Need For Speed

Need for Speed has been chosen to be part of Skandia Squad for the Elliott 7 Nationals during Skandia Geelong Week and will be called "Skandia Passion" for the week. Entrants were asked to write a note about the way thier boat epitomised one of Skandia's key values (Passion, Creativity, Committment, Contribution and Courage.) Below is Need for Speed's entry as Skandia Passion!

Skandia Passion

Being a Geelong boy, Skandia Week has always been on the must do list in any annual sailing calendar so when I was appointed to CSIRO and based in Canberra I was doubly worried. Not only was I unsure of getting down to Geelong for events like Skandia Week but I was unsure how I would get any sailing in being based in Australia’s land locked capital. I had been active in the Thunderbird class in Geelong with my yacht Catalyst but alas Catalyst could not come to Canberra with me.

I started researching Canberra and found that there was an active fleet of Elliott 7 sports trailerable yachts sailing on Lake Burley Griffin and a thought hit me……..If I bought an Elliott 7 I could compete in class racing in Canberra and also bring the boat to Skandia Week!

I researched the class and found a vibrant fleet active across the country with an entry level boat only costing $20k. I promptly purchased Need for Speed which is the oldest Elliott 7 in Australia (being the original hull imported from NZ) and started getting engaged with the class.

After a few discussions with other owners, it became clear that there had been no location settled on for the National titles and the though occurred that Skandia Week would be an ideal opportunity to show off the class to the rest of the Australian Yachting community. A few discussions between Royal Geelong, Rhumbline and the Class Association later, and we have a large turnout of Elliott 7s turning up to Skandia week to compete for a National title.

This is all very nice I hear you ask but where is the Passion?

To illustrate just how passionate you have to be to trailer a boat a long distance for a regatta like this, I will share with you our experience in travelling to the Jervis Bay regatta in November.

Jervis Bay is 3 hours drive from Canberra (Geelong is 8 hours) and we planned to leave from my work with the boat at 3pm. We got away fine and were 10km past Queanbeyan on the Kings Highway when one of the tyres blew out on the trailer….whoops. I managed to control the car and pull over, only to find the spare was flat (yes I had checked it only 2 days before!). I left the boat by the side of the road with the crew and drove back to Queanbeyan with the two wheels. Luckily there was a tyre shop still open who fitted a tyre and repaired the spare….Problem solved (I thought!)

I drove back to the boat and, after a bit of mudguard panel beating where the blowout had caused damage, fitted the wheel. Unfortunately in tightening the wheel-nuts, one sheared off forcing me to drive back to Queanbeyan to get some new studs, and drive back to the boat to do a roadside repair. (I was really enjoying the trip to Jervis Bay so far!)

We made it the rest of the way to Jervis Bay without too much trouble eventually arriving at the boat ramp at 8:30pm and having to beg the Pub to serve us some food by the time we got there after 9.

The next day we had a beautiful 35nm passage race on the crystal clear waters of Jervis Bay with whales and dolphins being sighted and pulled back in to the boat ramp at 6pm. I hopped off the boat and ran to get the trailer to pull the boat out and lo and behold, the car was dead!...........It appears clear that when we suffered the blowout a small live wire had been dislodged on the trailer, and while we were having a lovely sail, the trailer was draining the car’s battery!

After a 2.5 hour wait at the boat ramp for the NRMA to give me a jumpstart, we finally made it to the pub just after the food had finished. At this point, I don’t mind admitting, I was really ready to throw in the towel.

We slept on the problems of the past couple of days, helped by a liberal dashing of the amber beverage, and woke up refreshed with no further incidents for the rest of the trip.

That was our last experience with trailering our boat to a regatta, and despite all this, we are looking forward to Skandia Week with eager anticipation. I can’t wait to sail on Corio Bay again and to catch up with all my Geelong sailing mates and we are hoping to do really well in the Elliott 7 National Titles. Most of all I am looking forward to all the other Elliott owners getting a chance to see what a great regatta Geelong Week is and to make it an annual event for our class.

Need for Speed was purchased in April by Stuart Minchin (Stuart.Minchin@csiro.au) in Canberra and joined the fleet of Elliot 7s based on Lake Burley Griffin. There are 10 Elliot 7s in Canberra now.