Brisbane’s Bazinga Girls team are fully geared and ready to win the annual Mooloolaba Women’s Keelboat Regatta, to be held on July 30 – August 1.
This year six teams will contest for the trophy. Racing on the Mooloolaba Yacht Club’s Elliott 6 metre yachts is fairly straight forward but navigating the tight racecourse, located in front of The Wharf Mooloolaba, is another thing.
Reading the wind shifts as they twist and turn off the commercial precinct is all part of the challenge. Shutting out the noise of the cheering and ‘land admiral’ advice from the spectators located outside The Wharf restaurant strip is another.
Luckily for Megan Houston her Bazinga Girls team of Christine Mah, Adriana Brownlee and Alenka Caserman, are all very experienced when it comes to high pressure racing.
Houston has come from a dinghy racing background, while Brownlee races Etchells at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron. Last season Brownlee and her team won the Etchell division out of RQYS.
Casmerman has spent her recent sailing years racing offshore. She now has her eyes on competing in the 2024 Mini Globe solo, around-the-world race. Between preparing for the Mooloolaba regatta and her day job, Caserman is also busy building a Class Globe 5.80 yacht.
Mah, who owns the 32-foot Archambault Grand Surprise yacht Bazinga, has brought this impressive team together. She moved from crewing the yacht to owning it. Starting next year Mah plans to race with the team in the Brisbane to Gladstone Race and at Hamilton Island Race Week.
“We would love to go to Perth (Women’s national match racing championship), but it might be out of reach,” Houston said. “As a team we would like to be good enough to be in that league, but I don’t think we are at the moment. So, we will be doing this for a while until we get better.”
“We competed in the Mooloolaba regatta last year and we had so much fun. It was great for our skills development, great for our teamwork and it’s just a really fun and friendly regatta to do.”
The five other women’s teams taking part of the annual event are Mooloolaba Yacht Club skippers Tanya Kelly, Helen Wood and Lucy Osborne, Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron’s Tanya Ryan and Tweed Valley Sailing Club’s Madeline Lyons.
For all regatta information and results, see: http://www.mooloolabayachtclub.com.au/latest-womens-news/womens-keelboat-regatta/
Mooloolaba Yacht Club
