Watch the boom, starboard, weight up, who’s on the winch, ready for a gybe? TACKING……!

These are all terms thrown frivolously around during the recent 4th Annual Northern Territory Women’s Regatta.

56 women aged from 16yrs to 77yrs including 5 interstate teams made up of 2 teams from the South Australian Yacht Squadron, 2 teams from Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron and 1 team from Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron. The remaining crews were made up of the amazing lady sailors from Darwin Sailing Club.

The weather gods clearly thought they would have a little bit of cheeky fun with their forecasts for the 3-day event. With temperatures forecast of 24-32 deg, they actually managed to get this spot on however their wind forecast of between 10-15 knts was far from what we actually experienced.

Friday morning had us hoisting sails in 15-20 knts gusting to 22knts and this stayed with us until, of course, the RO sent Div 1 & 2 out on a harbour course where the winds dropped to 4knts on the way to 9 buoy. This made for a slow rounding and a tricky leg to submarine buoy before the sea breeze finally arrived and again gusting up to 20knts providing a bumpy ride to E buoy.

The Div 3 Multis a little luckier, were seen to be heading to O Buoy flying a kite and retuned also under kite.

Saturday and Sunday saw similar wind conditions proving it tricky for some boats to compete.

Although some of the interstate teams may be used to these windy conditions, the wind shifts we experienced throughout the weekend certainly made it challenging for all skippers and crew and had the girls exhausted at the end of each day.

In true fashion, it wouldn’t be a regatta without a spinnaker incident and this certainly rang true this weekend where we saw not only a spinnaker sink into the aqua colours of Fannie Bay but also wrap it self snuggly around the keel. The retrieval of said spinnaker was carefully enacted by what looked like synchronised swans, or maybe swamp ducks, by one of our rib drivers and the official photographer for the weekend. Needless to say, there is no pics of the duck dive.

Another eventful moment was the lady overboard incident. Credit to the swimmer, in the interest of getting her team across the line first, after re-surfacing she was heard to say to her crew not to pick her up, but to continue on. So they did! Not realising this would eventually get them disqualified from the race. Which they were!

The social events for the weekend were second to none with Darwin laying it all on for our interstate guests and showcasing some amazing sunsets each night. A huge shout out to DSC’s very own members Sarah and Ida for laying on the spectacular food for Friday night’s BBQ held in Donny’s Den. All competitors had a great night and were still talking about this at stumps on Sunday night.

The weekend culminated with the presentation on Sunday night which saw:

Division 1 taken out by Katrina Harding (DSC) Evolution NT
Division 2 taken out by Fiona McManus (DSC) on Calypso
Division 3 taken out by Deb Negus & Jaye Whitley (DSC) on Cockatoo
Division 4 taken out by Sophie Hunt (RSYS) Elliotts.

Credit goes to all competitors, in particular the first time crew members and the first time skippers in the NTWR, we hope to see you again in 2024.

Overall a hugely successful weekend with interstate crews already planning their next NTWR.

This event could not have been made possible without our major sponsor Magnum Serviced Apartments and all the businesses around the local Darwin area who donated prizes in the lead up to and over the course of the weekend:. Readback Art Gallery, Sail Darwin, Embella Jewelley, Bumble Bean Chocolates, Darwin Distilling Co and Laneway Coffee.

Along with these very generous donations, this regatta would not have been possible without the tireless effort of our PRO, Peter Bracken, and the other 21 volunteers who gave their time to be involved in this event, and the boat owners Stuart Atwell (So What!), Grant Davis (The Cleaning Lady) and Tarci (Monkey Mia) . To these men and women……. We salute you!