ORCV Melbourne Winter Series (MWS)

Voiles et Voiliers.

Sailing and Yachts... Hhhmmmm. Well, we're all sucked in by them in some way, shape or form. Stephane Howarth has been sailing in Melbourne for quite a few years now, primarily on Sydney 38's. So what do you do next? Buy one, of course!

I got a chance to speak with her recently, after I had spotted the new name appearing in the MWS entrants list. "Mille Sabords is not a new yacht, she was manufactured in 2000. We have just picked her up from the CYCA in Sydney. She has a good track record racing in NSW and has been well maintained by previous owners", Stephane enthused.

"Funny little problems we found on the way..... Sydney birds are quite ferocious, they ate the VHF antenna and the steaming light wires", said Stephane.
"Now in answer to your question, yes, I am a Tintin fan. A huge enthusiast, in fact - I have the complete collection of Tintin cartoons, which I have read many times. Mille Sabords is Capitaine Haddock's favorite curse. It stands for 'one thousand gun ports', literally meaning 'I will scuttle you with my thousand canons', as the verb saborder means to scuttle. As you pretty much surmised, I am French and so are quite a few of our crew members. Like you, I have no idea how 'Mille Sabords' got translated as 'blistering barnacles' in the English Tintin books. Go figure huh?"

"Attached are a couple of pictures of the yacht. In this episode, we learn that if you let go of the main halyard at sea, it goes all the way up the mast and back down inside the mast (shackle and all)... Then you have to free climb up the forestay to the top of the mast and drop a mouse line down to hoist it all back up. Needless to say, we exhausted all of Capitaine Haddock's wonderful vocabulary on this one!!!" 

"If all goes well, you should see Milles Sabords on the water quite often. We are planning to do all the major inshore and offshore races, as well as the One Design events", ( for which the Colts have another installment arriving soon).

All I can really add then for the other vessels out there, is don't get lined up for a broadside!

If you have all your paperwork in place, then you can still enter the MWS and see how you match up to the Bay's battle hardened crews, of which there are now 36 of them (as of 30/06/10), just by getting the NOR and complete the online entry for the 2010 MWS, right HERE. Come on. What else are you going to do? Stay warm, sit in front of the fire and drink red? BTW, the M2G is HERE and remember that Cruising Divisions will be offered for this particular event.

By John Curnow