The third Margaret River regatta attracted some 22 skippers and 15 support crew from four different clubs around Western Australia. The weather gods were kind, with moderate winds, balmy temperatures, and no rain. The venue was once again Bettenay’s Wine and Nougat – a beautiful lakeside setting with a cellar door, a kitchen selling excellent lunches as well as the famous nougat, and several accommodation options including a studio overlooking the lake.
A total of 30 races were sailed using a wide range of formats. The emphasis for the weekend was to have fun, a goal that was achieved in spades. The sailing started on Saturday morning with the sailors divided into two fleets of 11 boats each for, regular scratch racing. The Bettenay’s lake generated the usual swirls and downdraughts found at most inland racing venues, with the bonus of great viewing from the cellar door. Greg Bettenay and his team had erected a huge marquee for us, somewhat dwarfing our own little gazebo. Coffee, tea and scones made regular appearances whilst the off-water fleet watched the antics of the on-water fleet, together with servings of Gillian Charlwood’s famous sausage rolls. Skippers on land were eager to offer helpful hints to the active racers, only to find themselves on the receiving end of similar advice when the fleets swapped over. The lunch break signalled the end of the standard fleet racing and the introduction of some excellent lunches from the Bettenay’s kitchen. The occasional glass of red and white wine was spied on the tables, leading to some slightly less focussed racing in the afternoon - a momentary lapse of riesling?
After lunch the programme declared the next event would be novelty racing. This was a brilliant sharing initiative whereby the more successful sailors from the morning’s racing were paired up with the less successful ones. Each pair would decide whose boat to sail, and who would take the controls for the first lap of the two-lap course. After one lap the controller would be handed over to the other sailor for the second lap. This created a mentor-trainee relationship which really boosted the abilities and understandings of the less successful sailors, making it one of the most successful parts of the weekend. It did require a unique skill for the handover between laps – those with brimmed hats had to remove them quickly in order to get the controller lanyard off their neck without being garrotted, whilst retaining control of the boat. Occasionally the mentor-trainee connection became a bit confused and hectic, with one participant suggesting it was like try to teach a cat to snorkel by providing written instructions.
Racing ended at 3.30pm with pennants awarded to placegetters of the day, leaving time for a glass of sustenance before heading back to accommodations various and reconvening at the Margaret River Brewhouse for dinner on the terrace.
Sunday morning greeted us with clear skies and more perfect weather. Two-fleet scratch racing was again the programme for the morning, interspersed with yet more coffee, tea and scones. The method for allocating the yachts to each fleet was the subject of much discussion and many suggestions-, some very helpful and others about as much use as an open umbrella in a phone box. The process was rather like trying to negotiate with a goldfish, but we got there in the end. Lunchtime saw even more yummy lunches consumed, plus a few more glasses of red and white.
The afternoon event was billed as handicap racing, which is usually a pedestrian affair. Not this time! The course layers decided to shift the marks over lunchtime, so they were better aligned with the new southerly breeze. This also allowed a much longer course to be laid, as the full length of the lake could be used, instead of the width. The course was indeed perfect, but they forget one small but critical factor. If you are sailing a radio-controlled yacht you need to be able to see it. As you move away from the cellar door the banks of the lake become lined with bushes (and a smattering of tiger snakes), which created blind spots. The breeze had also picked up enough for a few sailors to opt for B rigs, so you had to walk quite quickly through the grass in order to keep in touch with your boat. The net result was rather like playing blindfold dodgems on the freeway at rush hour. A skipper would sail their boat behind a bush with it travelling at 6 knots on starboard tack, only to see it come out the other side on port tack at 3 knots. Some skippers even claimed that their boat changed colour when it went behind a bush. After one race the mark layers quickly realised their mistake and brought the course up much closer to the cellar door. This removed the bush factor, thus bringing a degree of sanity back into the antics, but it made the course quite a bit shorter. 22 boats sailing in 22 knot gusts generated a sufficiently high level of adrenalin for most skippers to remain very alert, though not afraid.
At 3.30pm racing was concluded and everyone gathered at the marquee for the presentation of prizes. And what a lot of prizes there were! There were bottles of wine and champagne, pennants of course, vouchers for sails donated by Nick Jerwood, and vouchers for boat gear. Everyone came away with a prize to acknowledge their contribution to the regatta - a commemorative regatta mug and a handful of chocolate liqueurs.
On the first morning of racing Dave Woodcock very generously donated two family-day passes to Perth’s Outback Splash to be used as prizes. The organising committee deliberated on the entire weekend’s efforts and decided to award them as encouragement prizes to the last placed sailors in Red and Green fleets. The outcome was that Lewis Arndt and Kevin Matthews were the very worthy recipients. An oversight at presentations resulted in the prizes not being awarded at the time, but they are currently winging their way to the winners.
The number of helpers for this event was immense; not because it needs so much organising, rather because so many people offered to help. The organising committee of Nick Jerwood, Kim Swarbrick and Keith Morris, led by Annette O’Mahoney, did all the preparatory work. Treasurer Allan Pride organised all the prizes, including a strategy for keeping the chocolate liqueurs from melting. Brian Schneider provided his kayak, which he paddled around the lake to lay the marks, ably assisted by Nick Jerwood. Ann Morris and Gillian Charlwood did an excellent job of starting and finishing all the races. Lots of folks helped with setting up the gazebo, the wet launching of the boats, and packing the gear away at the end of the weekend. Commodore Kim Swarbrick drove down from Perth at 5.30am on Saturday to act as Principal Race Officer for the weekend (he even managed to get some sailing in on the Sunday).
We look forward to having even more people join in this event next year, which is rapidly becoming the must-do regatta in the radio-controlled sailing calendar.
Kim Klaka