Day 1 – Wild Oats reigns while sun shines for SPS Super Series
A combination of brilliant autumn sunshine and light north-easterly winds provided a spectacular backdrop for the opening day of Week 3 of Sail Port Stephens, comprising the Super Series for large racer/cruiser monohulls and an enthusiastic contingent of multihulls.
The Oatley family’s evergreen Reichel Pugh 66 Wild Oats X led the Super Racer Cruiser Division from the start off the Nelson Bay break wall out through the entrance to the Bay and to Cabbage Tree Island. The course then traced a figure eight around Little and Boondelbah Islands, before a nice long spinnaker run back to the finish back in Nelson Bay.
Wild Oats X © Promocean Media
With the breeze fluctuating between four to 10 knots, Phillip Neil’s Hoek TC78 Drumfire – undoubtedly the most stylish boat – found itself outpaced by its smaller, lighter rivals. Wild Oats X secured the double: first on the line and on PHS. Rob Aldis’ Mylius 50 Daguet 2 sailed consistently well to slot into second on PHS, with David Gotze’s immaculate Lyons Cawse 60 Triton rounding out the podium.
Triton © Promocean Media
Wild Oats X skipper Phi Harmer agreed the conditions favoured the optimised race boats: “It was a really nice course,” he said. “There were plenty of manoeuvres but the light winds made it pretty hard for everyone.
“It’s a bit of new era for us,” Harmer added. “Things are changing and it’s the start of something big I think.”
Oroton Drumfire © Promocean Media
The mini-maxi with the most famous pedigree in Australian yachting is about to notch-up two decades of a highly distinguished racing career but Harmer says they are far from done.
“It’s due for a few upgrades which should come on line over the next 12 months and that’s pretty exciting for the whole team.”
Spinnaker run home © Promocean Media
It was an auspicious debut outing for the Cat Division hoisting and unfurling their sails for the first time at Sail Port Stephens. The Division boasted a diverse range of multihulls, from a Lagoon 450 to a quartets of Seawind cats and four performance Corsair trimarans.
The light-displacement tris found the conditions to their liking and Michael Meehan and his two crew aboard Multihull Central Starship, a Corsair 760R, took PHS honours and was second over the line, behind Three Sum, a bigger Corsair 880 Sport.
Starship © Promocean Media
“Normally they (Three Sum) clear off so it was a fantastic day,” Meehan recounted. He was quick to point out the Corsairs’ all-round sailing ability, especially in a bit of breeze.
“In 20 knots we can do 12 knots upwind, downwind we can get to 17 or 18 [knots],” he said. “They are very forgiving. I like the 760 I can manage it, we can sail with a full rig in up to 20-25 knots.”
Meehan and every other sailor at Sail Port Stephens – including those aboard 90+ dinghies sailing the first day of the off-the-beach Bay Series – will no doubt be looking forward to another outing on Saturday and forecast stronger north-easterly winds reaching 15 knots.
Day 2 – No jacket required for Port Stephens perfection
Early risers for Day 2 of the Super Series at Sail Port Stephens packed an array of wet weather gear in their sailing bags as rainstorms stalked the entrance to the bay just after dawn.
But ultimately it was a case of no jacket required as the sun lit up the 25 nautical mile racecourse from the start off the Nelson Bay breakwall then on a long upwind leg to a mark just south of Broughton Island.
There was little time to take in the spectacular scenery, though, as spinnakers were hoisted for the trip back along the beach and back into the bay.
Peter Lowndes’s well-known Lyons 49 Wine-Dark Sea, despite being the smallest yacht in the Super Racer Cruiser Division, avoided the worst of a wind hole at the bay’s entrance and capitalised on using a spinnaker pole on the essentially elongated windward-leeward course to post its first win of the regatta.
