The 13^th Annual Catalina Yacht Owners Rendezvous was held at LMYC Belmont, on beautiful Lake Macquarie.  The gathering kicked off on Friday afternoon with Catalina’s turning up to dock at LMYC and enjoy happy hour along with the buffet BBQ by onsite caterer Crusoe’s on the Lake.

Commodore of the Club and Catalina 36 owner, Bill Chaseling (“Windchaser”), welcomed the 14+ strong fleet at the Saturday morning briefing. We made a special welcome for the crew of “Cool Change” a Catalina 320 sailed down to the lake from her home port of Port Macquarie by her owner Teddy Clausen, and first mate Mick.

The helpful LMYC Race Committee and every other expert on site had no idea what the weather would bring, so a default plan of a motor sail around the course taking in the sights of Wangi, Swansea channel, Pulbah Island was put in place in the event the wind would have a day off.  However, Huey was on our side and delivered a gusty W/NW breeze for the start of the non-spinnaker Pulbah Passage Race.  The whole fleet managed a clean start with the tricky and testing breeze dying out at Wangi Point and turning into a nice light E/Southeaster which stayed in for the remainder of the day. A few (wind) holes on the course tested the skippers’ abilities and caused some interesting light air racing and positional change throughout.
After the race, crews enjoyed canapes, drinks and swapped stories on the deck at LMYC. The new clears on the deck were very welcome when the heavens opened up, so everyone stayed dry and very happy! 

A festive presentation dinner was held in the waterside marquee with some excellent food and wine by Crusoe’s preceding the prize-giving ceremony, and of course the varied debrief of the day’s sailing.  This year we had a Hawaiian theme, which was very popular and of course colourful.

Young Sailors après sail

LMYC proved to be the ideal venue with plenty of marina space for visiting yachts, an outstanding deck area for happy hour and air-conditioned comfort for the briefing and debrief on what was to prove another great gathering of Catalina Yachts, owners and crews.

The results of the Pulbah Passage Race are:
1st Overall: C36 “Windchaser”, Bill and Deborah Chaseling; LMYC
2nd: C30 “Pacifica”, Rod and Sharon Mackay; LMYC
3rd: C310 “Sagacious”, Glenn and Rosalie Shepherd
4^th: C22 “Tonic”, Mark McLaren; SLASC
5^th: (and Line Honours) C42, “Isis”, Don Nott/John O’Rafferty, RMYCT
Ladies Skipper for 2017: Maria Mawkes, of C320 “Ubuluku”, LMYC
Special thank you to the generous sponsors Club Marine, RA Mackay Yacht Brokerage, Lake Macquarie Yacht Club Belmont, Rob’s Marine Surveying, BULC B&B Belmont

Rod and Sharon Mackay Rendezvous Organisers

for more information about the annual Catalina Rendezvous contact us 

The boys at the briefing

Hawaiian Presentation Night LMYC

The briefing before the big sail LMYC

Hold on tight! Wind shift coming!

Morning Tea to die for at the briefing

Nice start to Sunday