In Perth, everyone is proud of their yacht club and they don’t mind where I am from. Anyway, everyone is kind to me at first and they are still tender after telling where I am from. They who are sailors in Perth have a heart of gold.
I am from Ventree, Top Cat, Sea Monkey, and Ciao Bella at Perth Flying Squadron Yacht Club. I have lots of funny, serious, awful and amazing memories with them and their owner and crews.
Today, I want to tell my new sailboat friend(and human friends), Shibumi, because Wally Pickford Memorial Marathon Race is the memorial race of Shibumi’s past owner.
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Every year Perth Flying Squadron Yacht Club holds the Wally Pickford Memorial Marathon named after Past Commodore Wally Pickford. Wally was born and bred on the Goldfields and had rarely seen a river before a job opportunity brought him to the big smoke. Wally quickly grew fond of the water and before he knew it, he was sailing on the Swan at every opportunity. It wasn’t long before Wally was a respected member of the Club Committee and in 1995 Wally was elected as Commodore. He went on to serve as Commodore for 3 years.
The Marathon covers most of the river and is one of the Club’s most important races attracting yachts from most other Clubs. Wally Pickford has sailed Seafarer, Rhumb Runner and in the later years his beloved Shibumi, in every possible race.
Shibumi although not a fast boat could hold her own in strong winds. Such a day occurred in 2002. Wally had been undergoing a long period of treatment for debilitating cancer. Despite being ill, he was determined to at least start the race. Not only did he start, but he won the race which now bears his name. Sadly, Wally passed away a few weeks later. The battler from the bush more than made his mark as the Squadron’s number one flag bearer and his legacy will live on forever.
(Reference from PFSYC FB page)
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I jumped on Jaquie, which is the oldest and slowest sailboat at PFSYC, as a crew, navigator, skipper, and photographer. It was only Julian, the owner of Jacquie, and I on the boat. When I jumped on a sailboat as a crew, skipper, or so, I wanna win. This is not a game, this is a ‘race’. Whereas I want to take sailing photographs. Someone said to me that ‘we are not playing, we are serious for the race. Please shut down your camera.’ when I asked about taking photos. Although, Julian gave me lots of chances to take photos. If you are thankful for these photos, please appreciate Julian as well.
When the race starting, it was no wind so the race was the delay. I saw lots of sailors are relaxing on the boat. After 15 or 30 minutes, the winds appeared on the water.
The race started around 11:30. Surprisingly, we didn’t have any watch, we counted down by feeling before race start. We just trust by ourself and watched what other boats were doing.
This is the racecourse.
Bricky A and B -stbd
Bishop -stbd
Mosman buoy -port
Mt Lyall buoy -stbd
Burnside -stbd
College -stbd
Dome -port
Miller -port
Outer Start -stbd
Form -stbd
Deepwater spit -stbd
Hallmark -port
Club -port
Squadron -port
Bond -port
Armstrong -port
Finish!! -port
The wind was South West as the sea breeze, around 10 to 12 knots. (Due to Jacquie doesn’t have wind meter, it is my feeling so don’t trust it.)
The wind was South West as the sea breeze. The hardest way was Mosman Buoy to Mt Lyall Bouy. The wind was against us so we had to tack lots of times. When we are tacking, he said(scream?) ‘Hondaaaaa!’ to me. Because I did jib sheet to free then I had to pull another side jib sheet with a winch. He felt I was a machine like an engine, Honda. After Mt Lyall buoy, between 1 pm to 2 pm, we had lunch with running sailing. He cooked ‘subway sandwiches’ for me. this was delicious! and he brought a bottle of cold water that gave me refreshments.
The funniest thing is… the latter half of the race, we checked next buoy as well as starboard or port again and again (and again and again). We must have been tired. You know, Jacquie is the slowest boat so we spent 5 hours on the river! Whereas I like Julian and we just talked a lot of times unless tacking or jabbing cause of it was not too bad. Anyway, we golded second last. Also, most of them finished the race and they’re already relaxing at the club bar.
Nobody knows the result so that it would calculate times with handicap.
All of photos are on FB page. (Click here )
ウォーリーさんのメモリアルヨットレースに参戦しました。
ウォーリーさんは渋味とゆうヨットに乗っていた。が、おそらくこれは飛沫の間違いなのかもしれないし、本来のビターとゆう意味の渋味なのかもしれない。彼は癌により亡くなり、それ以降、メモリアルヨットレースが開催されようになりました。賞金は優勝$175と、なかなか大きい。ヨットレースは勝てば参加費以上の賞金がもらえる。もしかしたら、賞金王とゆう言葉はこうゆうヨットレースから生まれたのかもしれない。（あやくま調べ）ちなみに、スポンサーはウォーリーさんの家族とウォーリーさんの友人から。
そのレースにウォーリーさんのヨット友達、ジュリアンのジャッキーとゆうヨットにナビゲーター、クルー、スキッパーとして乗りました。役柄が多いのはそう、乗船は我々２人のみ。
このジャッキーはヨットクラブで一番古くて遅い事で有名。多くのレーサーが「レースは遊びじゃないから、カメラは閉まって！」と言う中でジュリアンは「アヤ！シブミがグッドアングルだよ！撮りなよ！」って言ってくれる。いい人。
そんなジュリアンはタック時に私のことをホンダーーーーーー－－！と叫んでいた。理由は一人でジブ、メイントリムしてたから。そして、それがマシンのように力強く早かったから。
ジュリアンはレース前、サブウェイのサンドイッチを持って行くよって言ってくれた。私はサブウェイのフレッシュで野菜たっぷりのサンドイッチを想像していが、当日、彼は手作りのジュリアン製サブウェイサンドイッチを持ってきた。サブウェイで買おうと思ったら奥様に自分で作りなさいと言われた理由で。
まぁ、なんでも美味しいし、野菜たっぷりじゃなくても、ジュリアンの手作りとゆうのが可愛い。一番の笑いどころは、レース後半です。我々はコースシートをみては次のブイを確認し、5分後には同じことを繰り返していた。何度、コースを確認したのか、数えきれないほどに。風は南西10knt前後とあまり強くないのに、5時間とゆう集中戦に疲れ果てていたのかもしれない。
