Twenty five years of Classic Yachtracing on Port Phillip.

Classic yachts on Port Phillip June 28 2020

Takeaways from the June 28 SD Training Session Note: click on any image for a larger copy.

Eight Classics participated in this training session. Akala, Alwyn, Baranne, Boambillee, Cygnet, Mercedes III, Mistral IX,Pastime II. 3 moderns took up the invite to join in, DuXelle, No Mans Land and Salamander III.

Here’s some details about Sunday’s Classic yacht fleet.

● 4 were Tasmanian bnilt, Alwyn, Baranne, Mistral IX, in Hobart and Cygnet by the Wilson Brothers in Cygnet

● 2 competed together in the 1965 Sydney to Hobart race. Akala and Baranne.

● 3 competed in multiple Sydney to Hobarts. Akala (6) Boambillee and Mercedes III

Now for a description of the strong connection between the June 28 moderns and classics.

● The X yacht DuXelle, skippered by Michael Mactavish also skippers the recently ARHV listed and Jack Savagedesigned Serifa, stuck in Sydney. More on Serifa. Her previous owner was Bernie Case. He helmed Serifa to sixth placeon handicapp in the 1966 S2H. Fidelis our Sydney based classic was first. Bernie Case competed in 40 S2H’s on manynotable entries, his first was on Ron Caddie’s classic Athena out of Mornington.

● Sal Balharrie and her Sydney 38 No Mans Land had our June 28 interlocuaters on board, Mark Chew and Ant PerriMark is skipper of our classic Fair Winds, Ant Perri is Fair Winds notable pizza crust maker on her ocean voyages.

● The Adams 10 Salamander III is raced by Monica Jones. Monica is well known for her Tumlaren helming results withAvian and Dingo.

1st July 2020Classic Yacht Association of Australia Notes

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Cygnet front and centre of the classic June 28 social distance training session

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About the June 28 SD training sessionFrom Sea fog to brilliant sunshineand warmth was the word as theMelbourne classic fleet went throughall their social distance training.With a light northerly prevailing itwas time to reinforce those lessonsfrom the June 14 training session.

Top glamour classic forJune 28

While new lessons were being discovered on all classics there was stilltime to take in the glamour scene of classic yachts. For June 28 theglamour classic of the day had to be Michael Baxter’s ARHV listedCygnet. The 21 footer built by the notable Wilson Brothers of CygnetTasmania.in 1925

Training session for on time startingTop starters for June 28 were the on the button starts by Akala andMercedes III.

Top Performingtrainee for June 28Overall the trainee of the dayhad to be Akala. Her new rigand light weather performance both pre andduring training were notable. Aside from herstart it was that light wind kite trimming thatkept her as fleet leader.

Baranne from Geelong sails upand back to be part of June 28SD trainingThe previous SD training class, June 14, wehad skippers from Red Hill, Charlie Salterwith the Tumlaren Sirocco, Anne and KarenBatson from Birregurra with Zephyr and PeteJerabec from Geelong. This training class wewent went one better. Charlie Salter and PeteJerabec plus some RGYC members bought upthe Hobart built Laurent Giles designed and1965 S2H entrant Baranne to be part of ourJune 28 training class.

To have a classic take on the 60 mile round voyage from Geelong to Melbourne for athree hour SD training session sends signals to all that Classic Yachting is alive andwell on Port Phillip. Pete Jerabec reported for Baranne’s return voyage to Geelongthe bay was like a pond with clear clear water. He could actually see the bottom formost of the sail back. That’s means very close to the Werribee water tower shore.

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Mark Chew

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Akala prepares for her starttraining

Cygnet the glamour classic of class 28

As it was at Fawkner Beacon, June 28

Akala prepare to finish her kite test session

Baranne checks out Alwyn

Baranne retuns to Geelong

Pete Jerabec

More checking out of Alwyn by Baranne

Most noticed June 28 trainee.No question on this subject. From 9:55am till the training ended. That most noticeable spinnaker of Boambillee was always

present

Instagram and a June 28traineeWhen this pic of the 1922 Hobart built and AlfBlore designed Alwyn was posted Instagramthe place lit up, 231 times to be exact. Put herback to gaff and she’ll clean up was the call.Some of her many first’s. Are the1924 and1926 Hobart Regatta Lipton Cup’s, the 2006RYCV Lipton Cup for classics plus recentHobsons Bay YC long distance races.Although Alwyn still has her winning ways,she’s one fun classic to race on.

One feature of the June 28 training was the scene of Alwyn making the firstmark in one tack when all the fleet had to tack a couple of times. Was it thebrilliant helming by the visiting 30 square metre specialist from PerthManfred Speicher or was it the wind breaks. No question, it was the Alwynand her wind seeking ways that did it. Fine tuning the procedure to poile outtwo headsails on the same side is Awyns training session takeaway.

