If you like your sailing fast and flat, with uninhabited islands and surfing beaches added for good measure, then Super Saturday of Sail Port Stephens 2018 was as good as it gets. Fanned by a warm breeze that built to over 20 knots, around 110 yachts across IRC, Super 12, Performance Racing and Performance cruising…

Fittingly for a fleet boasting Wild Oats X for the first time, the NSW IRC Championships at Sail Port Stephens enjoyed champagne sailing conditions on the offshore race course for three windward-leeward races on day 1. Race 1 had a challenging westerly delivering 30-degree shifts. Wild Oats X was a tad eager at the start,…

The Super 12 NSW Championship fleet opted for a pair of inshore passage races for their first hit-out at Sail Port Stephens, their numbers swollen to 17 by the late addition of Darryl Hodgkinson’s Carkeek 40 Victoire and Bob Steel’s Quest from the IRC ranks. Start 1 was spirited, with parentage aspersions cast as a…

Some 120 yachts are tugging at their mooring lines like thoroughbreds, and a race track commonly described as Australia’s best is perfectly groomed just in time for tomorrow’s start of Sail Port Stephens Part 2. With the cruisy Commodores Cup done and dusted, attention now turns to the serious silverware on offer for the Garmin…

On the third day, the wind gods summoned a cracking breeze for the Sail Port Stephens fleet contesting the Commodores Cup – a 6-knot northerly at the start, building to around 18 knots mid-race as a remnant and reminder of summers past. Course 9 was race officer Denis Thompson’s call, sending the largest-ever Cup fleet…

It was island time for day two of the Commodores Cup, as a 10-knot sou-easter allowed crews to get a taste of the blue waters and surfing beaches off Port Stephens. Starting off Nelson Bay breakwall, the popular Three Islands course took the 78-boat fleet on a scenic loop around Cabbage Tree, Boondelbah and Little…

Belying a tropical 30-degree heatwave, Sail Port Stephens 2018 got off to a chilled start today in light and fickle westerly winds that preceded a late afternoon glass-out. A record 78 boats – spread across three divisions for the first time – greeted the starter for a downwind dash from Nelson Bay to Shoal Bay,…

Port Stephens wore its Sunday-best weather today, with summer-like temperatures and gentle autumn breezes, however it made for some leisurely progress in the annual Sail Port Stephens feeder race from Newcastle. The Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club sent its largest ever fleet of 48 yachts across Stockton Bight in 5-10 knots after a spectacular, tightly packed…

The Women Who Sail Australia (WWSA) group will be staging their third consecutive Gathering on the Bay as an entrée to Sail Port Stephens. It’s a chance for women sailors, and those interested in becoming one, to meet, network, share knowledge and learn. Organiser Shelley Wright is expecting attendees from interstate and overseas as well…

Wild Oats wines and bubbles have graced Sail Port Stephens for many years but now the regatta is getting a taste of the ‘real thing’ – Wild Oats X is lining up for the prestigious NSW IRC Championship for the first time. Sandy Oatley family’s canting-keeled Reichel-Pugh 66 belied its size and vintage in the…