Couta Week returns to Pittwater
The handicapper is doing something
right when the top four Couta Boats
finish the Wattle Cup pointscore tied
on equal points as they did on Sunday
October 16 after a smoky passage race
to Mackerel Beach on Pittwater’s western
shoreline, then around Scotland Island to
the finish.
Don Telford and his Tenacity crew also
know something about the right formula
after picking up a third Wattle Cup
overall win from the four the Royal Prince
Alfred Yacht Club team has contested.
Tenacity’s prowess comes to the fore
in stronger winds and Pittwater’s gusty
NNEers on Saturday and nor’west winds
on Sunday provided the perfect fuel.
Two victories and a fourth in Saturday’s
three windward/leeward races set
Tenacity up to break the final Wattle
Cup pointscore deadlock with Kathleen
Mary (Kelly Holder, RMYC), Cariad
(James George, RPAYC) and Sylvia (Larry
Eastwood, RPAYC), when the points from
all four races were tallied.
“To have four boats finish on the same
points and win on a countback is
extraordinary, but it makes it difficult to
be in among a fleet that tight,” Telford
said. “Tenacity is a really quick boat with
a bit of wind and we did have a very
good crew …John ‘Steamer’ Stanley, Peter
Hemery and Col Anderson from Doyle
Sails up from Victoria for two of the four
weekend races.”
Telford thanked the RPAYC’s race
management team led by PRO Elaine
Fowler for another successful Wattle Cup
raced against the dramatic backdrop on
Sunday of heavy smoke from a back burn
in Kur-ring-gai Chase, including multiple
helicopters buzzing around all day water
bombing the fire to keep it in check.
First time Couta helmsman/skipper David
Bray steered Cariad for owner James
George. Afterwards Bray could feel the
physical effect of driving five tonne of
boat around Pittwater. “I’m glad I’m
going to the gym today to stretch out,”
he said. The boat I tapped eventually
won line honours in that race, so at least
we were up near them.
“The boats are very interesting, very
reliant on crew coordination and there’s
a lot of effort trying to balance the helm,
especially in changeable Pittwater. When
you don’t get it right, it really bites you,”
added Bray, who prefers to claim Cariad’s
Wattle Cup third overall as “equal first”,
given the points tie with Tenacity and
Kathleen Mary.
In Mid-October 2017 the Wattle Cup
will precede the first class Australian
Championship to be staged outside the
state of Victoria, where the Couta Boat
class was developed and used for fishing
in the Sorrento-Queenscliff and Victorian
west coast regions, between 1870 and
the 1930s.
The association’s NSW chapter is
promising the Victorian fleet a full week
of great racing and usual complementary
social agenda leading into the national
title, to be hosted by the RPAYC in
its important sesquicentenary year.
The Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club’s
traditional Couta Week opening races on
Sydney Harbour will mark the start of the
championship program.