What do West Australian Sailors do when the Sydney to Hobart gets cancelled. They head to the Cockburn Sound Regatta held on the protected waters of Mangles Bay, off Rockingham. This annual event is held over the four days between Boxing Day and New Years Eve and this year the light and hot conditions provided some challenging racing.

The feeder race sponsored by the Kwinana Industries Council provided all northern vessels an option for bragging rights at the bar the first night. As all sailors know, if you have more than one boat going in the same direction, you may as well have a race. Several left early to beat the gusty 30+ knot winds but 16 braved the conditions for the 14 nautical mile sprint south. Ray Martin’s “Beatrix” took line honours by almost 30 minutes with celebrations short lived as they learnt they hadn’t sailed the actual course, resulting in them graciously retiring.

56 boats competed this year. Ocean Sailor Anthony Kirke and crew decided to stretch the legs of their new Botin & Carkeek GP42 “Enterprise NG” with spectacular results wining Division 1. Consistency results: “Freedom” of Steven Morris (TCYC) won Division 2. “King Canute” of Matt Rose (SoPYC) won Division 3. “Southern Star” of Noel Murphy won JAM 1. “Sand Crabs Disco” of Graeme Martin (FSC) won JAM 2. “Naw the Noo” of Dave Reid (TCYC) won JAM 3. “Retuned” of Brett Fannon (RFBYC) wining Sports Boats and “Quoll II” of Tim Hawkins (TCYC) winning Premier Cruising Multihulls.

Regatta Champion is decided by a closely guarded formula using total boats across all divisions and each boats total score. “Southern Star” was the shining light who prevailed by the narrowest of margins to win the CSR for 2020. Visit tcyc.com.au and sportspage.com.au for all the images and results.

Warren Erasmus

The Sunday Times WA – Outdoor Explorer! Section - Around the Buoys Column
Images: John Percy (TCYC - Facebook)