Apollo Bay Sailing Club

Tell Tales

Sat. 15th February 2020

What a buzz to be walking to your boat when the Apollo Bay Seafood Festival is in full swing! 

It may have explained why only 6 boats ventured onto the water for a consistent southerly wind of 10-15knts.  An absolutely brilliant breeze, after the rubbishy easterlies the area has endured and had left behind a swelly sea.

The dinghies took the first start and were closely matched for the first triangle but then Affrodite and April Dancer left Euffamism in their wakes.

Boheme totally mistimed her start and snaked along the startline losing all momentum and was forced to go out to sea while most sought out the calmer waters along the shore.  This however turned out to be a stroke of luck as she pulled away from Ten+One and Quickmatch.

With so much swell it was sometimes difficult to pick out the buoys especially the somewhat deflated Gybe mark which was lying down on the job for most of the race.  For once the Keelboats enjoyed the benefit of the small boats showing them the way.

As the crew on Boheme sailed along the harbour wall (or in technical speak from the top mark to the gybe mark) they were intrigued to hear the rhythmic booming coming from within the harbour. 

All was explained back on shore. Our previous Commodore along with other members of OCEAN (Otway Climate Emergency Action Network) had been invited to the Festival to highlight the issues of the Seismic Testing currently going on in the Otway Basin and the Great Australian Bight. Even a few minute’s demonstration of a vastly softer sound than that, that is being used was considered irritating by some festival goers. It certainly made us realise how horrendous this testing must be for the sea-life when it continues every 10 seconds 24/7 week after week.

Luckily for the sailing fleet the sound was soon left behind and forgotten as there were ‘sheepstations’ on the line. Try as they might the bigger boats were not able to run down the Flying 15’s so the order crossing the line were April Dancer, Affrodite, Euffamism, Boheme, Ten+One, Quickmatch, with the real results below, with one standout winner!

The coming year is an exciting time if you are a watcher of international sailing events. There are always bucket loads of sailing events going on worldwide and there are plenty of designated sailing sites with gob smacking footage and exploits on show if you know where to look.

Of special interest will be the 36^th Americas Cup.

Over the last two events the boats and racing have been getting more and more outrageous with 75ft catamarans thrashing it out for top honours in the 34^th Cup and 50ft catamarans last time. And if that in itself were not bizarre enough, these boats were fully “foiling” which means both hulls up and out of the water at times, reaching speeds over 40knots. For most average sailors this was mind blowing stuff. But of course to top that Team New Zealand, the present holders of the Cup, have decided that this next edition  should be held in 68ft fully foiling monohulls! Now that mightn’t seem like such a crazy idea at first, except for the fact that such a boat did not exist when they came up with the idea just two short years ago. In fact, there was a firm belief that it might have been impossible to build a “fully foiling 65ft monohull and it whipped the sailing world into a frenzy. But two years on and four teams are now testing their boats and they are definitely a sight to behold. On Saturday the 6^th of March 2020 the world will witness sailing history when the first series of races will be run to begin the process of deciding which country will sail off against the Kiwis to hold up the 36^th AC cup early in 2021.

Also beginning soon is the second year for the Sail GP event. This is an event where 50ft foiling catamarans (reconditioned boats from the last AmericasCup), crewed by the best sailors in the world, sail a 6 race event held in different cities around the world (think motor GP). The first race will be held in Sydney on the 28^th of Feb. The inaugural series last year was fantastic to follow. I expect with a lot of the bugs ironed out of the boats it will be even more exciting to watch this year.    

So, for us average sailors enjoying our glory moments out here on the bay every Saturday something like the Americas Cup, Golden Globe, Fastnet Race or even the Sail GP might seem like a long way off. And the speeds might be a bit closer to 10 knots than 50; but when the swell is running and the wind is gusting over twenty and you are bearing down on a mark with 3 or more other boats all jockeying for the perfect rounding, there is nothing more exhilarating and nowhere else you would rather be.

Life is good. Come Sailing!

To find out more see our Facebook group - Apollo Bay Sailing Club