Wine-Dark Sea © Promocean Media
“We saw a lot of funky stuff going on ahead and sailed in the breeze we got and then got a lucky little puff to get through [the hole],” Lowndes recounted. “As we came back through the heads we just did one gybe and made it to the finish on that – the pole made a difference as boats with ‘assyies’ had to do two or three gybes.
Lowndes thoroughly enjoys the Super Cruiser format. “We’re enjoying sailing up here, the camaraderie, the atmosphere and it’s only a day from Sydney,” he added.
The fresher breeze also meant Geoff Hill’s Santa Cruz 72 Antipodes could use its waterline length to advantage, securing second while the Oatley family’s Wild Oats X made another podium appearance.
Antipodes © Promocean Media
No boat has travelled further to be at Sail Port Stephens than Richard Freeborn and Alexandra Early’s Hawkeye, a Lagoon 450F. Roughly halfway through a circumnavigation from the UK they heard about a new division for multihulls at Sail Port Stephens.
“We’ve been in Port Stephens for a couple of weeks and we’ve watched the excitement build,” Alexandra said. “It’s been amazing, people watching from the beaches and waving at us. This is a lovely place to sail – the sheer scale of it, it’s marvellous.”
According to reviews the Lagoon 450F is “celebrated for its massive interior volume, comfortable living spaces, and stable, safe, family-friendly design.”
Hawkeye has no fewer than six fridges, two generators, two watermakers, dive gear plus a fully stocked cellar with dozens of premium vintages. Yet the crew notched a very respectable second behind Two Shea, a Lightwave 38 owned by Nicholas Jones.
“We did take the dinghy off and some spare fuel cans,” conceded Hawkeye co-owner Richard Freeborn. “It’s fantastic to be a part of this, the courses around the islands are stunning and tactical.”
OKs © Promocean Media
BAY SERIES
In off-the-beach results from the Bay Sailing Centre’s Bay Series, with almost 90 entries across the RS Aero, OK, Finn and Mixed Divisions, Ben Austin’s Shoobydoowah claimed three bullets to lead Unwarranted (Graham Baxendale) and Dr Aero (Neil Long).
James Bevis, sailing Jimmy Wong, was almost as dominant in the 14-strong Finn class, sitting on 4pts from three races ahead of Rob McMillan’s NB Sailsports and James Mayjor’s Does my bung look big in this.
Finn class © Promocean Media
Aboard his OK Dinghy Slake, Brett Morris posted 5pts to hold first place overall, with Splinter (Mark Rutherford) and 791 (Mark Skelton) in striking distance on 7pts and 9pts respectively.
After 30 mixed entries greeted the starter, it was the Spiral Smooth Operator that grabbed the overnight leader’s jersey on 18pts. Tim Brazier’s B14 Brazier was best of the rest, perched on 19pts, while The Dolphins are in the Jacuzzi (Steve Donovan) narrowly holds down 3rd spot, and the ILCA6 Kick (Peter Heywood) 4th.
ILCA6 Kick © Promocean Media
Crews are anticipating a near repeat of the banner sailing conditions for the final day of Sail Port Stephens, a 12-15 north-easterly for the final day’s racing.
Day 3 – Toasting with the sweet wine of success at Sail Port Stephens
The weather gods saved their most benevolent favours for the final day of racing of Week 3 of Sail Port Stephens, comprising the Super Series for large racer/cruiser monohulls and an inaugural division of multihulls.
The yacht fleet got cleanly off the line from the Nelson Bay breakwall in a 15 knot north-easterly, which translated into an upwind leg to Boondelbah Island before the first spinnaker leg south to a mark off Box Beach.
With the exception of Wild Oats X that led solo, the Super RC Division devolved into closely fought boat-on-boat match races: Triton and Antipodes, Dauget 2 and Drumfire, and Wine-Dark Sea and 51st Project.
51st Project © Promocean Media
The most intense duel, between Rob Aldis’ Mylius 50 Daguet 2 and Phillip Neil’s Hoek TC78 Drumfire, lasted right to the finish off Nelson Bay. with Daguet 2 just getting her bowsprit ahead for a two second winning margin.
