Glorious Geographe

Editor Roger McMillan goes "home" to Western Australia's south-west and enjoys the hospitality and hard racing that Geographe Race Week offers.

There is something about regattas run in regional areas by small yacht clubs. They shouldn’t have the finances or the people-power to organise an event for 100 or more boats, almost all of whom are from out-of-town. Not only do they manage it – they manage it extremely well.

So it is with race weeks at Port Lincoln in South Australia, the Bay of Islands in NZ and certainly at Busselton in Western Australia’s south-west.

These three race weeks have much in common. They are all held in magnificent venues, with sheltered waters but usually plenty of wind. They all put together very competitive racing, with some of the best sailors in the world making the annual trek to take part. And they all put as much emphasis on the social side as the racing, because they are determined that everyone will have a good time.

This year 113 boats entered Geographe Race Week. They took part in an interesting program which included passage races to the glorious beaches on the western side of the bay, windward/leewards in everything from dead calm to 20 knots of wind, and even a night race which I think is unique among the major Australian regattas.

Off the water they socialised just as hard, with nightly sessions in the marina tavern, a pirate night on the lay day, an evening in the local town where the whole population of 20,000 people seemed to be out to greet them, and a final night prize-giving with belly dancers and a local politician who declined to “say a few words” when offered the microphone.

Just as bizarre as a tongue-tied politician was the sight of a support boat on Day three racing back to shore to unload a 1.2 metre long dugite snake which had been found curled around a post in the outboard transom. A professional snake handler was called to the marina to collect the reptile and return it to the wild.

Sailing heaven

Geographe Bay is a wonderful sailing area. Unusually for Australia, the beach faces due north which means it is totally protected from the prevailing south-easterly and south-westerly winds. The long hook of the Cape Naturaliste peninsula defends the west and north-west boundaries, while to the east the mainland provides shelter.

With the huge expanse of cool Indian Ocean to the west and the hot wheatfields to the east, there is usually good wind on flat seas – a sailor’s paradise.

The facilities are also excellent. The massive Port Geographe marina is big enough to accommodate all the regatta boats without rafting up and offers full facilities for race management and visiting crews. Situated on the northern edge of the Margaret River wine region, there is plenty of holiday accommodation, many places for partners to visit during sailing time and the Tides Tavern at the top of the marina ramp does a roaring trade all evening. An on-site marine engineering company works around the clock to effect any repairs needed to the competing boats.

Busselton or bust

There has always been a curious bond between Sandgropers and Victorians. Whether it’s because both are Aussie Rules states or because both hate NSW with a passion is impossible to know. But it was no surprise to find that a group of Melbournians had made the long treck across the Nullabor specifically to take part in this event.

Philip McLean, Mark Burton, Geoff Adams, Louise Potter, Helen Scott and Janet Gilmour are from Royal Brighton Yacht Club and had chartered the Jeanneau Sunfast 37 Redline from Bunbury for the regatta. Competing in Premier Cruising, they finished mid-field overall but with
two podiums in the last two races.

It was no surprise when the Redline crew was declared the winner of the magnificent trophy for “Spirit of the Regatta” because they epitomized what Geographe Race Week is all about – enjoying the sailing, making new friends and experiencing the delights
of the region.

The women in the crew became involved in yachting via Royal Brighton’s excellent initiative Women in Sailing which offers non-sailors a chance to get involved in keelboat racing at the club level. All were effusive in their praise for the event and declared they’d be back next year – with more members of the club.

Racing down there

Although boats come to the race week from Mandurah and Bunbury (on the west coast south of Perth) and from Albany and Esperance on the south coast, the vast majority sail from Fremantle down to Busselton, which is 110 nm almost due south. So it made sense to have an offshore race as a “feeder” event, just as the annual Adelaide – Lincoln race feeds into Lexus Lincoln Week.

As usual at that time of year, the winds along the coast were fickle and the race became a game of tactics between two identical Marten 49s, Optimus Prime
and Charlotte.

The IRC-optimised Farr 40 The Next Factor won the start and led around the first mark in Cockburn Sound but the two Martens used their extra boat speed to quickly move to the front. The recently re-launched Charlotte held sway until Mandurah, about a third of the way down, but as the two boats passed the Dawesville Cut, Optimus Prime got her nose in front and was never headed. She crossed the finish line off Port Geographe Marina in the darkness, taking 14 hours, 34 minutes to cover the distance.

Optimus Prime managed the treble – line honours, IRC and YAH. In IRC, Charlotte was second and The Next Factor was third. The new race is also part of Yachting WA’s Siska Trophy offshore series so it appears to have
a permanent place on the fixture list.

Sign of things to come

The offshore race was a portent for Race Week itself, with the same three boats filling the IRC Blue placings after the 10 race series. However the order was very different.

The Next Factor, owned by Dave Walling and Vern Williamson, skippered by former world champion Paul Eldrid and with Kiwi Simon Minoprio (the brother of current World Match Race champion Adam) calling tactics, won the first nine races and decided not to race the 10th. Optimus Prime was second and Charlotte was third.

