The 2016 Fremantle Sailing Club's
Club Marine Harbour Classic
Thanks for your patience as I've had to get another event out of the way.
The day dawned with a relish in it. The promise of a seabreeze and some fun and games in the harbour, thanks to Captain Allan Gray of the Fremantle Port Authority who had bequeathed two hours of valuable port time to the club so that again we could have the "Race that stops the Harbour".
This year, a new ring to the racing as the club tries out a format of Sports boat racing with the clubs SB20's hosting the Legends and the Young guns on the harbour. To add to the mix, there was another course of Lasers and 420's out on the water as well and a few of the best masters up against the " young guns" of the laser fleet. To do them justice we moved between the fleets, though as the wind rose, the sight of SB20's attempting to wipe out was a natural draw card to my driver Christina Heydon and I.
The day began with a briefing and familiar faces amongst the volunteers showed up and even Gabby an offshore person was looking after the canteen. (As she explained, "there was no one else to do it".) Familiar with the format of previous years we listened with attention and only came to life to ask whether we had managed to get the extra hour that was half promised and were told that it hadn't been offered and our job was to get the boats out of the harbour "toot sweet" once racing had finished.
With 10 to 12 knots on a building sou wester the harbour was beginning to take life and silver tones Ed Fethers had his role as commentator on the wharf side. Ably assisted by Travis Burtenshaw the FSC dinghy administrator the two of them kept us informed throughout the event and had some great sailors to accompany them for the day.
The young guns were a mixed crowd and I noted crack Redline Racing team driver Matt Jerwood out there and the Gilmours were ably represented with Sam and Lachy to battling it out on the water with father Peter choosing to do the offshore Coventry race. Not to be out done, the Legends were headed by Skip Lissiman with Declan Keogh and Colin Harrison as the other masters, though even Mark Whittington was wondering whether he was "almost a legend" and should have been included in the senior ranks to balance the ranks at 4 a piece. I'll leave your mates to tell you that Mark. :-)
The breeze continued to rise and after our visit to the centre boards where we had some fun with both the 420's and the Lasers, we went back for the last two races of the SB20's where they were starting to work out the course and we had our job cut out to keep up with them. Some great racing and I'll let the photo's do the talking as I was delighted to see some of the should have been legends crewing on the SB20's. Both Belinda Stowell and her brother Mark were crewing with Sam and should have been pushing him up the score board. Grant Alderson and Russell Boaden were out with Colin Harrison and talking to Colin afterwards, he mentioned that he'd had a busy day and I'll bet he did. With Paralympians Russell and Colin having two working arms between them, Grant and Jack Joyner were extremely busy covering the needs on the boat. Luke Elliott was accompanying Mark Whittington and by the time that this post is written will be back in Sydney to begin training again. Skip had Ella Clark and Harry Joyner in his crew and Alistair Young had Cameron Seagreen along to keep him honest. However Lachy Gilmour had the prize package of Thor Schoenhoff and Zoe Thomson as well as Murray Buck and they just about wiped the plate clean with wins in the last 4 races and a creditable 3rd in the first race.
For results go to https://www.fsc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Harbour-Race-Legends-Race-2016.pdf
Many thanks to Fremantle Sailing Club, Club Marine, Fremantle Harbours, the volunteers and most of all the Sailors who made it happen. And to Jayllee and Travis from the FSC who really worked hard to present this.
Enjoy the photo's, there are lots to view.
The day dawned with a relish in it. The promise of a seabreeze and some fun and games in the harbour, thanks to Captain Allan Gray of the Fremantle Port Authority who had bequeathed two hours of valuable port time to the club so that again we could have the "Race that stops the Harbour".
This year, a new ring to the racing as the club tries out a format of Sports boat racing with the clubs SB20's hosting the Legends and the Young guns on the harbour. To add to the mix, there was another course of Lasers and 420's out on the water as well and a few of the best masters up against the " young guns" of the laser fleet. To do them justice we moved between the fleets, though as the wind rose, the sight of SB20's attempting to wipe out was a natural draw card to my driver Christina Heydon and I.
The day began with a briefing and familiar faces amongst the volunteers showed up and even Gabby an offshore person was looking after the canteen. (As she explained, "there was no one else to do it".) Familiar with the format of previous years we listened with attention and only came to life to ask whether we had managed to get the extra hour that was half promised and were told that it hadn't been offered and our job was to get the boats out of the harbour "toot sweet" once racing had finished.
With 10 to 12 knots on a building sou wester the harbour was beginning to take life and silver tones Ed Fethers had his role as commentator on the wharf side. Ably assisted by Travis Burtenshaw the FSC dinghy administrator the two of them kept us informed throughout the event and had some great sailors to accompany them for the day.
The young guns were a mixed crowd and I noted crack Redline Racing team driver Matt Jerwood out there and the Gilmours were ably represented with Sam and Lachy to battling it out on the water with father Peter choosing to do the offshore Coventry race. Not to be out done, the Legends were headed by Skip Lissiman with Declan Keogh and Colin Harrison as the other masters, though even Mark Whittington was wondering whether he was "almost a legend" and should have been included in the senior ranks to balance the ranks at 4 a piece. I'll leave your mates to tell you that Mark. :-)
The breeze continued to rise and after our visit to the centre boards where we had some fun with both the 420's and the Lasers, we went back for the last two races of the SB20's where they were starting to work out the course and we had our job cut out to keep up with them. Some great racing and I'll let the photo's do the talking as I was delighted to see some of the should have been legends crewing on the SB20's. Both Belinda Stowell and her brother Mark were crewing with Sam and should have been pushing him up the score board. Grant Alderson and Russell Boaden were out with Colin Harrison and talking to Colin afterwards, he mentioned that he'd had a busy day and I'll bet he did. With Paralympians Russell and Colin having two working arms between them, Grant and Jack Joyner were extremely busy covering the needs on the boat. Luke Elliott was accompanying Mark Whittington and by the time that this post is written will be back in Sydney to begin training again. Skip had Ella Clark and Harry Joyner in his crew and Alistair Young had Cameron Seagreen along to keep him honest. However Lachy Gilmour had the prize package of Thor Schoenhoff and Zoe Thomson as well as Murray Buck and they just about wiped the plate clean with wins in the last 4 races and a creditable 3rd in the first race.
For results go to https://www.fsc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Harbour-Race-Legends-Race-2016.pdf
Many thanks to Fremantle Sailing Club, Club Marine, Fremantle Harbours, the volunteers and most of all the Sailors who made it happen. And to Jayllee and Travis from the FSC who really worked hard to present this.
Enjoy the photo's, there are lots to view.