary
Daniel and Bonnie Nixon crewing for Kevin Nixon’s Accru
Four Farrimond brothers - Scott, Michael, Adam, Dale - racing together with dad David on Vitesse

The Melges are out on Corio Bay today in a 12-15 knot southerly breeze working through their three scheduled races with the final two windward/leewards to be sailed tomorrow, the final day of competition.

Sailing Royalty in Geelong

There are a couple of big America’s Cup names in town for their maiden Festival of Sails, and these ‘rock stars’, as they are known in the sport, are loving the stage and the crowd.

New Zealand America’s Cup hero, Chris Dickson, and former managing director and design coordinator of the Swiss Alinghi team, Australian Grant Simmer, might be squaring off in Audi Centre Geelong Premier Racing Series Division A, but off-water they are both enjoying the many offerings and the ease of being at a regatta in a smaller city.

“It’s my first regatta here and I am amazed at the number of people and boats. It’s an organisational feat to run so many fleets concurrently,” said Simmer dockside today.

“The sailing waters are great and running it from a mid-size town means everyone’s together. Socially it works, as well as on the water,” he added just before jumping aboard Rob Hanna’s TP52, Shogun V and pushing off the dock.

On his nemesis, Chris Dickson, who has the same role as tactician on an opposing boat and the current clubhouse leader, Jim Famer’s Georgia, there is a great respect. “Georgia has improved a lot and is going to be hard to beat, particularly if it stays light. Dickson is very impressive”.

Simmer has returned to Australian shores after 11 years living in Europe. The highly respected yachtsman is racing with a number of crews including Shogun V for the Festival of Sails and super maxi Wild Oats XI in last year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart. He’s seen plenty of talent among the high-end IRC fleet this week and is buoyed by the Australian Sailing Team’s dominance along the trail to this year’s London Olympic Games.

“I’ve been working in the sport from a management side and haven’t had the opportunity to do much sailing. I’m enjoying it. There is a whole new generation of sailors in this country in their early to mid-20s who are bloody good.

“The AST team are obviously at the top of their sport and they have huge careers ahead of them. I just hope they can finish the job at the Olympics”.

In particular Simmer cites America’s Cup skipper and helmsman James Spithill’s decision to bring multiple world Laser champion and AST squad member, Tom Slingsby, into the Oracle Racing fold. “It’s a good decision by James and a great opportunity for Tom”.

Being a professional sailor is by no means a typical career move and is a hard concept for grasp for the office-bound. For the cream who do rise to the very top of the sport, it’s hard work but there are obvious benefits.

So how does a rock star switch modes when sailing with different grand prix crews?

“Sometimes it’s difficult getting on and off different boats. I just let people do what they are good at and encourage them to speak up. You don’t want people clamming up because someone with a reputation has stepped on the boat,” Simmer added.

Shogun V has today and tomorrow to claw Georgia and Calm back in the Division A pointscore, then his focus will switch to Etchells and the class’ upcoming nationals and worlds.

Grant Simmer is one of the guest speakers at tomorrow’s official presentation breakfast at The Pier for those divisions finishing their competition today.

The remaining divisions – Premier Racing Series, Sydney 38s, J24s, Sports Boats, Melges 24s, SB3s and the International Cadets – will head out again tomorrow to scramble for final precious points before the curtain closes on the 168th Festival of Sails.