This Way Up
By Sal Balharrie
A TEAM OF 8 WOMEN RACE FAIR WINDS
AT THE 2023 AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S KEELBOAT REGATTA WITH SURPRISING RESULTS.
Last weekend, Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron hosted the 31st Australian Women’s Keelboat Regatta (AWKR) on Port Phillip. 190 competitors from all over Australia - Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, NSW and the Northern Territory. If our goal is to get more women on the water this is a great start.
How can I convey to you the wonder of last weekend? How can I share the glow that comes from a team working together, building together, sailing together? I’m hoping you too have experienced the magic on your own boats or during your own sailing career. There is little that tops hoping into your bunk, mid regatta feeling your team has done it’s very best.
Mark and I are in the fortunate position of owning two boats – FAIR WINDS which we’ve sailed for over 22 years and the Sydney 38, NO MAN’S LAND (NML) which I bought in 2019 to race at AWKR with a team of women. Back in January, during the Festival of Sails a disappointing incident - where another competitor failed to read amendments to SI’s - found NML with a decent sized hole, amidships, and a lengthy insurance process. Long story short, the boat is currently on the hard in Sandringham.
With AWKR looming, co-chairs Mon Jones and Janet Dean did their all to help me find a competitive boat to race, one similar to NML. The thing was, after the incident at Geelong, my racing confidence was at a low ebb and the responsibility to race someone else’s boat weighed heavily. And then an idea dawned – why not race FAIR WINDS?
Mark was incredibly supportive. And so I decided to put it to my crew – we may not be competitive, but we’ll be the most beautiful boat on the water! I indicated that I respected their competitive natures and if they felt inclined to have a crack at a prize, I totally understood a decision to race on another boat.
But my crew was unanimous – after training on a 5.5 tonne fast, racing boat we’d race on a 14 tonne classic boat – together as one. This would be a NML take over of FAIR WINDS!
And so to my team. In the cockpit on trim, my sister Kylie – a gutsy, naturally talented sailor who has raced with NML since day one; and Tao, small and mighty, ninja like, wind whisperer; then give anything a go Petrina, also part of NML racing since day one; over to reliable and steady, detail orientated Jane; then on main sheet, always beside me, calm and focussed, my second daughter Sarah; at the mast the unflappable, rock and brains of Kim and finally on bow, our Rockstar, fix anything, solve any problem, wonder that she is – Jolene. There was one sad omission from the crew and that was Molly, who prioritised university over sailing – what the hell was she thinking???
Not making excuses but guess how many days we had training with the full team on FAIR WINDS? One. Yes you read that correctly. One, and it was not fantastic. We blew a kite when a piece of fabric got pinched in the topper sheve, two thirds up the mast. It was a mess requiring an hour up the mast, a new topper and the need to borrow an S1 from NML.
It feels stupid to compare a boat built in 2004 to a boat designed and built in 1956. The points are obvious – bronze and mahogany make everything heavier, harder and slower. FAIR WINDS has a lifting centreboard and a furling headsail – if the wind was big and we’d need to reef the heady, we’d be roughly 50 degrees off the breeze as opposed to sailing on NML with a #3 jib and maintaining height. On NML racing is all about managing heel angle, while on FAIR WINDS, we race with the gunnels underwater before feathering up into gusts.
It was definitely going to be a case of reining in our usual sense of competition and modifying our desire to do well…Or was it…
“Sal Balharrie threw a spanner in the works, steering her stunning Rhodes 633, FAIR WINDS (Vic), to a Race 4 win in Division 1 and then backed up for third in Race 5 to sit in fourth place.”
What we learned over the Regatta was that our skills are not tied to racing a Sydney 38, far from it – they are tied to us working together as a team, doing our jobs really well then focussing on what’s next. Our skills as sailors are transferrable.
When it came to AWKR 2023, there’s no doubt about it, the weather gods were in our favour with three days of moderate breeze and all from the north meaning flat water. Anything over 20 knots – experienced on day one in a couple of gusts – and we really struggled.
Three races on Day One also offered us invaluable experience on the start line. Those who race with me, know I’m a start junkie. It’s my favourite part of bay racing. I love the strategizing and get carving a position. On NML flipping and repositioning is a simple process – we can do it on a dime. Positioning FAIR WINDS was a completely different kettle of fish. Day One and starts improved incrementally along with my confidence and that of the crew. Day Two and Three and our starts were text book, hitting the line at full throttle, with clean air and with no one underneath to push us up. Sarah and Kylie helped call tactics and by the end of Day Two we were fourth overall and thinking of a podium finish.
“Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron's (RMYS) annual event has turned into a nail biter with the leads in Division 1 and Division 2 on a roller coaster ride. Tomorrow's final race will decide the outcome of these divisions and the S80 division….”
And so Day Three and only one race to go. After our best start of the regatta, we pushed it hard reaching the top mark at a time and place that surprised everyone – including ourselves and an Adams 10 who called Starboard, when maybe they didn’t have to and then a Protest when maybe they didn’t have to and we obliged when maybe we shouldn’t have and undertook a 360 to do the right thing and that was the end of that.
Fourth Overall and we were happy. Very, very happy. Swanky gin and tonic and always good cheese in the saloon of FAIR WINDS and we were on cloud 9 – so proud of ourselves.
At some point, Mark said – it’s not about the fashion and the food. But hey, we’re chix with a menu created by Café Tao – her sandwiches are INCREDIBLE and worthy of both discussion and immense anticipation – and NML is sponsored by HELLY HANSEN – so damn we look fine!
If you’d told me a month ago that we’d place fourth overall at the AWKR racing FAIR WINDS I’d have said you were dreaming. Perhaps I still am.
All links to articles by DI PEARSON on SAIL WORLD - with thanks.
Thanks to ANDREA FRANCOLINI for his incredible images and enormous support of female sailors.