Sailed for the first time in December 2017 on the anniversary of the passing of former Commodore Chris Grant, the memorial race has become a feature for those who knew and appreciated a much-loved Commodore and those who have embraced the tradition of wearing Hawaiian shirts on the day of the race. The tradition of crews wearing colourful Hawaiian shirts arose when Chris visited Hawaii and returned with shirts for his crew of Pandora.

Missing from the race were last year’s winners of the coveted trophy, Bad Habits, Blue Chip and Lamotrek; was it a case of “oh yeah, been there, won that” or pre-Christmas festivities. With them out of the way, competition was still going to be hot.

The 10-knot W-N-Westerly was ideal for the first beat out to Little before a spinnaker run to Sorrento. Starting first, division three got underway cleanly, apart from Stelfred stealing a minute start (OCS); Division two followed five minutes later, however the start for division one coincided with the Rottnest ferry trying to exit the harbour. The boats tacked away to the north and a patient ferry skipper finally made his getaway.

As the morning progressed the breeze built to 15 to 18 knots making for exciting sailing on tight reaches on most legs and a couple of short legs for hoisting a kite.

No stranger to the podium in his inaugural season in division one, Tony Brooke’s Mimosa revelled in those conditions to win on handicap by 43 seconds from the fastest yacht, Whispering Jack (Bruce Bradford) with Perle (John Bird) in third place. In the race for the bottle of wine, first across the start-line, Whispering Jack pipped Perle for that one too.

The slick team-work from the experienced crew on Covert Operation (Bart Brouwer) saw them finish seven minutes ahead of the next boat to be first and fastest in division two. An undermanned Show Me (Tim Tucker) was in the middle of the fleet and came second on handicap with Panache (Geoff James) third, just one second adrift of second place. Covert Operation was also first across the start-line.

Vaya Con Dios (Chris Blackney) was the first division three boat to legally cross the start-line and went on to finish second to Kind of Blue (Boyd Timler) with Intuition (Marc Carpenter) in third place. Finishing in fourth place, La Premiere (Ken and Des Luplau) was quickest around the course.

The presentations were a real family affair with Sandy and Donna Grant; Amanda, Steve, Hannah and Tim Collier; James, Emma, Millie, Obie and Caspar Matson on hand to present pennants to the placegetters and trophy to the winners in each division. As for best dressed “Hawaiian shirt” the family chose Des and Gail Riley for their bright orange shirts with palm trees and Christmas motifs which Amanda assured us Dad would have approved whole-heartedly.

Many thanks to the start team of Rob Gouldsmith, Rob James, Jill Amy, Sue Carter and Sandy Grant. Rob James took great photos from the tower, now uploaded to the Keel Cloud.

John Bird