The breeze built throughout the 28.5 nautical mile race, with gusts over 25 knots on the second downwind leg sending Wild Oats X surfing the offshore swells at 27 knots.
Wild Oats X © Promocean Media
A second on PHS in the fresh conditions clinched the overall Super Series trophy for Peter Lowndes and his clearly elated crew from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron on Wine-Dark Sea.
“The crew work this weekend has been fantastic,” Lowndes said of his Lyons 49 regulars. “I’m sailing with a bunch of my mates who happen to be really good sailors, but we are a Corinthian program. We’re not doing anything left-field, we don’t have a huge sail wardrobe.
Wine-Dark Sea © Promocean Media
“It’s been a great regatta, great courses racing around the islands here,” Lowndes continued. “We’ve had really good battles with 51st Project all weekend. It’s always good to have someone there who eggs you on and you know as long as you hold onto them you are going to get a good result.”
Julian Bell’s 51st Project had the distinction of sailing all 11 races over the three weeks of Sail Port Stephens 2026.
While Wine-Dark Sea edged-out Wild Oats X on PHS, the Oatley family’s Reichel Pugh 66 did pick-up the Super RC Division IRC title with a hat trick of bullets.
But possibly the happiest skipper and crew of the series was Paul Booth and his mates aboard Chillout who won the inaugural Cat Stephens Division.
Chillout © Promocean Media
“It’s been the best three days of racing for us ever,” a beaming skipper intoned. “It was about consistency, and in the end the slower, heavier boats got there,” Booth said, referring to the contest between his boat, a Seawind 1160 Lite, second placed Reflection, Paul Lehane’s Seawind 1260, and the faster, more nimble Corsair trimarans.
“We were really chuffed to be invited to come to Sail Port Stephens, hopefully there will be many more of us [multihulls] next year,” he continued. “Getting around the islands, getting around the lee of the islands, the back eddies, the current, it’s an interesting place to sail and that was one of the highlights for us.”
Bay Series
Over the weekend spectators could catch the action of the keelboat classes’ starts and finishes off the Nelson Bay breakwall then head up to the Bay Sailing Centre where 90 high-performance dinghies were racing across four classes.
Ben Austin on Shoobydoowah was a model of consistency in the RS Aero with five bullets, with Unwarranted (Graham Baxendale) and RATmobile (Gary Ratcliffe) slotting into second and third.
James Bevis, sailing Jimmy Wong, was equally impressive in the Finn class, finishing with four bullets and a second to clinch the class honours, from Rob McMillan’s NB Sailsports and Matt Visser’s Anika 100.
James Bevis Finn 37 © Promocean Media
Aboard his OK Dinghy Slake, Brett Morris held on to his lead from Mark Skelton (791) who notched a bullet in the final race, while Paul Foster (Toxic) rounded-out the OK podium.
In the Mixed Division the two Spirals of Smooth Operator (Joshua Passafaro) and The Dolphins are in the Jacuzzi (Steve Donovan) scooped the honours with first and second respectively, with the ILCA6 Kick (Peter Heywood) posting his best result, fifth, on the final race to secure third in the 30-strong fleet.
In wrapping-up the final event for Sail Port Stephens for 2026, founding Regatta Director Paul O’Rourke promised the 2027 20th-anniversary edition of one of the most popular regattas on the Australian sailing calendar would be even bigger and better. That’s good news for many sailors and a catalyst to book accommodation in this slice of sailing paradise.
Results: https://www.sailportstephens.com.au/results/
Sail Port Stephens YouTube: www.youtube.com/@sailportstephens2958
For more information, visit www.sailportstephens.com.au
Sail Port Stephens is supported by the NSW Government tourism agency Destination NSW, Port Stephens Council and subsidiary sponsors.
