Kersti & Billy Down Under: Geelong Sailing Regatta

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Before the Start of the Passage Race to Geelong

So a couple weekends ago was the massive Skandia Geelong Regatta. With over 350 boats, it is the largest keelboat regatta in the Southern Hemisphere! It was by far the biggest race I had ever been in. I was racing on a Radford Sprint 35, a light sled and only five of them have been built. I have been racing on the boat all year out of the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron, based in St. Kilda. There was five days of intense racing in the regatta, and half the challenge was not getting fried!

Thursday and Friday we raced two races each day, sausage courses around the pins. We were competing against some stiff competition, with most boats having sailmakers and professional sailor onboard. We raced quite well, except that we had very poor starts and would get gassed by the bigger boats the whole first leg. But we managed to come in the middle of the pack.

Saturday was the passage race from Melbourne to Geelong, and was by far our best race. It was a kite run the whole way (meaning that it was downwind and we could use that big colourful sail). It was an amazing start, with 350+ boats all starting in the same place with their kites up. The wind was quite light, and we did a great job of finding the wind. We had an amazing race, and we beat boats to Geelong that were much bigger than us (there were some 70+ foot boats racing). We came in second in our division, but the highlight was that we beat our friendly rival who sails the same boat as we do. He beats us every race, as he is a former Olympian and World Champion, but we beat him soundly in this race. He still ended up winning the regatta, though…

When we arrived (we had been on the water and under the sun for over eight hours), we immediately all jumped into the water to cool off. It was really cool going around and checking out all the fast (and expensive) racing boats. I stayed over in Geelong on Saturday and Sunday nights, there was quite the party as you can imagine. We had a fun crew, and there was plenty of live music as well.

Sunday was a windy day, with two races down at Geelong. We had our best crew on board, so we were more competitive in these two races. It was blowing really hard, which is not the best conditions for our boat, but we did pretty well. We had more aggressive starts as well, especially in the second race. These are big, expensive boats, and it can be quite hairy at the starting line as everyone is jostling for position. We had two fantastic starts, but unfortunately both were recalled as there were a number of boats over early. Those two starts were really exciting, as there were some very close calls with boats almost running into each other.

The last race on Monday was a passage race back to Melbourne from Geelong. This was a smaller race as it didn’t count towards the aggregate score, with just our club racing. The wind was really light in the morning, so it was very slow going in the beginning. We had to beat out of the channel to start, and amazingly several boats felt they could sail outside the channel. Of course, the water was only a few feet deep outside of it, so they promptly ran aground. We managed to get out all right, and then the wind picked up and we had a great race back.

Overall, we came in seventh place in our division, which we were very happy with given the level of competition. Five days of racing all day was tiring, and I think I may finally be a little burnt out on sailing. But I am really glad I took part, it was cool to be part of such a big event! Below are some pictures from the race, and the official website of the regatta is at:

http://www.geelongweek.com.au/