Point the way to victory
THERE will be some exciting sailing at Pittwater on Hobart’s Eastern Shore this weekend, with visitors welcome to view the action from the Midway Point Yacht Club.
The club, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and was named Tasmanian Yacht Club of the Year in 2017, is hosting the state titles of the increasingly popular B14 class today and tomorrow.
MPYC Commodore Michael Verrier said the club had a long history of running state and national dinghy and skiff events, and its facilities had been upgraded to give spectators an unfettered view of the whole race course.
He said visitors were more than welcome, with racing starting at 1pm today and at noon tomorrow.
The Midway Point Yacht Club is accessed off Brady St, Midway Point. SADLY we must record the passing of two well-known ocean-racing owner/skippers, Bart Ryan and George Mottle.
Bart died, aged 92, in Hobart, where he retired in recent years.
George passed away in Prague, from where had migrated to Australia as a young man.
Both were outstanding ocean-racing yachtsmen who brought their colourful personalities to the sport.
Bart Ryan joined the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in the mid-1970s and was one of those Corinthian owners who for many years made up the bulk of the offshore racing fleet, back in the days before sponsorship and professional sailing.
He was also variously a member also of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.
The first of Bart’s 12 Hobart races was aboard Noryema (Great Britain) in 1975, but over the years he owned the one-tonners Betula and Streaker, then the two-tonner Adrenalin, the former New Zealand yacht Inca, followed by several cruising boats, including a former cray boat he cruised to New Guinea, New Caledonia and around Tasmania.
George Mottle, who was also in his 90s, was well known at Pittwater, north of Sydney, where he and his family lived in a house once owned by actor Chips Rafferty.
George is best remembered for the Mottle 33, a cruiser/ racer he designed in association with naval architect Joe Adams.
He was an accomplished, albeit daring, ocean-racing yachtsman who sailed his last Sydney-Hobart in his mid-80s aboard Impeccable. George’s son, Michael, became an Olympic sailor. THE Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania has been invited to nominate a team to contest the inaugural Australian National Sailing League regatta on Sydney next month and is seeking expressions of interest from “serious sailors’’.
Olympic gold medallist Mark Turnbull heads a group developing a National Sailing League in Australia, designed to mirror the Sailing Champions League in Europe.
The object is to achieve a winning Australian club team, which could go up against the best sailing club in Europe, where club versus club contests have attracted more than 3000 top-level sailors from major clubs.
The racing takes place in a supplied fleet of one-design boats and is conducted in a 12to 15-minute umpired fleet race format, with the top six clubs going through to a knockout finals series.
Here is a link to a YouTube video showing how the Sailing Champions League has developed in Europe: www.youtube.com/watch? v=yGEUDY4qpJk&feature= youtube
The Australian National Sailing League will use the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s fleet of Elliot 7s, with the inaugural competition on Sydney Harbour next month.
The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmanian has been invited to nominate a team, with sailing manager Nick Hutton announcing the club was seeking expressions of interest from “serious racers who would like to represent the RYCT in this event”.
“Teams can be open, women’s or youth,’’ Hutton said. “An open team will consist of four sailors, one of which must be female. The women’s and youth teams will consist of five sailors.
“All members of a youth team must be under the age of 21, and all team members must be members of the RYCT.”
The National Sailing League championship event will take place on Sydney Harbour from April 25-29. For more details, download the YouTube video and contact Nick Hutton at the RYCT, sailing@ryct.org.au