The annual Geelong Regatta starts Thursday this week, beginning with a 28 mile race from Melbourne (Williamstown) to Geelong and then followed by 7 windward-leeward races over the next 3 days. GEORGIA arrived at Williamstown in the early hours of Wednesday morning from Sydney. George Hendy and his young guys had a largely downwind sail - a welcome change from the almost entirely upwind sail that they've had on most of the deliveries up and down the Australian East Coast.
I arrived myself in Melbourne last Saturday evening for a couple of days of Australian Open tennis (Federer annihilating Tomic and a young Russian girl doing the same to Serena Williams). A ferry ride to Williamstown revealed the boat in immaculate condition. Changes are the new fin - 300mm. deeper - some new winches and a higher speed mechanism for the primaries. Plus a move to 3Di jibs.
A new rating of 1.371 - up from 1.365 - seems acceptable for the expected gains from the deeper fin.
Our main opposition for the regatta is LIVING DOLL, the well performed Farr 55 owned by Michael Hiatt, and the new SHOGUN V, fresh from the AudiMed circuit and the very latest in TP52 design and technology. (Michael has been very generous in providing assistance to us for the regatta). Another well performing TP52 is CALM, a local Victorian boat, who we struggled to stay ahead of in Hamilton Island and likely to be very fast in expected lighter conditions and flatter water here.
Crew is much as before with the addition of William Tiller, a very successful young Auckland race matching sailor.
Weather has been hot, in the mid-30s, and expected to be much the same for the whole regatta.