Long Course Pointscore – Race 3: 15/10/2022
It’s fitting in Manly 16ft Skiff Club’s 100th year an important piece of history was made during last Saturday’s third heat of the 2022/23 club championship.
For the first time in a century, an all-girl crew joined the fleet when the Clancy sisters boarded the newly named Outback Marine.
Skipper Georgia Clancy combined with sisters Maddie and Alanna on a picture-perfect day for skiff racing, piloting the boat into 19th position.
The result was immaterial compared to the enormity of the occasion.
“We didn’t have a great start, but we got around without any swims and had fun,” Georgia said.
“It’s pretty special to have three females sailing together and also a first for all of us to be sailing 16s together.
“Maddie is a fair bit younger than us, so have never really crossed over in classes but we have all sailed the 13s on and off together over the years.
“It’s just great to see more females in the class and you can only hope that it will encourage more of the young girls coming through the 13s and the juniors to stay in sailing.
“When we went through juniors, many of the girls haven’t continued into skiffs.”
Georgia bought the old Bart skiff from cousin and Moonen Yachts skipper Daniel Turner, who has helped the girls with crew, boat time and sponsorship.
Outback Marine’s immediate goal is to gel further as a crew – regular sheethand Geoff Little will return to take Maddie’s place – and become more competitive as the season rolls on.
“We have had a few replacements on in recent weeks, but we are back as a team from this weekend so we are hoping we can do a bit more training and ideally start beating the Shebang and get Ant King to buy some beers,” Georgia said.
“There is a lot of friendly rivalries between many boats in the class which makes it a special place to sail.”
At the pointy end of the fleet, the super consistent Typhoon (Nathan Wilmot) again found itself on the top step of the podium after another near faultless display in the club championship shoot-out.
Moonen was 77 seconds behind in second with Sail Racing (Felix Grech) and Botany Access (Chris Thomas) next in.
Contemporary Pools (Andrew Roxburg) claimed handicap honours from Musto (Hugh Stodart), Captain Brewing Co (Jessica Illes) and Shebang (Anthony King).
Turner leads the overall scratch pointscore after two completed heats of the club championship, with Shebang heading the handicap standings.
