Hello All,
Now that the 92nd Stonehaven Cup has been completed I congratulate all competitors from Royal Melbourne YS, Royal Brighton YC, King Island BC, Albert SC and Sandringham YC. Crews were met with some challenging wind conditions at the top end of their boats capabilities and displayed courage, resilience, strength and skill.
In total Stonehaven 2022 saw 11 boats competing with 36 sailors in total.
I would like to extend our warm congratulations to Hamish Gilsenan, Mietta Rael and Maddie Crawshaw on “ASC RS Quest” from ASC for winning the 2022 Stonehaven Cup, the Jock Sturrock Memorial trophy and also the Andrew Linacre Memorial trophy.
Hamish is an extremely talented sailor having sailed in National Championships and Internationally in Opti and Laser classes. We look forward to hearing his name mentioned in Olympic circles in the future and how wonderful it would be to see him with an Olympic gold medal representing Australia one day.
Congratulations are also extended to the crew of “Emma” skippered by Emma Maertens from the SYC and also the crew of “Heather” skippered by Alex Ward of RMYS who finished in second and third places respectively. Emma’s team is a high-performance team from Sandringham who usually sail in 29er class. This was their first time sailing a quest and I commend them for their result. Alex (RMYS team captain) and his team of Carli Preston and Ari Rassias are currently our lead boat at RMYS.
Had it not been for the very talented APC and SYC crews, in most other Stonehaven’s Alex, Carli and Ari would very likely have been Stonehaven champions. After a challenging third day of sailing, Alex and his team rebounded very strongly with a first and two thirds on the final day of racing. Overall including the invitational races, they finished with a 1st place, three 2nd placings and two 3rd placings. We look forward to them staying together as a crew (although we will encourage Carli to skipper a boat next year – perhaps an all-female crew) and with some tightening of eligibility rules I am confident they will go extremely well next year.
I also congratulate our other three RMYS boats and their crews:
Matthew Norton: Ryan Savage, Max Herriot, Jock Hogg
Scarlett: Oli Skerritt, Ethan Rassias, Eliza Davidson – 3rd, 3rd
Kestrel: Lachy Skerritt, Gus Wahlqvist, Myra Barber -3rd, 2nd,
All three boats had moments of excellence and right till the last day of sailing the Scarlett and Kestrel boats were in the running for a podium finish.
Importantly and what a great success story this is for RMYS, the teams competition, the Otto A Meik Perpetual teams trophy is returning to RMYS after a resounding victory over RBYC.
The final result was RMYS 88.0 to RBYC 157.0 which was a fantastic achievement by our junior squad and a reflection on their ability and dedication in what has been a disrupted two years due to Covid.
There are a number of people who we should sincerely thank for their contribution to Stonehaven 2022 to make it the success it was.
Firstly to RMYC members who volunteered;
Andrew Gluth (RO), Byron Jackson, Greg Blackwood, Julie Davis, David Gordon, Ryan Marshall, Paul Dunstan, Michelle Greenhalgh, Bo. Thank you so much for supporting our juniors and the event. You guys are simply awesome.
What a fantastic Race Officer Andrew is. Well thought out courses, a supreme knowledge of weather conditions, forecast and boat capabilities. Brilliantly supported by David Gordon and Greg Blackwood with mark laying expertise and of course Byron’s driving of William Patterson.
Thank you to volunteers from RBYC and SYC – Ben Stanford, James Zhao and Thorsten Maertens.
Thank you RMYS parent volunteers:
Sophie Davidson, Simon Phillips, Ingmar Wahlqvist, Gerry Rassias, Mark Skerritt, Sharon Cameron, Megan Savage, Andrew Preston, Samantha Jansen-Preston, Roger Ward, Ant Herriott and Sam Hogg.
A massive thanks to both Colin Burgess and Matt Solly.
Six weeks before the event took place, we were still unsure whether it would progress or not. Once the green light was given both Matt and Colin worked brilliantly to get the event up and running. That the event ran so smoothly having such little time to organize is testimony to the work they did. These two guys need to be congratulated for putting on a fine event.
A big thanks to Andrew Walby our medical officer for the regatta.
Many of you involved with the junior racing program over the years will know that the Walby’s, Andrew and Linnet and their sons have been an integral part of the Stonehaven Cup for many years, they are the glue that held things together during the dark days when junior number were low and thing were looking a bit bleak. Andrew drove rescue boats whilst Linnet was the superstar behind running and co-ordinating previous Stonehaven’s run by RMYC.
A huge thanks to Pat Walby our junior racing squad coach.
Until it became official last night Pat was the reigning Stonehaven Cup winning skipper. Pat’s enthusiasm, knowledge and dedication to our squad is fantastic, the junior squad sailors love him as do the parent group. We were so sad when Pat missed the final day of racing and last night’s presentation due to covid catching up with him.
Thankyou to Jye Preston who has been Pat’s assistant coach during the week
A former Stonehaven Cup skipper and multiple Stonehaven Cup race winner Jye filled Pat’s massive shoes for the final day of racing on Friday.
Thank you to all RMYS members.
We are extremely grateful for your support and the opportunity you provide the junior racing squad. We hope we have delivered and done the squadron proud.
Sadly we bid farewell to Max Herriot who at the end of this Stonehaven ages out. We thank you and your dad Ant for being part of our squad over the last two years. You are both such great guys, going to miss you on Sundays, particularly the hair!! but still look forward to seeing you around the club. We wish you all the very best.
We are looking forward to the coming year positively. We have five excellent skippers in Alex, Oli, Lachy, Ryan, Gus and perhaps six if we can twist Carli’s arm to take the helm as well. We have a number of sailors now with the experience of a Stonehaven Cup under their belt. With a growing group we are looking to put at least six Quests on the water come Stonehaven 2023.
Thank you again to all for your support, all the best for 2022.
Kind Regards
Graeme (Sav) Savage
Chair – RMYS Junior Racing Squad Parent Group.