Mercedes III catches the fleetHere’s a June 28 scene as seen from Mercedes III poled out headsail.Eventually her spinnaker was set. After a slow kite fill she eventually passedBaranne and Alwyn.Mistral IX slowly picks off the fleetMistral IX with a poled out headsail also picked off Baranne and Alwyn.Mercedes III is seen in the distance with Akala and kite in the far distance.

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Boambillee

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Alwyn on the move

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Baranne and Alwyn as seen from Mercedes III

June 28 training session about to shut down

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Ant Perri an NML trainer checks out the Classic fleet

Pastime II glides through the June 28 fleetThe light air performer Pastime II under the helm of Scott

Mcdonald againshowed the fleet hercredentials.

Moderns of yesterday now classics of today

We all know our classics in their racing to glory days ofyesterday were the moderns of yesterday. They usedevery bit of then available technology to improve theirracing performance. Same as what the moderns do today.This is why our today’s moderns are always welcome tosail in company with our Port Phillip classic fleet.

For June 28 we had Sal Balharrie bring out her Sydney38, No Mans Land with some of her team to fit in sometraining in prep for their Hamilton Island challenge.Covid -19 restrictions prevented the full NML team beingon board. The restrictions also prevented the NML challenge happening at the June 20 Australian WomensKeelboat Regatta.

Here’s a look at Michael Mactavish’s X yacht DuXelle. WithCatherine North, fresh from her round the world global racingexperience, as crew for club racing and with Serifa for Classicracing a full calendar of yacht racing is on their horizon.

No Mans Land looks over Baranne

Pastime II sailing with Mistral IX.

Pastime II, Boambillee, Mercedes III, Akala as seen from NML with SalBalharrie on the helm

DuXelle glides through the light St. Kilda breeze.

Pastime II on her way home from June 28 training

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Herding Cats and classic’s. What’sdifferent.No difference is the word. The plan was to grab someJune 28 fleet PR pics with the subjects being the threeclassic groups of classic mentioned on the first page.Didn’t happen. To achieve photo opportunities adedicated chase boat with a pre event briefing is a must.Neither of which happened for June 28. Doesn’t matter.You can’t expect boats that are concentrating on trainingto change mental gears and go chasing photoopportunities. There’s enough pics in this June 28training report that tell the story. However to show whatcould have been here’s some pics of the potential photo

op Classics asseen from noMans Land.

Engine changeover for KingurraHere’s the recent word from Ian MacFarlane

Yep, its a Volvo going in. A new D2-40. It is replacing an MD2040, which hasbeen a very reliable engine for 20 years (I put it in with Peter Joubert in 2000).It had not done a huge number of hours, but it had suffered 2 incidents over the20 years including flooding when the stern gland failed (and it was a weekbetween visits and found half a meter of water in the bottom of the boat). Thesecond one was related to a failed anti siphoning valve, which filled the cylindersup with water. Neither of these were catastrophic, but they did not help themotor to age particularly well. The old motor was starting to show signs of

corrosion, particularly on the sump and a few other places in the engine. Given we go ocean sailing, I am very keen to have areliable engine and I felt like the old one was starting to push our luck on that front. I thought about refurbing the old engine, butthat was likely going to cost $7k or $9k and for $13k you buy a new engine. The minor bugger is that the old engine was LHdrive and the new engine is RH drive, so a new prop was in order. A bunch of other new stuff thrown in (and the hours of workput in to it). So in the end, it has cost quite a lot more than the refurb, but we will have a brand new engine with more moderntechnology, a new prop and hopefully 30 or 40 years more happy motoring in Kingurra before this needs to happen again!!

Ian finishes up by saying “Probably a couple more months to go yet, but hopefully by the time the worst of the winter is done, sowill be the new engine.”

Here’s the link to an earlier Kingurra new engine story Ian put out tohis crew

The WEST system arrives in Port Melbourne.

A recent visit to Richard Downy’s Port Melb Paint and Wallpaperoutlet on Bay street. saw a new arrival displayed. A complete line up ofthe West System products, that what’s new. Convenience plus, is theword. How good is that!! Says Richard. For all you Classic boatrestorers here’s the link to the various West system Instructionmanuals. For the rest of us, Richards shop is the place for Hempelcoatings ie antifoul.

Another SD training session? If local CYAA people needor want an additional Social distance training session on July 12 dropthe handicapper a line by email or SMS. We’ll look at the numbers.

Regards to all Peter Costolloe CYAA (Vic) Handicapper.

Baranne, Akala and Alwyn in pre training mode

WEST system products at Port Melbourne Paint and Wallpaper

Ian’s on the job

Baranne and the boy’s

Boambillee A rare June 28 no kite moment

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Cygnet the 1925 Tasmanian 21 footer.

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