Quiet Weekend Sailing over as Sydney Racing Begins

'Twilights will start early - at the CYCA on 1 October' Peter Campbell &copy Click Here to view large photo

The quiet weekend sail is over for another season. Sydney Harbour again will be a sea of sail next Saturday, 6 September, when the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club, Sydney Amateur Sailing Club and Middle Harbour Yacht Club begin their club yacht racing programmes for the summer of 2008-2009.

All clubs report keen interest in mixed racer/racer divisions and in one-design classes, the International Dragon class enjoying a resurgence of interest with the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron hosting the prestigious Prince Philip Cup on the Harbour in early January.

Racing will be intense in the International Etchells fleet racing with the Squadron as skippers seek to qualify for the Audi World Championships on Melbourne's Port Phillip March 2009.

The first offshore race of the summer will be the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club's Lion Island Race on Saturday, 13 September, with the CYCA's offshore racing program getting under way with the Blue Water Pointscore overnight race to Bird Island and return starting on Friday, 26 September.

This will be the 147th sailing season for the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, a remarkable history that dates back to 8 July 1862 when nineteen yachtsmen met in the office a Sydney merchant, the Honourable William Walker, in the Exchange Building and subscribed their names to a resolution:

'We, the undersigned yacht owners, hereby constitute ourselves into a club to be termed the Australian Yacht Club.'

Within a year, the club was accorded Royal patronage by the Prince of Wales, under the name of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

The past 146 seasons of yacht racing with the Squadron is an historical record of the development of the sport in New South Wales and, indeed Australia-wide, from gaff-rigged wooden or steel-hulled cutters and schooners to the very latest racing sloops with carbon fibre hulls and rigs, even sails of exotic materials developed through the space age.

Famous gaff-rigger Ranger will compete in the Gaffers Day - Peter Campbell &copy Click Here to view large photo

The Squadron was Australia's first challenger for the America's Cup with the 12-metre class yacht Gretel in 1962 and was deeply involved in race management for the sailing Regatta of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. Each year the Squadron hosts national and state championship, this year conducting the Prince Philip Cup, the Farr 40 Australian Championships, the Hardy Cup and other major events.

The Squadron, in association with the RPEYC, will open its spring/summer pointscore on Saturday with racing in four mixed handicap divisions, Etchells, Dragons and Yngling. The traditional Opening Day and Sail Past will be held on Sunday, 21 September.

Middle Harbour's racing programme also starts this coming Saturday with three mixed divisions, plus an Open division, Adams 10 and J24 one-design divisions. Opening Day will be Sunday 14 September.

MHYC conducts two major interclub events - the Savills Short Ocean Championships over the weekend of 29-30 November for offshore racing boats and the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta over the weekend of 7-8 March next year for offshore and inshore racing yachts.

Sydney Amateur Sailing Club will hold its Opening Day Regatta, a non-pointscore event, this coming Saturday. The following Saturday the club will run its only offshore race of the summer, the Lion Island Race, with the club pointscore racing starting on Saturday, 20 September with its popular Super 30, Cavalier 28, No 2 cruiser/racer and Classic Yachts divisions.

The Amateur's other big event is the Gaffers Day on Sunday 19 October, a wonderfully nostalgic rally for boats that 'hoist a spar' or are recognised as classic yachts. Some are a century - or more - old!

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's Monica Geddes Memorial Harbour Islands Race on Sunday, 21 September will be the club's traditional summer Opening Day event. The first offshore race of the summer will be the Blue Water Pointscore overnight Bird Island race starting on Friday evening, 26 September, followed by an Ocean Pointscore Race to Lion Island return next day.

The first Short Ocean Pointscore race will be on Saturday, 4 October.

As always, November and December will be big months for the CYCA. The club will host the Rotary Charity Regatta on 14 November, a Farr regatta on 15-16 November and the Bavaria Yachts International Youth Match Racing Regatta from 24-28 November.

In December, the CYCA will run the Rolex Trophy - One Design Series from 12-14 December followed by the Rolex Trophy - Rating Series from 18-21 December. In between, the Solas Big Challenge, a maxi boat Harbour race, will be held on Tuesday, 16 December.

Then, as always, on Boxing Day, 26 December the CYCA's Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race will get under way with a fleet of more than 80 boats expected to contest this famous international ocean yacht race.

Whilst most of the ocean racing yachts will be heading south, many will head north on 2 January in the Pittwater Coffs Harbour Race.

Middle Harbour Yacht Club boasts that it runs the only racing event held 52 weeks of the years - its Wednesday afternoon, non-spinnaker race starting and finishing off the clubhouse just the seaward side of the Spit Bridge.

However, Wednesday afternoon racing is available almost as consistently up the Harbour, with RANSA (Royal Australian Navy Sailing Association) continuing its Winter Wednesday programme through to the end of September. Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club then takes over with Wednesday afternoon races starting and finishing off the Point Piper clubhouse throughout the summer, except for the Christmas-New Year break.

Twilight racing, now the most popular form of yacht racing in Sydney, is set for its biggest summer ever with Daylight Saving being extended to start in New South Wales on 1 October and extending through to early April next year.

The CYCA will be first off the mark with its opening St Arnou Twilight Race scheduled for Wednesday, 1 October. Most other clubs also have extended their Twilight Racing programs, MHYC on Thursday evenings, RANSA, RSYS and SASC out on Friday evenings.

While this summer will be the RSYS's 147th season of summer racing on Sydney Harbour, 26 January 2009 will mark the running of the world's oldest, continuously held regatta in the world - the 173rd Australia Day Regatta.

Yes, it's time for cruising yachts wanting a little tacking room, without people yelling 'STARBOARD!' every five minutes, to sail up to the relative quiet of Broken Bay. Up there, there are usually only two club races during the weekends, those of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club and the Royal Motor Yacht Club