Weekly Sailing Summary

Summary for w/b - 13 June, 2006 12pm

QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY HONOURS LIST
Two Cruising Yacht Club of Australia members, Charles Curran AO and Leon Hertz, and a member of the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania, Alastair Douglas, have been honoured in the Queen's Birthday list.

Jackie Kay of Access Dinghy Foundation and Sailability Australia is also honoured in the Queen's Birthday list.

Frank Robards, the Commodore of the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard's Sydney Squadron, was awarded the Emergency Service Medal.

AUSTRALIAN YACHTING AWARDS & GIPSY MOTH IV
Yachting Australia announces the 2006 finalists for the Australian Yachting Awards. The winners will be announced at the Gipsy Moth Royal Gala Dinner & Australian Yachting Awards 2006 in Sydney on July 12. Yachting Australia's special guest of honour for the evening is Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal who will present the Awards in her capacity as Patron of the Gipsy Moth Global Project.

A large flotilla of yachts is expected to welcome Sir Francis Chichester's restored Gipsy Moth IV when she sails into Sydney Harbour on Sunday July 9. The 54ft ketch last departed Sydney in January 1967 after the only stop on Chichester's record world circumnavigation.

EAST COAST MARINA UPDATE
Quote: Ian Treleavan's Cruising Notes in Letters from the Med - 'Tunisia: We were very impressed by all the marinas that were being built along all the coasts – they accommodate more boats and also create more villages. If only our coast could have more marinas, we could have a much bigger boating industry, which is a fantastic lifestyle for people and great for tourism'.

Here's a quick update on some of the marina developments on Australia's East Coast.

d'Albora Marinas plans to expand its Nelson Bay marina, catering for larger vessels. Customers leasing berths at d'Albora Marinas Nelson Bay can also access free of charge the four d'Albora marinas in Sydney as well as the one at Pier 35 in Melbourne.

In Queensland Keppel Bay Marina is developing its shores with shops and apartments, Mooloolaba marina is selling new berths and Rivergate in Brisbane is open for business.

Peppers Blue on Blue Resort and Marina at Magnetic Island has freehold apartments with marina berths on a 25 year lease for sale. The marina is due for completion around October 2007. Marina berths will be available for cruising yachts.

A new marina with a residential village, floating berths and major refit facilities is planned for Bowen, just north of Airlie Beach. Work is set to begin in 2007.

VOLVO OCEAN RACE
Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) won leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race from Portsmouth, UK, to Rotterdam, Holland. In the lightest conditions experienced in the race so far, the finish was shortened and the top three teams of Brasil 1, ABN AMRO ONE and Ericsson reshuffled their positions constantly.

New Zealander Mike Sanderson skippered ABN AMRO ONE to victory in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 in-port race in their home port of Rotterdam, crossing the finish line over three minutes in front of Torben Grael's Brasil 1.

KEEL BOATS
Sydney Mooloolaba Yacht Race and Sydney Mackay Yacht Race - Syd Fischer was the first to submit his paperwork for the race to Mooloolaba. Fischer, at 79, has entered his champion Farr 50, Ragamuffin, for his 44th season of ocean racing.

Join the crew on Kioni, a Beneteau 47.7, racing north. On July 29 Kioni will compete in the 914nm race from Sydney to Mackay before competing in Airlie Beach Race Week (August 10-17) and Hahn Premium Race Week at Hamilton Island (August 18-26). Positions on the cruise back to Sydney are also available. Familiarisation and training days will be held in June and July. Contact Sailing Services Mobile: 0438 082 616.

After six races in a wide variety of wind conditions – drifters to howling sou'westers - only a handful of points separate the leading boats in all ten divisions of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's 2006 BMW Sydney Winter Series.

Australian Etchells Winter Championship, Mooloolaba. Former Etchells World Champion Cameron Miles and his crew of Phil Smidmore and Dave Samson won the event with a day to spare.

Chris Way's team on Easy Tiger won the BoatMate Sydney 38 Match Race Series.

Neville Crichton, skipper and owner of New Zealand super maxi Alfa Romeo, didn't expect to win on handicap in the Giraglia Rolex Cup, but Crichton took both a line honours and handicap win.

MULTIHULLS
The Volvo Extreme 40's put on a show for the crowds in Rotterdam. Both the warm weather and the fresh breeze gave the teams a chance to shine as the leader board mixed up and Tommy Hilfiger moved to the top.

Geronimo, skippered by Olivier de Kersauson FRA broke Bruno Peyron's transpacific west to east record from Yokohama, Japan to San Francisco.

Zwitserleven Round Texel Race has received 418 pre-entries. The annual catamaran spectacle will start on the Dutch Wadden Island Texel with a helicopter giving the famous smoky starting signal on Saturday June 17 at about noon.

French skipper Franck Cammas' 105ft (31.50m) maxi trimaran is the 6th maxi-mulithull to have come out of the Multiplast shipyard in Vannes since the year 2000. (Only seven multis of this size have been built in the world.) Groupama 3 is designed by the firm Marc Van Peteghem & Vincent Lauriot-Prévost.

OLYMPIC CLASSES & OFF THE BEACH
49er World Championship, France - Chris Draper and Simon Hiscoks GBR win the event. Nathan Outteridge and Ben Austin AUS placed sixth and William Phillips and Jon Newman AUS 18th.

470 European Championships, Lake Balaton. After two races on day one Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson AUS are placed eighth in the women's fleet. Mathew Belcher and Nick Behrens AUS are placed 14th and Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page AUS are 25th in the men's fleet.

For the first time the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria is to host the 18th staging of the Australian School Team Racing championship over the last weekend of June.

CRUISING & EXPEDITIONS
Margaret Williams is attempting to be the first woman to circumnavigate Australia solo. She is currently in the Southern Ocean on a boat with no heating system, heading east for Tasmania.

Frenchwoman Raphaela le Gouvello became the first person to windsurf across the Indian Ocean, landing on the French island of La Reunion after 60 days at sea on a specially designed 23ft board.

Vanuatu Tourism has added a new section to its website specifically for cruising yachts following a dramatic increase in recent years in the number of Australian and international vessels visiting the country during the April to November South Pacific cruising season.

MARINE INDUSTRY
Position Vacant - Latest free listings on Boating OZ

The queue for great sales jobs in the Whitsundays is a very long one, which is why Sunsail expects to receive an overwhelming response to its advertisement for a Yacht Sales Representative. Based from the company's Australian office on Hamilton Island, the position suits a highly motivated individual who possesses strong sales skills and an ability to meet and exceed goals and deadlines.

The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron has appointed Brian Clayton as its new Sailing Manager to oversee its extensive Sydney Harbour and offshore racing program.

Photo: Ragamuffin during the 2005 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race taken by Carlo Borlenghi/Rolex

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