Hobie Cats

That’s short for the Ultimate Sailing Championship.

Where winners are decided not in the most glamorous conditions where brute force wins all, but rather in lighter air and strong tide, where finesse and delicacy are how you get the chocolates.

Yes, the whole weekend was a classic Rosebud-in-light-air kinda few days. Each morning the wind would appear, lulling us into a false sense of security on how good the day would look. 10 knots and clear skies – the perfect combo. But then the wind each day went yeah nah and packed its bags. Each day was a carbon copy – strong run-in tide in the morning switching to insane run-out tide in the afternoon. The wind was even almost identical – north-easterly, zephyr-like conditions. We could have left the marks in the same place overnight and saved the duty crews some work.

Day one started out well, with briefing and then out there to race. Those new to the area discovered the joys of tide at Rosebud, while others like Geoff Fiske powered through the beginnings of the race. Unfortunately, the wind totally died out and the majority of the fleet were timed out beyond one hour, and were then towed back to shore. No matter, the souva meat was rotating faster than the boats were moving, so a fun night was had by all. However don’t expect to see anybody on the next series of The Voice.

Day two began with 4 quick races and then back in for lunch, followed by 2 more races after lunch. As the tide played with sailors people were hitting marks left, right and centre – even the finish mark got a touch by a boat, causing that person to win ‘biggest stuff up of the event’. Seriously, of all the marks to hit out there, my advice for everyone is to avoid that one.

The evening was also good fun, and while most of the Hobie team disappeared to the bar, those who stayed behind were joined by large numbers of Rosebud members who enjoyed sitting around and shooting the (lack of) breeze in a warm evening, catching up and sharing many laughs. Sadly the evening came to a literal screaming halt when Tom Beeson got stung by a bee on the hand at 10pm. What kind of bee is still awake at that hour??

Finally, Monday morning arrived, and so did the breeze. We rubbed our hands together, everyone was all smiles, and 15 knots was here. Sensational.

And then the sun came out from behind the clouds.

And then the wind, once again, said peace out. And sailors were left out there wondering what happened when it went from 10 knots to 1.5 in the space of 10 minutes. The wind absolutely vanished. So get the tow lines out, once again it was time to bring the fleet back in.

Racing was then abandoned for the day and presentation happened. In spite of the wind, the Hobie team said they had a wonderful regatta and felt part of the Rosebud family – something we set out to do from the beginning. They said we had incredible race management, and were super happy with every decision that was made. And the final results?

Grand Master winner – Ian and Wendy Ludwick

First female skipper – Kylie Balmain

Overall results: Geoff Fiske (5) in Hobie 14 Turbo

Guy Kerr (6) – Standard Hobie 14

Ian and Wendy Ludwick (8), Kylie Balmain/Ray McKenna/Mark Purcell (9) – Hobie 16

Congratulations to all competitors, but it was once again wonderful to see Rosebud YC boats represent at state titles! Let’s keep this momentum going and engaging in different things. As Ian Ludwick said – “I didn’t win overall, but I learnt so much this weekend.” And that’s what I’ve been prattling on about for the past few years, so get out there!

Of course, I also want to thank all volunteers across the weekend – there were 35 of you who put your hands up to give up time and make this event happen. Big notes go out to John Mather/Jennie Mather and Gary Purcell for their use of personal equipment, our P.R.O. Sean Purcell, Kyle and Paul Beeson for their amazing support and Johnny-on-the-spot attitude all weekend, and also all of our amazing Canteen staff for their time in the kitchen to keep everyone fed. Thank you all!

Finally, one big thing worth mentioning – In the next 5-10 years, Rosebud will undergo a massive shift in knowledge, from one generation to another. The best part of the weekend? Seeing people either new to sailing or new to hosting state titles learn different jobs and what is involved in running events, even at a club level. From Archie Balmain/Mark Purcell on rescue 4, to Matt Hakopian/Jana Beeson/Ben Prior/Jo Riley learning about how to run a rescue boat and what to look out for, all the way to Richard Aspinall in the tower and Colin Moffitt doing canteen, people were LEARNING about jobs they haven’t done before. And that is more important than anything else, so well done.

This is only a snapshot of the weekend, but I hope it gives you a sense of what happened.

Oh and if you are looking for me this Sunday, I’ll be busy sailing my boat. Hopefully in some wind!

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