Even thought the weather has not been showing it, this weekend was the opener for the winter sailing season with the Audi Centre Sydney Ladies Day Race 1.
The Ladies Day Series will consist of three races spread throughout the season. First being the season opener, second on the Queens Birthday long weekend and the final being the closing weekend of the season.
With the only requirement for entering the racing that there has to be a female skipper it means that there can be a mix of crews and even some male members with some disguises brought out for the occasion.
The first Ladies Day race was greeted with warm, sunny but also tricky conditions with 8-10 knots sending the competitors on a full course around the harbour. With the moderate wind, it meant that there were many tactical decisions to be made with gains and losses being felt throughout the whole fleet.
In the spinnaker division Janey Treleaven onboard her Farr40 Finn was able to take the win in Div 1 with a majority female crew.
Janey explained, “So the philosophy I have is that I want to sail with majority female crew, I want to create opportunities for my female friends that they possibly wouldn’t have on other boats. They do however also acknowledge that having a couple of guys around now and then is actually quite nice. Maybe in positions like mast. We had Hugo who’s awesome on the bow, who did have a ‘princess’ moment.”
For Janey and her team it is a great start to a season of learning and training, before heading towards the competitive one design Farr40 class next summer with a predominantly female crew.
“Winter Series is our time to perfect our spinnaker work and crew work, in a hope for doing the full one design series which kicks of usually in September with a social regatta. We want to be ready to do that. It will definitely be with the same crew and the same philosophy heading in to the one design racing.”
Even with the tricky conditions there was no margin for error with only 34 seconds separating Janey and her team on Finn with second place Quest, skippered by Michelle Mrjden.
In Div 2 Melissa Geeves on Speedwell was victorious ahead on Susan Hardy on Clewless and Stephanie Cook on MortgageChoice Rumba.
Non spinnaker saw Mary King on Solymar take out Div 1 ahead of Noni Stuart on Highfield Caringbah and Victoria Kellett on Sydney.
Div 2 had Eli Wallis on L’Attitude on top ahead of Herman Heiligers Hubcap2 and Kim Clinton on Holy Cow!
Next week will hopefully see more spectacular Sydney winter conditions with Race 1 of the Audi Centre Sydney Winter Series.
Full results can be seen on the CYCA results page.