IRC Red was a victory for the Busselton locals, with Brad Skeggs’ Beneteau 34.7 Minds Eye scoring a very easy victory, while IRC White was a Bakewell White benefit with Foundation 36s filling all three places. Gary McNally’s Grandprix was never outside the first two placings, to defeat Gary Rodera’s R2D2.

Premier Cruising had the biggest fleet of the regatta with 26 yachts including club racers and genuine cruisers. This made it a handicapper’s nightmare and while there were very few grumblings about the regatta most of them were from disgruntled skippers in this division. With handicaps changing as the regatta went on, consistency was hard to achieve. A case in point was the Esperance-based Beneteau 40.7 Eagle Rock which recorded placings of 22, 23 and 23 in the first three days, followed by 3, 2, 1 in the second half of the week. After observing the party habits of this crew at close quarters on several nights, I can report that their results should have deteriorated as the regatta wore on!

Other divisions to enjoy a beverage or two with their racing were Jib and Main Cruising, which was won by Gary Griffiths Bavaria Heaven Can Wait, and the 25-strong fleet in the Under 10m division which was won by Team 2011 Batteries Not Included.

Geographe Race Week is one of the few major regattas to include multihull and sportsboat divisions, both of which were keenly contested. Farrier trimarans Trinity and Asteroid took the first two places in the Multihull Division, ahead of the local optometrist, Nigel Chesterfield-Evans, in his huge Schionning catamaran Cosmic Gift.

Geographe Bay is a great sailing area for sportsboats, especially when the stronger winds come in. Although the Thompson 7.5 InSite Racing was usually fastest, handicap honours were shared between the Melges 24s and the new Vipers, which are reported on in detail elsewhere in this issue. There was an initial protest against the Vipers on technical grounds, but good sense prevailed and allowed for some exciting racing. Eventually Busselton local Kym Nisbett took handicap honours with his Melges 24 Bullitt, ahead of Tim Reger’s Perth-based Viper 640 Fizz and another Melges 24 Rum Jungle.

Top event

Although the racing is hard-fought and the results definitely do count, many of the skippers and crews were happy to be there for a week of warm-weather sailing, some serious socialising in one of the most beautiful locations on the planet, and a chance to catch up with old friends from the previous year.

Geographe Race Week was recently named one of WA’s top 10 events and it is certainly the state’s premier sailing event. Thanks to publicist Bernie Kaaks, it even appeared nightly on the WIN sports news, with interviews, results and some great footage.

Whether you want to take on world champion sailors on the water or world champion party animals in the Tides Tavern at the conclusion of racing, this is an event well worth putting on the bucket list.

RESULT

IRC Blue

10 races with 9 races to count

1 The Next Factor (Farr 40) Dave Walling/Vern Williamson, 2 Optimus Prime (Marten 49) Trevor Taylor, 3 Charlotte (Marten 49) John Moore

IRC Red

10 races with 9 races to count

1 Minds Eye (Beneteau 34.7) Brad Skeggs, 2 Constellation (S&S 34) Michael Finn, 3 Arajilla (Archambault 35) David Gilham

IRC White

10 races with 9 races to count

1 Grandprix (Bakewell White Foundation 36) Gary McNally, 2 R2D2 (Bakewell White Foundation 36) Gary Rodera, 3 By & Large (Bakewell White Foundation 36) Denys Pearce

Jib & Main Cruising

6 races with 5 races to count

1 Heaven Can Wait (Bavaria) Gary Griffiths, 2 Morning Melody (S&S 34) Bruce Collins/Imelda Collins, 3 Jacqui Mac (Oceanis 44) Bernie Siddall/Dennis Neil

Multi Hull

6 races with 5 races to count

1 Trinity (Farrier F25A) Richard Pocock, 2 Asteroid (Farrier F-22 tri) Robert Hall, 3 Cosmic Gift (Schionning cat) Nigel Chesterfield-Evans

Premier Cruising

6 races with 5 races to count

1Corniche (timber cruiser) Winston Scotney, 2 Catalynne (Catalina 34) Don Brooker, 3 Golden Eagle (Bavaria 42) John Wallis

Under 10m

8 races with 7 races to count

1 Batteries Not Included (Bakewell White 8) Barry Honey, 2 The Fox (Bakewell White 8) lan Thomas, 3 Classic Attitude (Tofinou 9.5) Hugh Warner

Sports Boats

10 races with 9 races to count

1 Bullit (Melges 24) Kym Nisbet, 2Fizz (Viper 640) Tim Reger, 3 Rum Jungle (Melges 24) Peter Chappell

Fremantle to Busselton Race

Div 1: 1: Optimus Prime (first and fastest), 2: Charlotte, 3: The Next Factor

Div 2: 1: Constellation, 2: Mind’s Eye, 3: Raya (Beneteau 36.7) Les Middleditch