102 races in two Docklands days
01 Apr 2010
The Victoria Harbour Schools Sailing Championship at Docklands last month packed 102 races into two school days to select Victoria’s best secondary school sailing team.
And the winner in the final race of the series, by just one point, and determined by the last two boats in the last race was St Bedes over last year’s winners Haileybury. St Bedes will go on to represent Victoria at the nationals in July in Adelaide.
Victoria Harbour again provided a great venue for the regatta. It was a great sight – as students, their coaches, club officials, parents and the public aboard the Lady Cutler cheered their teams at close quarters. And it was a great location for the promotion of sailing as the three fleets of six boats with their team-based coloured sail kept the action going – right in front of the office windows of the Melbourne business district, and the pedestrians of the Docklands precinct.
The St Bedes team was captained by James Sly, a member of the Victorian Junior Sports Team of the Year, an award he won from all sports in Victoria, as part of a successful 29er campaign over the last few years.
The high speed action for the two days was co-ordinated by Andy Hunting, a past successful schools teams sailor. It was Andy’s great organising skill, together with a fleet of 18 YV Pacers from the Boat Shed that enabled quick changeovers and continuous racing in a round robin format from 10am to 4pm each day. The breezes helped too, a light northerly for the first day and an even lighter southerly for the Friday.
The regatta was organised by Yachting Victoria and hosted by the quickly-developing Docklands Yacht Club which is working towards a greater future role in hosting teams racing regattas.
The Victoria Harbour Schools Sailing Championship is in its third year and is sponsored by Lend Lease and the City of Melbourne.
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