The race day was an absolute success. Here are the highlights from the event:

• 26 yachts raced, all with women skippering
• 2 yachts had all women crews, namely Black Dog from RQYS and Miss Behavin from WMSC. Miss Behavin won both the performance handicap and the Female participation performance handicap. Last year the all girl crew of Black Dog won line honours and adjusted performance handicap.
• 191 people participated in the race, and 108 of them were women. All yachts except one had at least two women on board, with the outlier being a sportsboat where the skipper was a 15yo dinghy sailor and her crew was her dad and his mates. There was a real showing of ladies of all skill levels on most yachts.
• Youngest skipper was 15 yo. I didn’t ask details to learn of the age of the oldest skipper but can confidently say we covered many decades. A yacht that came out of the club to sail along with the race and watch told me that they had their 10yo daughter on the helm most of the time – training her up for future years.
• The clubs represented included WMSC (10 yachts), RQYS (13), MBTBC (1), SCYC (1) and SYC(1).
• This was the 43^rd year that this race has been run.
• Results were as follows:
  • Line Honours – Lambourdini, skippered by Helena Lambourne
  • First Performance Handicap – Miss Behavin, skippered by Christina Spurgeon
  • Second Performance Handicap – Mad Jack, skippered by Megan Houston
  • Third Performance Handicap – Krankster, skippered by Christina and Carissa Bridge
  • First Performance Handicap adjusted for female participation – Miss Behavin, skippered by Christina Spurgeon

The after race atmosphere at the Club was fantastic. Most people were dressed up to some degree even if it was just pink fluoro socks or a pink hat. The Team Spirit prize went to KD Girl, from Southport Yacht Club. The whole crew raced in full dress up of superhero, wench and nurse costumes (needless to say the men on board were the wench and nurse and even wore lipstick). Very funny crew!!

One of the male sailors said to me- please don’t make this a women only race, it’s so much fun I don’t want to miss out – and I know his sentiments are shared by a lot of the men who support this event each year. I think that is an important message for organisers of other events. The more the merrier, plus it enabled several large, serious racing yacht owners to hand over the yacht and helm when they knew they have their foredeck guys onboard for spinnaker management and a mentor or two to watch over the skipper and crew.