Cockburn Sound Regatta

05/01/2026

The Cockburn Sound Regatta, organised and run by The Cruising Yacht Club of WA, is a 4 day event held from Boxing Day on the beautiful and protected waters of Mangles Bay off Rockingham. The SW sea breezes predominated although the Easterly gave the fleet some different conditions on a couple of mornings to mix things up. The racing was tight and interesting with some close finishes.

The race from Fremantle to Rockingham is the feeder race for any metropolitan based yachts and this year, only 11 faced the starter’s gun to make the 14 nautical mile trip down from Fremantle to join the rest of the fleet. Several boats chose to come down before Christmas or earlier on Boxing Day to avoid the bash to windward and to watch the racers arrive.

The wind was in early blowing about 15 knots, so the fleet had to work down the coast, and the spectators were treated to a close finish with Ian Joel’s Dixon 46 Jubilant just pipping David Atkinson’s Jeanneau Sunfast 3600 Tapestry, by just 16 seconds. The winner on adjusted time was Sagacious IV skippered by Chris Hind followed by Jubilant and Max Palleschi’s Farr 40 Prime Factor making a welcome return to the regatta after some years getting lost in Indonesia.

11 WindsurferLTs joined us this year and they were very happy with the racing put on by Dubbo White and his team. They got through 14 races over 3 days in conditions of their choosing and the result was certainly close. After the final race, Tina Harrison and PJ Backshall both had scores of 60 gross and 44 net after dropping 2 races. Tina was awarded the win on countback with 1 first place to PJ’s zero wins.

The regular fleet was slightly down this year with a couple of late withdrawals making a final total of 41 boats of various sizes and designs competing in the regatta. They were divided into 2 Spinnaker Divisions, 3 Jib and Main Classes, and a Sportsboat fleet. With flat water and consistent breezes, it’s no wonder that this is the place to be after Christmas for those boats not travelling to National Titles.

Conditions were extremely demanding on the afternoon of the second day with Trevor Taylor’s Runnalls 8 No Etiquette carelessly losing a crew overboard following a spectacular broach under spinnaker. Greg Hill stood by on Not Negotiable to pick up Keith and later transfer him back to his rightful spot on the Sportsboat. Greg was later awarded a special prize for his selfless act and was given redress by the Race Committee for the time that he lost.

In Division 1 Witchy Woman skippered by Alan Anderson was a convincing winner from Jos Colvin’s Flying Tiger 10 Wild One. Tapestry was relegated to 3rd position on countback. Jolie Breeze skippered by David Hepburn won the IRC Trophy with what was nearly a clean sweep spoiled only by a 2nd placing in the final race.

The number of entries into Divisions 2 and 3 were not enough to make up separate fleets so they were combined into one Division 2, so the racing was well spread out but still keenly contested. A local trimaran Dracarys raced and was unlucky to finish the second race on 28th at the same time as a runabout, carelessly anchored on the beach, chose to drift through the mooring area and into the jetty. Unfortunately the tri was unable to avoid being collected by said drifter and suffered some rudder damage, knocking her out of the regatta until the final race.

K-Factor followed up last year’s Division 2 win with another one. Bruce Uren’s SS24 Wildfire was one point behind with Lady Irene coming in 3rd place. Special mention should be made of the little Swarbrick 20 and Sam Threlfall for completing the testing afternoon race on the 28th, with only 2 crew onboard.
The Jib and Main entrants were divided into 3 fleets and in JAM 1, Prime Factor sailed consistently to win from Ken Waller on Jean Genie with another Farr 40 Southern Star coming in 3rd. To this author’s knowledge, Ken has been sailing these waters for over 55 years and possibly longer. Jean Genie is based in Busselton and It’s this sort of loyalty to the event which makes it what it is. It was a shame to see another stalwart Deckchairs Overboard have some gear problems and have to retire from the event.

Ross Norgard’s consistent performer Salacia II was winner of the IRC Division being able to drop a 2nd placing for a perfect score of 6.

Phil Somerville on Huckleberry started slowly but built momentum to win JAM 2 by 2 points from John Holder making a welcome return to the regatta on Amigo Claire. The Black Smoke (Jeremy Kerr) came in 3rd place just holding out sistership Farrouk.

Amigo Claire was the winner on IRC with a clean sheet of wins.

JAM 3 was particularly close with all 3 places up for grabs in the final race. It was local hero John Brabazon doing enough to win by 2 points from Indulgence II (Basil Collins) and David Hanham skippering Random Times, separated on countback.

The Sports Boats were remarkably close on the water as they were always in touch with each other making for extremely interesting viewing from the shore and on water. Trevor Taylor recovered from the MOB incident to take out the win from the ever consistent Shane Phillips on Parabellum, showing his father Kevin the way home. Shane also won the CBH event.

Womens RAMP, skippered by Nele Soeker, was right in the series until having to retire from one race with gear problems and being unable to effect repairs in time for the following race.

The Overall Regatta Champion is determined by a formula taking into account a boat’s gross points score and the sum of the total numbers of boats starting in each race in each Division.

In an extremely close decision, Rose finished on 0.455, Prime Factor on 0.435 and Huckleberry on 0.424 with Huckleberry being declared the winner and Overall Regatta Champion.

Our thanks go to all of our volunteers including the teams on the water driving the Start Boats, running the races, ferrying competitors around, laying marks and rescuing sailors. Also to those running the pontoon, selling merchandise, operating the radio, recording results, feeding sailors and solving problems.

