The 2019 Interclub Championships
at South of Perth Yacht club
5th , 6th and 7th of April 2019
Once again the Interclubs have returned to South of Perth Yacht Club and with seven clubs sailing and a couple of our country clubs in the mix, a good time will be had by all. This year we have Koombana Bay SC and Jervoise Bay SC going up against the locals of SoPYC, FSC, East Fremantle YC, Royal Perth YC and Royal Freshwater Bay YC.
Sailed over three days we have the vets on day one , the ladies on day two and the opens on day three. Usually any mistakes or howlers committed by the Vets on Friday arvo have been rectified by the Ladies on Saturday and the Opens have a field day with two sessions, one in the am and another in the afternoon.
As ever, I'll try to give as much coverage as possible but I do have a commitment in the morning and will be photographing the Opens in the afternoon.
Good luck to all in the event and let the photos fall where they may.
Sailed over three days we have the vets on day one , the ladies on day two and the opens on day three. Usually any mistakes or howlers committed by the Vets on Friday arvo have been rectified by the Ladies on Saturday and the Opens have a field day with two sessions, one in the am and another in the afternoon.
As ever, I'll try to give as much coverage as possible but I do have a commitment in the morning and will be photographing the Opens in the afternoon.
Good luck to all in the event and let the photos fall where they may.
Sunday the 7th of April PM
The Open category day with no holds barred. Sometimes you wonder when you look at the crews that have come out to play. Dunsborough and Jervoise have been burning through crew like there was no tomorrow and given that they both had big events elsewhere they were sailing by the skin of their teeth with whomever they could use.
As for the river clubs, I've been following the young men and women of this river now for some 14 years and some of them were there on Sunday afternoon. East Freo should be commended on their youth program, with one of their Peli sailors aboard and it almost looked as though he had the pit. Awesome. But Commodore Mike was on board and I think that this should be made mandatory for all commodores to join their crew for the last day.
The back chat on come of the boats was becoming noticeable and the boats were pulled up before it blew out of hand. No quarter was given and asked for with some of the moves on the water causing red flags to come out, but generally the flow of the boats on the water was good and fast. By the time that 1440 had rolled around, RO Les Swinton had pushed through four races with his hard working team laying, moving and lifting as required.
A couple of incidents occurred that I noticed when SPYC managed to blow a port side sheet on the genoa on the start line, right in front of the camera lens and then another moment when RP had a maintenance moment, hung out their green flag and Mike Taylor ( the maintenance man) just stepped right on board as the boat ran to the finish line. Way to go Mike.. good for the camera.
Over all, RFBYC shrugged off a poor Sunday morning to put together a good finish to the regatta and take first place with Royal Perth putting a sound performance with slightly more mature sailors to snaffle two wins on the day and a second over all. SoPYC really had everything to win after the morning effort and sailed their hearts out with a couple of bullets as well, but alas one point behind RP. Oh well, East Freo capped off a tremendous effort over the weekend to finish one point behind SoPYC with Freo still looking at Saturday morning with regret. Of the two country boats, Jervoise Bay came out ahead just, with Dunsborough providing some entertaining sailing through out the regatta, including that fabulous first on Saturday morning. Woo hoo, that's the way to do it!
Many thanks to chief umpire Richard Goldsmith, who was kind enough to put me on the front of his boat for the regatta; to the Swan River Sailing team; Andy, Georgia and Mike and to Les Swinton and his hard working team of volunteers. But it wouldn't be an event without the clubs and the sailors, many thanks for a wonderful weekend. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
NB . Two cameras were used so some images will be out of sequence.
The Open category day with no holds barred. Sometimes you wonder when you look at the crews that have come out to play. Dunsborough and Jervoise have been burning through crew like there was no tomorrow and given that they both had big events elsewhere they were sailing by the skin of their teeth with whomever they could use.
As for the river clubs, I've been following the young men and women of this river now for some 14 years and some of them were there on Sunday afternoon. East Freo should be commended on their youth program, with one of their Peli sailors aboard and it almost looked as though he had the pit. Awesome. But Commodore Mike was on board and I think that this should be made mandatory for all commodores to join their crew for the last day.
The back chat on come of the boats was becoming noticeable and the boats were pulled up before it blew out of hand. No quarter was given and asked for with some of the moves on the water causing red flags to come out, but generally the flow of the boats on the water was good and fast. By the time that 1440 had rolled around, RO Les Swinton had pushed through four races with his hard working team laying, moving and lifting as required.
A couple of incidents occurred that I noticed when SPYC managed to blow a port side sheet on the genoa on the start line, right in front of the camera lens and then another moment when RP had a maintenance moment, hung out their green flag and Mike Taylor ( the maintenance man) just stepped right on board as the boat ran to the finish line. Way to go Mike.. good for the camera.
Over all, RFBYC shrugged off a poor Sunday morning to put together a good finish to the regatta and take first place with Royal Perth putting a sound performance with slightly more mature sailors to snaffle two wins on the day and a second over all. SoPYC really had everything to win after the morning effort and sailed their hearts out with a couple of bullets as well, but alas one point behind RP. Oh well, East Freo capped off a tremendous effort over the weekend to finish one point behind SoPYC with Freo still looking at Saturday morning with regret. Of the two country boats, Jervoise Bay came out ahead just, with Dunsborough providing some entertaining sailing through out the regatta, including that fabulous first on Saturday morning. Woo hoo, that's the way to do it!
Many thanks to chief umpire Richard Goldsmith, who was kind enough to put me on the front of his boat for the regatta; to the Swan River Sailing team; Andy, Georgia and Mike and to Les Swinton and his hard working team of volunteers. But it wouldn't be an event without the clubs and the sailors, many thanks for a wonderful weekend. Hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
NB . Two cameras were used so some images will be out of sequence.
