2026 Sail Port Stephens Commodores Cup Passage Series
Reports by Mark Rothfield
Small gains, big wins on a challenging Sail Port Stephens Day 2
Equal parts good strategy, judgement and random good luck. That’s the way one reasonably satisfied tactician summed-up Race 2 of the Pantaenius Australia Commodores Cup Passage Series sailed in brilliant sunshine on a sparkling inshore racecourse.
It turned out the best pressure of the day was 9-10 knots at the start and the end of proceedings with intermittent bouts of frustration and positivism in between.
A congested upwind start off Nelson Bay break wall required concentration during quick tacking past The Anchorage and into Salamander Bay, before making slow progress around the Soldiers Point island and eventually back to Nelson Bay.
Revolver
Blacksheep
Tow Truck
Jambo
Eventual PHS Division 1 2nd placegetter Jambo, Rob Carr and Stephanie Cook’s consistently well-performed Summit King 40, elected to go to the shore and then focused on the fickle favours the wind gods dispersed.
“We avoided the current and then hung on to the back of the faster boats to Corlette,” Carr explained. “Then we just concentrated on chasing the gusts and seemed to get a few of our own personal gusts with our new A1 spinnaker up.
“The A1 was the difference for us. Needless to say, the crew was very happy, with plenty of banter between the foredeck and back of the boat about how good a job they were individually doing,” he added.
Lake Macquarie boat Tow Truck , a Melges 32, secured the silverware in Division 1 from Jambo, with Seeking Alpha, the defending Commodores Cup holder securing third.
Michael Ritchie’s 38-footer took the honours in the Super 40 Class, with Ammonite, d’Albora Marinas Little Nico and Condor taking the line honours podium.
In Division 2 Jenny Danks and Greg O’Neill’s Sydney 36 King Tide made it two bullets from two outings, with Silver Lining and Absolut rounding out the podium.
It was a banner day for the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club crew capturing a rare triple – line honours, PHS and ORC Club honours.
“It’s not something that comes anyone’s way often,” a chuffed Danks admitted.
“Today we had a very average start with a light upwind leg against tide”, she said. “Most boats in the fleet worked up the channel with gusts that paid off from the shore and sometimes further out, with everyone having their moments.
“King Tide has been enjoying Sail Port Stephens for several years and we love the challenge of the variation of conditions that is generally on offer,” Danks enthused.
A fifth in Division 3 saw Adam Boslem’s Northshore 33 set the pace at the top of the overall divisional pointscore.
“We were looking forward to today’s race being a bit lighter to slow down the bigger boats with the waterline length,” Boslem said.
“Being one of the smaller boats in the division, it’s a lot harder off the start line, getting swamped by the bigger boats,” he revealed. “The biggest thing today was just to keep moving while searching for breeze and staying away from the sand banks which claimed a few victims.”
The Elliott 780 Blacksheep worked the tides to perfection to be top dog in Division 3 PHS for the day.
Stephen Phillps and his crew on Big Blue, a Beneteau 38 managed to avoid all the pitfalls of sandbars and wind holes to take out Division 4 by just nine seconds on corrected time from Max Wood’s Compass 38 Windwood.
In the Non-Spinnaker Division Sandy Hume’s Catalina 320 capitalised on being one of the smaller and lighter entries to turn the tables on her larger rivals who enjoyed the stronger breeze on Monday.
Wednesday is forecast to deliver more light winds but many crews would welcome the opportunity to tackle the longer but equally spectacular courses around the islands lying offshore from this premier sailing venue.
Sail Port Stephens is supported by the NSW Government tourism agency Destination NSW and Port Stephens Council.
Sail Port Stephens delivers a dream Day 1 for record fleet
A puffy 10-15 knot south-westerly breeze set the scene for a sparkling opening day of the 2026 Sail Port Stephens Commodores Cup Passage Series.
With 124 boats lining up for the spectacular downwind start off Nelson Bay breakwall, the big fleet was split into four manageable divisions. Division 1’s 28 entries featured an eclectic mix, from David Beck’s stately CNB 60 Journey to Peter Geddes’ well-known local flyer Road Runner, a Thompson 920.
But all tacticians attempted to maximise their boats’ tracks in the shifting breeze, around sandbars and on the tide-affected tight course inside Port Stephens’ magnificent natural harbour.
Absolut at the start
Namadgi
King Tide
Ca Va
Anarchy
Ammonite
Grant Pocklington’s Bakewell White 36 Anarchy from Pittwater got away cleanly in the leading pack and adroitly managed the subsequent various sail transitions to clinch first day PHS honours in Division 1.
For Pocklington it was a case of tapping into a store of knowledge – sailing and fishing.
“I’ve been up here game fishing for the past 20 years,” Pocklington reveals. “I know the sandbanks and the currents, that helps a lot,” he admits.
“We’ve done a lot of work on the boat to get the rig right,” he adds, also acknowledging it had been a two-year journey to get the New Zealand designed and built grand prix racer into its podium form.
“This is one of the great sailing courses in the world,” Pocklington adds. “You have wind, you have tide, you have physical obstacles you need to get around. It’s very challenging, but fantastic.”
Local knowledge is a major factor with Julian Bell’s Beneteau 51st Project and Ian Humphries’ Botin & Carkeek 42 Dirty Deeds from the Lake Macquarie Yacht Club slotting into second and third places. Linehonours went comfortably to Marcus Blackmore’s RP52 Ammonite.
Division 2 saw a tight battle between two Sydney boats, Jenny Danks and Greg O’Neill’s King Tide and Lee Haswley’s Andiamo, with King Tide prevailing.
In Division 3, Sail Port Stephens veteran Peter Lewis and his crew aboard Ca Va, a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 440, notched yet another win on their already impressive list. In a quirk that will take some repeating, Ca Va held out its bigger namesake CaVa, a Beneteau 50 from the Royal Motor Yacht Club.
“Today was just the perfect day out on Nelson Bay,” he relates. “After 19 years I never get sick of sailing here. We come together annually and see old friends and sail in one of Australia’s iconic destinations, in sunshine and surrounded by wildlife,” Lewis says. “How better to spend a week on your boat?”
The decent breeze proved to be the liking of Sweet Chariot, Sarah Breenan’s Dufour 365 Grand Large from the Gosford Sailing Club, while Namadgi 3 landed the first blow in the battle of the Bavarias in the non-spinnaker division.
After the day’s silverware was handed-out, the big Sail Port Stephens crowd was treated to a musical treat – a swinging performance by 80s Aussie rock icons GANGgajang.
With Tuesday’s forecast of an 8-knot breeze, crew are hoping for an instalment of the spectacular Round-the-Islands offshore passage racing that the regatta is renowned for.
Sail Port Stephens 2026 is supported by the NSW Government via its tourism agency Destination NSW, Port Stephens Council and subsidiary sponsors.
