As the dry season started so did the Arafura Games. The multi-sport event held in Darwin from April 26 – May 4 attracted over 1500 athletes from 40+ nations across the Asia Pacific Region after an 8yr hiatus. Sailing participated as an Open Grade 3 Match Racing event using the Darwin Sailing Club Elliot 7 fleet.

After some last minute withdrawals there were 8 teams that competed from across Australia and overseas. An unexpected statistic was that women outweighed the men and included 2 all-female crews - India and NZL.

Unusually light winds and rain couldn’t hamper the sailing. Day 1 saw some curve balls as the rudder stock on one of the boats snapped clean off on the way to race 1! With some quick thinking, coordination and rallying of help the boat was able to be relaunched within 24hrs with a borrowed rudder from CYC in Sydney & personally flown in at late notice – not a bad effort. This meant a slow start to the round robin with only 3 boats in action. The race committee did an outstanding job to get as much in as possible.

With the Bosun and his helpers at work after the midnight arrival of the rudder there were again 4 boats on the water for Day 2.  Light winds stopped racing for a few hours with one of the races abandoned twice as the breeze struggled to arrive and crews took to swimming in order to cool off from the heat.

The end of the round robins saw a three way tie for 6^th place between NSW, Singapore & NT Open teams.  The dry season had finally arrived as the breezes picked up and 5 – 8 place were fought out on the water. 

The final day of racing was also great sailing with plenty of breeze and some tight racing from the top four teams – ADF, NZL, India & QLD.  In the end QLD skippered by James Hodgson took out first place with a clean sweep of the event from the NZL all girls team skippered by Megan Thompson.

An impressive medal ceremony was conducted at DSC on Friday afternoon with an amazing 10 of the 13 crew that received medals being female!  The games officially wrapped up with the closing ceremony on Saturday evening and the 2021 dates announced.

By all accounts the event was a roaring success with many threatening to return.  The crew change boat (an old Pearl Lugger) was a fantastic addition making on water changes seamless and providing plenty of shade and rest for spectators and crews not racing.  Being a multi-sport event many crews also managed to get in some viewing of the Basketball, Muaythai, Sepak Tekraw, Boxing and other sports after sailing each day.

The Darwin Sailing Club sourced a grant in 2018 allowing the creation and introduction of a live stream for the event.  Racing was live streamed via their YouTube channel each day and was very well received with fantastic feedback.  A great way to make our sport more spectator friendly especially as Darwin has 8m tides and racing is conducted a long way from the shore.  This also meant that a number of crews were roped into assisting with commentary after round robins adding to the variety of the week.

Special thanks to the volunteers and umpires for the fantastic job they did to make it all happen so smoothly.  Crews were chuffed to be able to get close to the action on the final day with umpires taking one passenger on each boat.

Overall Results

1. QLD              James Hodgson
2. NZL               Megan Thompson
3. India             Tara Matiwade
4. ADF               Bryson Carew
5. NT Youth      Finn Niemeier
6. NT Open      Greame Sergeant
7. Singapore     Joe Howe
8. NSW             Tom Vincent

Live Stream Link (Finals) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUqL5GklRW8

All pics courtesy of the Arafura Games.