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The Westernport Marina Sail Melbourne
2004
Southern Oceans Multihull Regatta
The
MYCV's main racing event of the year was a spectacular success filled
with plenty of excitement for both participants and spectators alike.
We've
got:
- Great Photos of SOMR 2004!
- The Race Line-up
- The Race Write-up (below)
- The Race Report
- a link to Sail Melbourne's Race
Results and
- An article titled "INSURANCE
AND OMR - have they killed multihull racing?"
The
Race Write-up
The
Regatta was run in trying circumstances by the Multihull Yacht Club
of Victoria. A series of very strong winds meant that the schedule
of races was changed so that only 5 of the 6 races were run - a
challenge to the Regatta capably handled by Commodore Ian Anderson
and Race Director Geoff Lacey.
Happily
SOMR still enjoys the support of the wonderful Westernport Marina.
Space is at a premium in this booming marina but manager Irene Hoe
and her staff provide terrific service and facilities.
The
overall placings went to the expected top crews and boats with Slick
Willie narrowly ahead of Wilparina 2 and then Mustang Sally third.
These three also appeared in this order for the Victorian Trailerable
Multihull Championship.
Slick
Willie, Wilparina 2 and Mustang Sally are all trimarans of similar
size and are all heavily used boats. Both 'Slick' and 'Mustang'
like heavier conditions and are very capably sailed. Wilparina 2
is lighter but is a great all round rocket and is expertly sailed.
Only the 'Formula 28' Raw To The Core (hereafter called RTTC) beat
Wilparina 2 for line honours.
RTTC's rudder winglets proved partly successful in keeping them
(the rudders) in the water but the boat has a high (lightweight
catamaran) OMR rating.
Of
the others the most interesting was Juris Rubenis' White Wave. It
needs much more tuning but showed some potential with good speed
two sail reaching and sails amazingly flat with the two foils providing
lift to both sides simultaneously - so much that despite the increased
buoyancy/planing aft main hull modifications it still drags its
'bum' around. It will be interesting to see this boat after further
development.
George
Bulka's Red Shift showed glimpses of stunning speed and will get
faster as the boat is very new to George who was a hard charging
cat sailor before this boat. The dagger board broke in the strong
conditions experienced for Race 5 which was a 35 mile course out
to the entrance of Western Port and back. This race also cost a
mast on Pages and other sundry damages and retirements.
There
were some interesting comments heard during the races and the usual
plethora of 'incidents' that will not be mentioned here for fear
of embarrassing too many sailors who should know better! But some
are too good to leave out -
When
race 1 was in doubt due to bad weather a couple of SOMR entrants
went out on Ray and Jackie Bailey's new Cosmos 43' cat 'Cats Chorus'.
Conditions were horrendous with gusts to 50 knots registered and
heavy showers of rain making visibility bad. The intrepid owners
and crew had attended a race briefing at which the briefing was
only postponed instead of cancelling the race for the day (that
came later) and the crew thought that a race was 'on'. Imagine their
feelings in 50 knots with bad visibility 'out there' for 2 hours
trying to find the start boat which had not moved from the marina!
All took it in good humour - the two racers even expressed much
admiration for the boat in those conditions saying "if it wasn't
for the rain we would not have gotten wet at all!"
Another classic was a conversation reported between two very new
boats during a port/starboard situation. 'Quickskips', launched
a few weeks before SOMR was on port tack and knew they were to give
way to 'Cruise Missile' (on it's very first sail) but decided to
try "a little bluff" by shouting "new boat rule -
give way" whereupon Wayne Huxley retorted "we're newer
- you give way"!
At
the end of SOMR there are the traditional items of entertainment
performed by the crews of the competing boats. This evening function
is a good night - and this year's was no exception - although one
member of the audience described the prize giving, entertainment
and the food in this way -
"Prize giving - Cruise Missile i.e., too long
"Entertainment - Red Shift i.e., fast but a bit light
"Food - Slick Willie i.e., a touch heavy but great value"
- Phil Hames
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