Ten yachts competing in division three boosted the fleet to nineteen across the three divisions competing for the Diggers’ Cup held annually at HYC on Anzac Day. Fresh from the North Beach commemoration service to honour the fallen, Keel Captain Tim Tucker led a minute silence at the pre-race briefing before crews leapt from jetties to boats to take on a different kind of challenge.

Just when you thought the season was over, it was a re-sail, and at the rear end of the season it was the Rear Commodore’s Cup, saluting Jos Colvin. Abandoned mid-race through lack of wind on Opening Day way back in early October, the Commodore’s Cup found its way back into the calendar courtesy of a redundant spare race day set aside for precisely such an abandonment.

And so to the last race of the 2023/24 keelboat racing season at HYC, pending a re-sail of the Commodore’s Cup, the Man Overboard consistency race was well attended with fifteen boats turning out.

On Sunday March 24, the final day of racing beckoned for yachts from HYC and ORSSC competing in the ten races over five days of the keelboat North Coast Series. Scheduled for just two races, a third was added to make up for one lost earlier in the season due to a major wind-shift in direction and strength. Four yachts from ORSSC and 11 from HYC headed out from their respective marinas in a [...]

The keelboat races from Hillarys to Mindarie and the return on Sunday March 17 were the final two races of the eight race ocean serles of the 2023/24 season at HYC.

Mulberry holds lead in FSC Captain Stirling Cup after strong Mandurah Race weekend

A favourable forecast of a ten knot ESE breeze drew 17 crews and their yachts out on Sunday March 10 for the penultimate consistency race of the 2024 summer sailing season of HYC. The fluky, inconsistent breeze threw up its challenges with many skippers calling for tacks even before the crew had settled on the rail. The course G2, with its short off-wind legs offered many opportunities for gaining ground with slick spinnaker work but there was more to be had working the shifts upwind.

The penultimate day of keelboat racing between HYC and ORSSC was held on Sunday February 25th in the waters off Mullaloo giving spectators for the surf carnival a spectacular view of colourful spinnakers close to the beach.

Trophies of silver trays for the winners of the Ladies Skippers’ Race were there for the taking for small fleets of divisions two and three sailing in ideal conditions on Sunday morning February 18th.

A spinnaker run to Rottnest was eagerly anticipated based on an early forecast of a light nor-easterly however in reality the 5 knot breeze had swung to the south making it a beat to windward for most of the way.

Mark Pitt's Beneteau First 35 'Mulberry' and other individual HYC keelboat racers competed in last week’s Geographe Bay Race Week (GBRW). Hosted by Geographe Bay Yacht Club with boats staying at Port Geographe Marina, the week is always a highlight of the WA sailing calendar, and 73 boats registered for the 21st iteration of this event.

A strong wind forecast for later in the afternoon prompted Keel Captain Tim Tucker to successfully suggest an earlier start for the scheduled start of 1330, bringing it forward to 1100 hours on Sunday 4th February.

Despite the long weekend and while numbers were down in Division 1, the other fleets maintained a strong presence, with 17 boats competing in the HYC Australia Day Race.

Favourable winds provided fast times for the Ocean Racing WA (ORWA) fleet as the performance planning boats continued to dominate the results in last weekend’s Hillarys Yacht Club Beneteau by Mansfield Marine Pot of Gold Race.

Hosted by Hillarys Yacht Club as part of the Beneteau by Mansfield Marine Pot of Gold weekend the inshore Dash for Cash attracted twenty seven entries from the river and ocean based yacht clubs for the twenty nautical mile race from Fremantle to Hillarys on Saturday January 20.

It was a long hot day at sea for the keelboats of HYC competing in the annual Fairway Ocean Race when a forecasted sea breeze of 12 knots was really 7 and dwindling to a zephyr for the tail-enders ghosting home at sunset.

Quick thinking was the order of the day when the easterly died out and was replaced by the incoming sea breeze during the first of two races on Day 3 of the North Coast Series between Ocean Reef Sea Sports Club and HYC.

Des and Gail Riley’s Farr 9.2 ‘Farrouk’ was declared the overall champion of last week’s Cockburn Sound Regatta (CSR) 2023.

A lengthy dissertation on the number “five” by the Captain at briefing may have been an attempt to delay the start but eventually a dozen boats went out to face the twenty gusting to twenty seven knot sea breeze for the final keelboat race before Christmas. stency-race-5

Strong easterlies provided good sailing conditions for both races of the Hillarys to Fremantle and return ocean races on the weekend.