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Newsletter, SSummerummer 20062006----20072007
in the racing division. The cruising division comprised In this issue... another 10 boats with all but one having 2 hulls. Undoubtedly, the star attraction on the Royal Motor marina was Tony Considine’s spectacular Ferrari red Grainger catamaran, APC Max . • 2006 Lock Crowther Regatta... • Wangi Week Regatta...... • Pittwater Racing… • Where there’s a will... • Secret Weapon #1...? • Secret Weapon #2…? • Diary Dates...
APC Logistics 2006 Lock Crowther Memorial Regatta
This is an edited version of Peter Cope’s recent Max on the move article appearing in Multihull World magazine. Race 1 was a downwind start in a freshening sou- Conditions for the October long weekend in Sydney easter and quickly turned into a match race between provided a great test for the eleventh Lock Crowther the 2 lightweight flyers – Tony Considine and his Memorial Regatta generously sponsored by APC team on Max and the Lake Macquarie crew aboard Logistics with additional support from a further 16 Foxy , a Lynx 8.8 metre cat steered (or aimed) by organisations acknowledged below. The regatta was Shane Russell. established to pay tribute to Australia’s internationally acclaimed multihull design pioneer, Lock Crowther. With winds ranging from 5 to 28 knots, the variety of multihull designs, both cats and tris, all had a chance to show their best attributes. At the end of the day, it was the cats that shone through and took the major places revelling in the great sailing conditions particularly the solid 15 to 20 knot sea breeze experienced in race 4.
As usual, both racing and cruising divisions were conducted and a great bonus for this year was a field of 5 Seawinds competing as one designs within the cruising division. A total of 12 boats, 5 cats and 7 tris, Foxy and Max battle it out competed for line honours, PHS handicap and OMR
RMYC Broken Bay | Multihull Division Newsletter, Summer 2006-2007 | Page 1 of 5 www.royalmotor.com.au/multihulls/ At the end, it was Max by just 5 seconds however it by Seawind Catamaran’s generous sponsorship of an was evident from Max’s partly missing carbon all you could eat (and drink) Bar-B-Q back at the prodder that some innovative crew work had been club. The now mandatory videos of the French needed in order to secure line honours. Formula 60s provided a spectacular backdrop to the Unfortunately, this was to be Max’s only race as Tony fine dining realised the impossibility of effecting timely repairs. Jason Geddes beautiful 41 foot Crowther cat, Quickstep finished in third. In cruising, we got a taste of things to come with John Power’s Schionning catamaran, Powerzone beating home Jim Geddes very capable Crowther cat Te Arawa by a whole one second. Rohan Walter and his Seawind, Endless Summer were about to enjoy a very successfull regatta with his first win coming in this race.
Cruising Division winner Powerzone
Day 2 dawned with the threat of a drifter spoiling everybody’s fun, however by race start at 10.30 a 5 knot nor-noreaster propelled the fleet to the first mark. After an hour of testing light weather sailing, an old fashioned Sydney sea breeze had set in and the fleet all finished at high speed with plenty of time to consume lunch at the Basin. Jason Geddes showed
the benefit of local knowledge in taking line honours from Foxy with Steve Barton’s Big Bird taking out Seawind Division winner Endless Summer third place. Alan Brand sailing his F24 Zorro , showed the form that has seen him winning consistently on By race 2 start time of 2 pm, the breeze had turned Pittwater this year by taking out the handicap into a solid 25 knot southerly and while some of the honours. bigger boats were choosing whether to put in 1 or 2 reefs, the Foxy team were eagerly awaiting the start ready to blast away with full sail. And blast away they did, finishing in less than 90 minutes and a full 14 minutes ahead of the Farrier 31 007 , helmed by Ashoke Banerjee and Barry Allertz’s fast finishing Nusa Dua . Pre regatta favourites Robin and Kurt Ottawa had a frustrating time in the strong wind after their mainsail boltrope pulled away from the mast track and they lost time rehoisting their sail to full height.
Zorro
Mark Boin’s classic 37 foot Crowther trimaran, Aeolus took out handicap honours in cruising division. The Seawind winners were again Rohan Walters and the crew of Endless Summer .
