Maggie Race Week 2015

One of the activities I’m really lucky to get to do in Townsville, Qld, is sailing. I go sailing on cruising yachts on most Wednesday evenings, and we have a leisurely ‘race’ (it is not taken very seriously) around a fixed triangular circuit. Occasionally we have come first, and have been presented with a bottle of Bundaberg Rum for the achievement.

Anyone is welcome to come along and put their name on the notice board to be allocated to a boat – this is how I got started – so every week there is a different crew, often of different nationalities, making it a great social occasion as well.

My first time sailing on a yacht

After a few months of regularly sailing on the same yacht, a Catalina 400 named Freya, I was told that I was regarded as part of the crew now, and as such I was invited to crew for the yacht in a proper race regatta, the Sealink Magnetic Island Race Week. What an honour! I was very excited and agreed straightaway.

Not having much spare money, unlike the other yachties in their luxury apartments for the week, I opted to camp at the YHA campsite on the island. I had a large tent though and a decent camp stretcher, so along with a cheap clothes rail and a handy camping chair, I made a pretty comfortable set up.

The racing took place over different courses each day, and the Saturday course was a circuit around the whole Island, which in the light winds we had took pretty much the whole day. Unlike the usual Wednesday night sailing, where whoever turns up works at whatever they are needed for, in the proper racing each of the crew had their own specific roles. Mine was a new role for me, working the foredeck. My tasks were to assist the headsail across when tacking a jibing the yacht, and to work with the spinnaker - raising, lowering and jibing it as required, all of which I had to learn on the job as we had never used the spinnaker on a Wednesday night sail!

Some of the crew

Some of the fleet, with Magnetic Island in the background

Me at my post by the mast!

My view when I was needed at the rails

Every evening there was entertainment laid on as part of the Race Week, and this was really great fun to be a part of, especially the night of the crew party where there were silly games to play for small prizes – I won a pair of sailing gloves in one such game, which was perfect as I needed a pair of my own, my borrowed pair being pretty worn out and much too big! The fun wasn't confined to shore though, and there was plenty of fancy dress going on on the yachts too as they left and reentered the marina. Some even had different themes for each day. Ours was perhaps not the most imaginative, but it went down pretty well with onlookers!

We didn’t get any high places in any race, being a cruiser rather than a racer, but it was so great to get out there as part of a team, to have my own job to do and feel myself getting better and better at it as each race progressed. 

Springing to action on the foredeck

With the spinnaker flying

It felt pretty magical to be out on the sea, at one with the wind and the water, watching the birds and occasionally spotting a dolphin, feeling so lucky to have this opportunity.