Fremantle is in the middle of a busy fortnight of sailing. Last weekend, 130 yachts of various models and size filled the Fremantle Sailing Clubs rigging lawn in preparation for Sail Freo.

Saturday, from 9am off North Mole, the 48 nautical mile Rockwater Coventry Reef Race commences.
 

Sunday, from 1pm, the Fremantle Port comes alive with some of WA’s biggest racing yachts. They’ll be pushing the clearances between the carbon fibre of hulls and masts and the unmoving and unforgiving rigidity of the concrete piers in the annual and action packed Harbour Classic. And, he is off again. Jon Sanders leaves on his 11th solo circumnavigation of the globe.

Jon will clear customs at FSC around 9am and will join a flotilla of spectator and support vessels, marshalled at Bathers Beach from 11am. He will then lead them through the Fremantle Harbour for a sail past at 12 noon before setting the compass on Mauritius and sailing over the horizon as the Harbour Classic commences.

Jon Sanders has joined forces with No Plastic Waste for this voyage where he will be collecting samples along his journey for later analysis for microscopic plastic particles in our oceans. We wish him and his numerous land based support crew all the best and safe travels.

The Fremantle Port’s prime viewing and amply parking along the foreshore will have a spine tingling atmosphere with the coincidence of these events. The Harbour Classic is an amazing spectacle as it’s the only sailing event of its kind and is an invitational event for Perth’s best to compete. It is a ‘Pursuit Race’ confined to the inner harbour showcasing exceptional sailing and excitement at every turn.

Reports in from Sail Freo declared the event another rousing success.

Local photographer and sailing enthusiast, Rick Steuart from Perth Sailing Photography, was on the water camera in hand for the whole event.

From his report after Day 1:

“A fantastic day that ran like clockwork with two courses ticking over nicely” said Mr Steuart. “We had an early breeze out of the west-southwest that hung left a little, but never threatened to blow our socks off. A steady 12 to 15 knots made it great for all the classes and even the intermediate Optimists were enjoying the day without wishing to retire because it was blowing too hard” he continued.

“Welcome of course to the Etchell and Viper fleets who haven’t been on the course in my memory, but they both had plenty of players and it was good to see that the Etchells had decided to pack one or two of the boats with some of the younger crowd. No holds barred of course; age and experience will whip the youngsters normally, but then there’s still tomorrow to prove the adage wrong.”

“Amongst the fleets, it’s been great to see some of the younger crowd returning from the overseas programs and there have been one or two surprises, but I’ll let you check the results from day one to find out. Welcome also to a Korean Team who have come over to sail the event with two 420’s and a couple of Optimists. And they are good.”

“Sam Blackburn of FSC set up the event very well and there wasn’t a problem on the day. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
From Rick’s day 2 report:

“Once again the sun shone on the ocean off Fremantle, but the weather wasn’t as kind to us this time. A Northeaster was in evidence and while Alpha course got underway and was successful in racking up five races in varying conditions, the big boats out on Bravo had to hang around after the first race until a vague sort of a Westerly wandered its way across from Garden Island and finally settled into a pattern recognisable as a quasi seabreeze. But it was cooler on the water than on shore and while it hit 37 degrees in the city, a little swim helped pass the time for the 29ers.”

“Moving on to the racing and the inclusion of the Etchells and a couple of youth teams brought about a bit of a change in the order and while Chris Pratt took the win over all, Mark Whittington of FSC piloted his boat into third place and probably rued missing the first two races of day one, for a chance to further reduce his score. The Vipers had Rod Beurteaux in a winning mood and the 505’s could only stand in awe of Chris Paterson who was busy erecting a picket fence ( if you discount a couple of bad ones). Axel Fleet in the 29ers took no prisoners in the racing with the Joyner bros taking the only win in the series from him. The Contenders only had two players in the regatta who sailed the whole series and Simon Barwood and Richard Shallcross were the first and second respectively.”

“The Standard Lasers fell to Zac Littlewood, who relished the conditions and didn’t miss a trick all weekend, however Stefan Elliot -Shircore had to fight off hard working Jacinta Ainsworth in the Radials with Mike Compton putting this regatta down as one to improve on. The 4.7’s had Toby Coote out front and I’ll bet that the rest of the fleet is waiting for him to don a Radial sail and challenge the next fleet up. In the Silver fleet of the Optimists Lucas Brans did well to secure a tight overall win and Aaron Teo did a good job on his own picket fence in the Open class against a strong field of 28 boats. The O’pen skiff class had Lachlan Putt sail well to take the win and the Bic Techno’s had hard working Jake Hindmarsh wear himself out taking the wins, eventually succumbing to William McAullay in the last race giving him a well earned win. The Flying Ants had a nice threesome on the race track and Xavier Bates and crew were clear winners on the day. The 420’s had visitors from Korea ( as did the Opti’s and the Standard Lasers ) and they proved to be too strong for the locals with Kim Sunho sharing the lead with his country man Lee Sanghyeok taking second place.”

“And no, I’ve not forgotten the SB20’s, two boats battled out the series with Roger Britain taking the win over David Nelson, though I did see the name Keogh mentioned somewhere.”

“A great regatta nonetheless and congratulations to RO of Alpha Course Paul Harford and his team with RO John McKechnie and his team doing well out on Bravo. Many thanks to retiring Sailing Manager, Travis Burtenshaw who piloted me around for the weekend and to the volunteers of the canteen and those who supplied us with food and drinks. Mustn’t forget Sam Blackburn, the dinghy administrator who really had the event under control. Nice work Sam.”
“But I couldn’t signoff without thanking the sailors without whom we wouldn’t have had an event.”

Full results at www.fsc.com.au.
View all the colourful action shots at perthsailingphotography.weebly.com.

Links:
Images: https://perthsailingphotography.weebly.com/sail-freo-2019.html

Jon Sanders:
https://news.curtin.edu.au/media-releases/jon-sanders-11th-world-voyage-to-help-measure-ocean-pollution/