Looking out into the Pittwater starting area off Mackerel Beach before race 4 had everyone salivating at the prospect of blasting around this Summit shows the way in lighter winds majestic waterway in 15 to 20 knots of steady seabreeze. I was now glad I was sailing in the racing The big cruisers relished the heavy conditions and division which would enjoy the much longer course to again Powerzone just beat home Te Arawa by a Juno point in the Hawkesbury before returning to the small margin. A perfect day’s racing was capped off
RMYC Broken Bay | Multihull Division Newsletter, Summer 2006-2007 | Page 2 of 5 www.royalmotor.com.au/multihulls/ Royal Motor finishing line. Rounding the spectacular In cruising division, John Power’s Powerzone took Lion Island and surfing the open waters of Broken out scratch and handicap honours while Rohan Bay in fresh conditions is exhilarating for even the Walter’s Seawind, Endless Summer won their one most seasoned multihull sailors and all boats from design division. Full results are at Farriers to Seawinds provided great rides for their http://www.royalmotor.com.au/multihulls/LCMR06- crews. results.html
Apparently the gung-ho Foxy crew were in In addition to APC Logistics, we wish to acknowledge permanent hull flying mode as they rounded West the generous support provided by Australian Yacht Head and had blown out 2 spinnakers before Winch Company, Australian Plastic Fabricators, finishing first ahead of Quickstep and Big Bird . On Barracouta Sails, Cottage Point Inn, Dimension PHS handicap though, it was the awesome Mighty Polyant, GM Sails, Harken, Hempel Marine, Hood Manfred sailed by David Bishop that came to the Sailmakers, Nautilus Insurance, Seawind fore. Foxy’s hull flying in this race paid off with the Catamarans, Summit Coatings, Tactical Directions, boat finishing second on PHS but it was Big Bird that Ultimate Media Group, Village Markets, Yachtserv. took the honours on OMR. Wangi Week Regatta
Five Pittwater boats - including temporary resident APC Max and honorary member XL2 - made the trek up to Lake Macquarie for the Wangi Regatta 19-24 November.
F-24s Off the Rails and Zorro made the journey on Tuesday of the previous week leaving in windless conditions early and experiencing strengthening nor- easters later in the day arriving in the lake about 5pm to be greeted by a broadly grinning sailboarding Tony Holt blasting across the water at about 20 knots in a ball of spray!
All in all a pleasant and relatively uneventful trip for Zorro , cross checking landmarks with the GPS and Big Bird on the fly communicating by radio with those marvellous and dedicated band of Coastal Patrol volunteers. The cruisers had a great race with Te Arawa and Powerzone finishing a dead heat for line honours with By Thursday, the wind had swung south with a Te Arawa claiming first on Handicap. Rohan Walter vengeance and APC Max, with Darren Drew on the capped off a very impressive display finishing again helm accompanied by Robin Ottowa and several in the Seawinds from David Milne’s Imagine . other fearless souls, set off for the Lake in 30 knots plus from behind! A rather wet ride by all accounts The regatta finished in fine style with the presentation with Max achieving speeds of 14 knots under bare dinner on the Sunday Night in the Royal Motor Yacht poles! Glad I left on Tuesday! Club’s main dining room. Final regatta positions saw Shane Russell’s Foxy take scratch and OMR in Big Bird arrived in Wangi late on the Saturday racing division and Barry Allertz on Nusa Dua taking evening after Steve Barton and his hardy crew out the PHS handicap. participated in a Pittwater to Newcastle race. Car trip back to Sydney that night then return on Sunday for the Wangi Invitation Race! How’s that for keen?
