The fun had gone out of sailing for the crew onboard Geochemical Assessments as they counted down the days until the end of last season.
Skipper Nathan McNamara and brothers Warwick and Jack Taylor had had enough of each other and the sport.
“Last year we did a lot of training over winter and by the time of the nationals we were pretty much sailed out,” McNamara explained.
“We were getting annoyed with each other and weren’t enjoying sailing for sailing alone.
“We were more worried about our results than just loving the fact we’re out there sailing.
“When you’re enjoying it, the results will usually come but that wasn’t happening.”
So, the boys on GA decided the only way to fall back in love with the sport was to give it the cold shoulder treatment over the off-season.
McNamara got married and honeymooned in the Maldives, Warwick spent time travelling through Italy, Greece, Spain and France with his partner while Jack went four-wheel driving and horse-riding in Kyrgyzstan.
The break clearly did them the world of good, the trio warming into the season during last Saturday’s short course pointscore series.
In just their second race together this campaign, GA managed a very creditable runner-up placing behind winner Buckingham Marine Services (Daniel Turner) in conditions that would keep the 32-strong fleet guessing all the way.
Canberra Airport (Archie Cropley) was third while, interestingly, guest boat Eric’s Storage from Middle Harbour was declared first across the line but did not figure in the official standings.
The Middle Harbour fleet joined the Manly contingent for the day as a tune up ahead of hosting the national 16ft championships in January.
A decision was later made to abandon the day’s second race due to the front heading through Sydney, allowing GA to celebrate a little earlier than planned.
“It’s good to be all back together. We didn’t have the best of starts but we found a nice gap to tack out and just tacked on each shift and it paid off at the top mark when we were in second,” McNamara continued.
“The boat was moving quick and we were able to hang around that top pack.
“Hopefully we can keep doing that for the rest of the season.”
McNamara is quietly confident GA can make a noise at the major regattas up as the crew spends more time in the water getting race fit.
They will enjoy great support off the water as well, with the Taylor boys’ mum Heather a popular and enthusiastic volunteer at Manly.
Apart from sponsoring Geochemical Assessment via the family business of the same name, Heather is an expert driver on the RIB rescue and pin boats.
Warwick said: “Mum loves it down there. She’s there every week and is a very keen volunteer.
“It’s a great community at Manly and she is happy to help out in any way possible and support us at the same time.”
The 13s’ fleet was a little smaller for their shortcourse race, with several sailors attending Flying 11 state championships on Lake Macquarie.
Imagine Signage (Beau Dransfield/Goro Tomishima) made the most of the reduced fleet, taking the win from Botany Access (Harrison Thomas/ Ben Milham) and IMEI (Archer Sacre/Tristan Davies).
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Words Adam Lucius
Photos on shore – Nathan Hopkins