Saturday the 6th of April AM
Ladies Day and the weather could have been a little better. Glass out conditions had RO Les Swinton on his toes and he wasted no time in getting a (very) short race going before the predicted drop out occurred. It was an Easterly as expected and we had a couple of spectator boats and an interested shag who took up position on a nearby mark to watch the event.
Dunsborough got the best start of the morning , getting away to a blinder ( relatively speaking ) and weren't headed for the rest of the race. Freshie made the best of it and managed to get across the line behind them and East Freo took third, but the rest of the boats were struggling to make anything of it and reputations went out the window as they fought to keep the boats moving in the little puffs that made up the breeze on the water.
Then nothing. So crew photos, some general chat sessions and muffins were served from the start boat. Many thanks Rose.
At 10.45, there was enough breeze to get a very quick race under way and once again Dunsborough took off, but remorselessly Freshie chased them down and got to them by the top mark. Royal Perth was feeling fine and managed to slip into third at the top mark and the fleet followed on behind. The downwind was about angles and maintaining movement and the results had RFBYC taking first with Dunsborough in second place and Royal Perth sweeping into third place.
Yes it was a slow day, but challenging and it was great to see Dunsborough putting it to the river clubs. Well done.
Over all, Freshie first, Dunsborough second and East Freo third.
See you on the river this afternoon.
Ladies Day and the weather could have been a little better. Glass out conditions had RO Les Swinton on his toes and he wasted no time in getting a (very) short race going before the predicted drop out occurred. It was an Easterly as expected and we had a couple of spectator boats and an interested shag who took up position on a nearby mark to watch the event.
Dunsborough got the best start of the morning , getting away to a blinder ( relatively speaking ) and weren't headed for the rest of the race. Freshie made the best of it and managed to get across the line behind them and East Freo took third, but the rest of the boats were struggling to make anything of it and reputations went out the window as they fought to keep the boats moving in the little puffs that made up the breeze on the water.
Then nothing. So crew photos, some general chat sessions and muffins were served from the start boat. Many thanks Rose.
At 10.45, there was enough breeze to get a very quick race under way and once again Dunsborough took off, but remorselessly Freshie chased them down and got to them by the top mark. Royal Perth was feeling fine and managed to slip into third at the top mark and the fleet followed on behind. The downwind was about angles and maintaining movement and the results had RFBYC taking first with Dunsborough in second place and Royal Perth sweeping into third place.
Yes it was a slow day, but challenging and it was great to see Dunsborough putting it to the river clubs. Well done.
Over all, Freshie first, Dunsborough second and East Freo third.
See you on the river this afternoon.
Friday the 5th of April
The sun was dipping over the horizon as the 3rd race wound up. Were we late? Naaaa! A good day on the water and a couple of break downs early in the peace. But we had a cracker of a breeze between 16 to 19 knots out of the sou west and it was a day that only vets could understand.
But it wasn't only a Veterans day today as the rules were stretched a little to get the girls on board and we saw at least 3 or 4 scattered around the fleets and some of the country clubs were running on a youth strategy as well. But without their connivance, we wouldn't have such a great day. It was great to see so many of the regulars coming out to play and even the return of the Dunbar twins after at least 6 years was noted with dismay by one or two of the other clubs.
But the battle in the Vets was going to be between the Royals and Perth and Freshie took it down to the wire with both of them earning a total of 6 points over the three races. But the win goes to the bloke who gets the most bullets and Royal Perth took two wins over the one that Royal Freshwater Bay earned. South of Perth surprised themselves by getting third place and they were closely followed by Fremantle SC one point behind. East Freo and Jervoise Bay have only a point separating them and Dunsborough is waiting for the lighter airs to show off their skills.
There were a couple of start line whoopsies and it was a learning experience for some of the skippers when they found themselves being hammered by guys who sailed the America's Cup a few years ago and the last race had the two Royals in a match race that unfortunately petered out to a tame finish...
Enjoy the photos and I'll be back on Saturday morning.
By the way, I've just noticed that the server has thrown up the images out of sequence. That's going to keep you guessing isn't it?
The sun was dipping over the horizon as the 3rd race wound up. Were we late? Naaaa! A good day on the water and a couple of break downs early in the peace. But we had a cracker of a breeze between 16 to 19 knots out of the sou west and it was a day that only vets could understand.
But it wasn't only a Veterans day today as the rules were stretched a little to get the girls on board and we saw at least 3 or 4 scattered around the fleets and some of the country clubs were running on a youth strategy as well. But without their connivance, we wouldn't have such a great day. It was great to see so many of the regulars coming out to play and even the return of the Dunbar twins after at least 6 years was noted with dismay by one or two of the other clubs.
But the battle in the Vets was going to be between the Royals and Perth and Freshie took it down to the wire with both of them earning a total of 6 points over the three races. But the win goes to the bloke who gets the most bullets and Royal Perth took two wins over the one that Royal Freshwater Bay earned. South of Perth surprised themselves by getting third place and they were closely followed by Fremantle SC one point behind. East Freo and Jervoise Bay have only a point separating them and Dunsborough is waiting for the lighter airs to show off their skills.
There were a couple of start line whoopsies and it was a learning experience for some of the skippers when they found themselves being hammered by guys who sailed the America's Cup a few years ago and the last race had the two Royals in a match race that unfortunately petered out to a tame finish...
Enjoy the photos and I'll be back on Saturday morning.
By the way, I've just noticed that the server has thrown up the images out of sequence. That's going to keep you guessing isn't it?