- Written by FFIWA_webmaster
- Published: 06 Oct 2021
The Tally Hobbs Memorial Regatta is sailed each year to celebrate the introduction of the Flying Fifteen class to Western Australia in the late 1950’s and to remember the man who did the introducing, Tally Hobbs.
This year it was sailed in the relatively tight confines of Freshwater Bay on Sunday and Monday mornings September 26 and 27. Competitors from Royal Freshwater Bay and South of Perth Yacht clubs combined for a 14 boat fleet and were greeted with light breezes with the occasional thunderstorm and associated squalls.
Only 3 races were possible on Sunday after a delayed start to allow the lightning to calm down and the SoPYC fleet to arrive after a somewhat eventful journey through the aforementioned thunderstorm. Light and flukey conditions kept everyone on their toes with Second Breakffast ( Karen and Russell Dawes ) winning the first race and The Answer ( Greg Tonnison and Nick Robinson) winning races 2 and 3.
Monday morning, clear skies, more breeze, just as shifty and a pinch of tide saw El Toro ( Grant Alderson and Luke Paterson ) win races 4 and 5 and Reliance ( Nick Jerwood and Brad Sheridan - having borrowed the boat from Ray Sebo while Nick gets his new boat set up) winning race 6. With the fading breeze, race 7 was cancelled in favour of the well-stocked esky on shore leaving Reliance in first place overall, The Answer second and El Toro third.
Full results can be found at https://rfbyc.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Flying-15-Tally-Hobbs-Regatta-Sept2021-Results-Final.pdf
WInners are grinners....
Special thanks to Race Officer John McKechnie and his start team, the many friends of the Flying Fifteen class who crewed the mark laying and rescue boats, the RFBYC admin team lead by Sharon Skinner, Hamish Carnachan for organising seemingly everything including the post-race refreshments and Jen Sims who was on tow boat duty from South of Perth each day.
Also thanks to the AFL for organising 60,000 potential Flying Fifteen sailors to assemble at Optus Stadium on Saturday for a lesser sporting event that served as a suitable curtain raiser for the main event on Sunday.
Report courtesy of Russell Dawes. Photos courtesy of Glenda Leslie