2019 ORCV Women’s Skipper & Navigator Race required light wind sailing plans.

Winning skipper of Xenia, Edel Doyle revealed their successful plan. “We consulted multiple weather sources; Meteye, BOM and watched the ORCV Weather forecast provided Friday evening, and decided that the winds would be towards the middle of the bay on Sunday, so we stuck to our plan and sailed in that direction.”

Edel and Janette onboard Xenia Photo credit Rob Derrick

“The winds were only 3 knots at times gusting to 16 knots with light wind holes, whilst fewer wind holes than Saturday's race, it was very tricky. We found one large wind hole around lunchtime when Janette Connard was on the helm as I was having lunch. Janette did a brilliant job to keep the boat going and overtook the two Sydney 38’s at this point, we knew our decision to stay out in the middle of the bay was the right call,” said Edel.

Xenia is a XP33 owned by Koos Theron and was skippered during the ORCV Winter Series Race 2 to Blairgowrie by Phillip Connard as Koos is currently overseas. Edel who normally sails on another boat, had never met Phillip, Koos or Janette Connard prior to the Race to Blairgowrie. The decision to race in the Winter Series Women’s Skipper and Navigator Race was only made after seeing how well the team worked and their abilities during the race to Blairgowrie.

“We just gelled very well as a team!” said Edel. "I can’t thank Koos and Phillip enough for this special opportunity and so thankful to have a great crew supporting me, our Navigator (Janette) who stepped up had never been in that role prior. Janette was brilliant, keeping us informed, providing key information and feedback on how we were doing. Jeroen De Neve as head sail trimmer, Phillip on main sheet and Rob Derrick weather advisor prior to the race. I just knew that if we had any mechanical or technical issues, I would be well supported. Really great team work, listening and communicating as a team and thank you to the ORCV team as there’s a lot of work that goes into these races,” said Edel.

On behalf of all of us at ORCV, thank you to all competitors in 2019 ORCV Women’s Skipper & Navigator Race.

Women's Skippers & Navigator Race Full Race Results

Celia Dymond and Jacqui Thomas on Faster Forward photo Matt Fahey