(Melbourne, Australia)- The Australian Women’s Keelboat Regatta (AWKR)
is an annual regatta hosted by Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron on Port
Phillip Bay, Melbourne Australia held on the long weekend in June. It is
the only “all women” regatta in Australia and this year attracted 25
boats. The regatta is run over three days and consists of six races that
form a series of mostly windward-leeward races. Here is the story from
Sally Crowley, she sailed the event as skipper on her J/122 JAVELIN
with an all-women’s crew:“I had hoped to participate in the regatta for 2 years and decided that 2017 was the year. Meanwhile, my husband and I had been looking for a J/122 for some time when ‘Javelin’ came up for sale. The J/122’s size, layout and pedigree was very appealing for the type of bay and offshore racing we are keen to pursue in Queensland, so we flew to Melbourne for a test sail and knew straight away this was the boat for us!
Having taken delivery of ‘Javelin’ at the end of April, I formed a crew of 9 from various Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron boats, including 3 crew from the J/130 ‘Ragtime’, skippered by Chris Morgan. Chris kindly allowed us to train on Ragtime to become familiar with the “J” layout prior to the regatta. The crew and I also flew to Melbourne for a training weekend in mid-May knowing our next trip down would be for the AWKR.
June
8th saw our arrival for the regatta where we were greeted with light
winds that stayed for the whole regatta. Besides being my first regatta
as skipper, our biggest challenge was to keep the boat moving to compete
against many smaller and lighter boats. Out came our largest sails,
the number 2 headsail and the A3 spinnaker for the whole regatta. Day
one saw a call for 3 races from the RO placing us 1st overall on EHC
Div-1 and 3rd on IRC Div-1. Day 2 more light winds and a longer course
on Race 5, it was a long day but we managed to keep ‘Javelin’ moving by
keeping the crew forward and leeward on the downwind legs and bunched up
amidships and leeward on the windward legs. We finished the day 2nd
overall on EHC by 1 point and 3rd overall in IRC. Day 3 and a 10-15kts
westerly greeted us 20 minutes before the start and the boat livened up
ready for a great J/Boat day. This breeze was short lived and we then
faced a final 6th race with sub 5 kts and a need to make sure we
finished at least 2 places ahead of the Melges 32 ‘Envyus’. The final
downwind run saw the best crew work of the regatta with an almost 180
degree wind shift, a challenging spinnaker drop in 14 kts of breeze TWA
of 45 degrees to turn the downwind run to the finish into a shy 
reach.
Finally, ‘Javelin’ was able to come into her own, landing us in 1st
position to take out the EHC Div-1 trophy for the regatta and 3rd
overall on IRC Div-1!It was a pleasure to skipper such a wonderful group of women ranging in experience from 6 months to decades and thanks go to Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron members and staff who supported our campaign and the generous advice of our more experienced crew members who helped us win.
Delivery of ‘Javelin’ to her new home at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron is planned in the coming week (approx. 1,000nm). Next splashes out are the Brisbane to Keppel Cat-2 race in August followed by Hamilton Island Race week, with 3 J/Boats already entered in IRC Passage.” Sailing photo credits- Bruno Cocozza Add to Flipboard Magazine.
|
