The inaugural Tasmanian Women's Keelboat Regatta will be held in Hobart this Saturday. We are very pleased that a crew from PDYC has been accepted as one of the 12 available entries.

The PDYC team comprises Jodie Sullivan (skipper), Narissa McElwee, Nicki Bayne-White and Sarah Finlay. This season Jodie and Narissa have been regular crew on local boat “Honeypot” and competed in the Launceston to Hobart race. Nicki has had a busy season racing on an SB20 including in the National Championships, and over the last couple of weekends impressively handling the spinnaker end of the boat in the 2-handed series. Sarah has extensive dinghy, trailable and keelboat experience over many years.

The event is part of Australian Sailing’s SheSails program which recognises the contribution of women and girls in sailing and is designed to encourage female participation in all aspects of sailing through organised activities at local clubs. The event has attracted the support of high-profile Australian sailing pioneer, Jessica Watson OAM, who will be a guest commentator on the water during the sailing and will be a keynote speaker at the post-racing social function, along with media star, Tiffany Cherry.

The 12 teams of four sailors, representing sailing clubs from the north and south of the state, will compete on Elliott 6 keelboats in two fleets (Yellow and Blue) over three qualifying races. After three races, the top three teams of each fleet (six teams in total) will go into the Gold Fleet for the Gold Fleet Final Race to determine first, second and third. The remaining six teams will compete in the Silver Fleet Final.

The Australian Sailing Schools Teams Racing Championships will also be held in Hobart this weekend and our youth sailor Ellen Hillcoat will be competing in that event.

Congratulations and all the best to our PDYC women competing in Hobart this weekend! 

Greg Rowsell
Commodore