This is a fabulous sailing venue and a very well organised and very well patronised regatta. Also, we didn’t do too badly in the results. Zorro , 1st PHS, Division 2; Big Bird , 4 th OMR, Division 2; Off the Rails , 7th PHS, Division 2. Check out the full results and some great action shots at http://www.wangirslasc.yachting.org.au/
Regatta winner on PHS, Nusa Dua
RMYC Broken Bay | Multihull Division Newsletter, Summer 2006-2007 | Page 3 of 5 www.royalmotor.com.au/multihulls/ Pittwater Racing Anyhow there's a bit of trivia on our Lock Crowther sponsor and his early multihull days. Interestingly, Congratulations to Barry Allertz and team Nusa Dua Tony C and Tony Grainger spent the rest of that for their well-deserved win in the RMYC Spring regatta and the trip home discussing Tony Gs first multihull design, the 075 trimaran. Series Pointscore races. Second was David Bishop sailing Mighty Manfred and third Peter Cope on Renegade . This magnificently maintained Tony C had Wayne Barrett start building the all cruiser/racer is currently for sale. See conquering 075 'Born to Run' which was launched in http://www.royalmotor.com.au/multihulls/buy-sell.html 1986. If my memory serves me correctly Tony C is up to his 13th large Multi, number 13 being APC Max. We are now about halfway through the Summer Pointscore series with up to 12 boats regularly facing DD the starter. There are 17 multis contesting the Monday evening twilight series.
Where there’s a will…
Downright dogged determination, perseverance and a never say die attitude. All this and more in this blast from the past submitted by someone who must remain nameless about someone we don’t want to upset! Now read on.
In 1984 or 1985, Tony Considine, Tony Grainger and boatbuilder Wayne Barrett, hit a channel marker preparing for the Marlay Point overnight race and tore off one side of the main hull of Tony C’s Crowther Tony Considine surveying the damage Buccaneer 24 Tri 'Silverbird'.
Undeterred, they got the boat back to the shore, put Secret Weapon #1 out a call and about 30 guys turned up and carried the boat into the car park with rig in place. Wayne We’ve all listened sympathetically to Stephen Barton Barrett went to work under instruction from 'budding' ruing the fact that Big Bird is “under-rigged and could multihull designer Tony Grainger and repaired it that greatly benefit from another couple of metres on the day by drying it out with a camp fire underneath then rig”…or words to that effect. (This is despite the fact gluing, fibre glassing and screwing new ply onto her. that BB sails consistently competitively in the RMYC and other hot multi fleets...but never mind that!). Well The 30 guys returned the next morning and carried he’s now done something about it and bought a the boat back to the water and re-launched it ready to seriously damaged 10 metre tri which came to grief in race that morning. They went on and won line Yamba and transported all the good bits back to honours of the Multihull division of the Marlay Point Sydney with lots of help from Tony Holt. The bad bits race. Goes to show what can be done in a day’s were apparently chain-sawed up and despatched to work!!. the tip.
The boat lived on and last I knew it was in the back yard of a well known Victorian multihull family's home.
This particular boat just about won every trophy there was to win in the Victorian Multihull Yacht Club back in the mid 70s to mid 80s, including holding the record of the round French Island race, which was then 5 hours flat for the 50 mile race that is a round course with heaps of sand bars and incredible tide flow to navigate. French Island is in the middle of Western Port Bay. It took the well known 40 foot catamaran, Bagatelle to take that record away from 'Silverbird' in the late 80s or early 90s. I think Martyn Riley holds the record these days with his Raw To
The Core which is just under 4 hours.
To make the Bird fly even faster
RMYC Broken Bay | Multihull Division Newsletter, Summer 2006-2007 | Page 4 of 5 www.royalmotor.com.au/multihulls/ We now wait for the new rig to be fitted and for BB’s Secret Weapon #2 “re-birth”. In the meantime, employing some digital mischief, here is a before and after photo to see how After acquiring a couple of Burgess hulls from up the new BB might look with its bigger rig. (Sorry north, Peter Barron has been hard at work building about this Steve!) what sounds as though it might be a very competitive multi indeed. Due for launch around March/April if all goes to plan. Here’s a sneak preview.
Big Bird today Diary Dates
19-23 January – Southern Oceans Multihull Regatta (SOMR) See: http://www.mycv.asn.au/Blog/index.php
20-28 January – Skandia Geelong Week See: http://www.geelongweek.com.au/
26,27,28 th January – Wangi Australia Day Regatta. See: http://www.wangirslasc.yachting.org.au/
10 March – APC Logistics Marlay Point Overnight Race. See: http://www.lakewellingtonyachtclub.yachting.org.au/
BB tomorrow?
Good Sailing!
RMYC Broken Bay | Multihull Division Newsletter, Summer 2006-2007 | Page 5 of 5 www.royalmotor.com.au/multihulls/