All photos taken by Kingsley Klau from PhotoCoffee. Photos from the regatta can be viewed and downloaded from

https://www.tcyc.com.au/web/pages/cockburn-sound-regatta

For results please go to Sportspage.com.au

http://www.sportspage.com.au/

28/12/2025

More pics fromn Ben Swarts

28/12/2025

Photos can be viewed and downloaded from here:

28/12/2025

Photos from the SR taken by our official photographer Kingsley Klau, can be viewed and downloaded at

27/12/2025

Some photos from Day 1 taken by Ben Swarts

27/12/2025

27/12/2025

Results for the CSR are here:

06/08/2025

Nominations are now open for the 68th CSR so get your nominations in early to secure a mooring, by clicking on the following link.

https://tcyc.com.au/csr/nominate-now

The cost is $320 but make sure that you use the code

csr2025 to ensure that you don't pay a booking fee.

Here's the report from last year to remind you of how much fun and good racing you can have at the regatta.

The Cockburn Sound Regatta, organised and run by The Cruising Yacht Club of WA, is a 4 day event held between Boxing Day held on the beautiful and protected waters of Mangles Bay off Rockingham. Once again conditions were excellent for the 67th regatta, with the breeze varying from 0 to 25 knots and anything in between. There were a couple of delayed starts, but everything went well, and all races were completed. The racing was tight and interesting with some close finishes.

The race from Fremantle to Rockingham is the feeder race for any metropolitan based yachts and this year, only 14 faced the starter’s gun to make the 14 nautical mile trip down from Fremantle to join the rest of the fleet. Several boats had checked the forecast and had chosen to arrive at their leisure, to avoid the predicted Southerly.

The SSW sea breeze was in early reaching 20 knots and this suited Ray Martin’s Farrier Trimaran Beatrix which took line honours in under 2 hours. She missed out on the win however with another former winner Greg Hill, taking 1st place by just over a minute, in his UFO 34, Not Negotiable. K-Factor skippered by David Thoms, took 3rd place.

17 Windsurfers LTs joined us this year for the first time and provided spectators with some fantastic viewing and another dimension to this ever popular regatta. Craig Bell won this PBH regatta convincingly from Mike Galvin and Gordon Salvage who were tied on points with the former taking 2nd place on a countback. By all reports the competitors were delighted with the format of the Handicap based competition giving all entrants a realistic chance of stepping onto the podium. The racing schedule was tailored to their liking with Race Officer Dave White running races in the afternoons and bringing them forward on the final day at their request.

We are told they are keen to return next year and hope they will spread the message far and wide.

The regular fleet was slightly down this year with a couple of late withdrawals making a final total of 43 boats of various sizes and designs competing in the regatta. They were divided into 3 Spinnaker Divisions, 3 Jib and Main Classes, and a Sportsboat fleet. With flat water and consistent breezes, it’s no wonder that this is the place to be after Christmas for those boats not travelling to National Titles.

Another multihull in Big Puss, a Grainger Raider catamaran, joined the Division 1 fleet and took a little while to get going, as her skipper Michael Sproxton is learning how different she is from a monohull. However, he learned quickly enough to win Division 1 on a countback, from Chris Hind’s Farr 40, Sagacious IV. Ross Norgard’s former Admiral’s Cupper Salacia II was a further 2 points back but took the honours in the IRC competition with 6 wins out of 8 races.

K-Factor backed up her impressive performance in the Race to Rockingham with a dominant win in Division 2. She won well from Nigel Smith’s Flying Tiger 10 Let’s Dance, who just pipped the S97 Jolie Breeze skippered by David Hepburn.

In Division 3, Bruce Uren backed up his performance last year by guiding Wildfire to a win on countback from Chris Davey’s Cole 23 Dreamweaver. Harry Wright skippering the Ross 780 RedRum was 3rd and sailed very impressively to be fastest in every race. Local boat Rose was unlucky to sustain some damage to the mast plate and had to retire from the regatta and call on the Race Officer Trevor Milton, to drive a crane to centre her on her jinker at the hardstand. There’s no end to the man’s talents!

The Jib and Main entrants were divided into 3 fleets and In JAM 1, Deckchairs Overboard skippered by Wendy Harrison took out the win by 3 points from Michael Giles’ Endorfin who was level with Rick Hoad’s Serendipity. Special mention should be made of Eugene Johnsen’s Bavaria who was mismatched in JAM 1 but persisted in every race to finish in 4th place.

James Pattison sailed the S80 Surcouf consistently well to claim the honours in JAM 2 by 2 points from the consistent S&S34 Huckleberry (Phil Somerville) with Jason Poutsma driving Stimulus Package to 3rd place. Jason provided a highlight for the finishing crew and spectators onshore as he demonstrated how to retrieve a MOB just short of the finishing line, while avoiding other fast finishing boats.

JAM 3 was another interesting fleet with some extremely close racing. Andrew McAuliffe skippered the Spirit 28 Asti to a close win from the Spacesailer 27 Random Times, skippered by David Hanham. Anita Wyntje ended up 3rd on Ocean Street after receiving redress in one race to be awarded average points, after stopping to provide assistance to a man overboard from another boat.

The Sports Boats were remarkably close on the water as they were always in touch with each other making for extremely interesting viewing from the shore and onwater. Trevor Taylor sailed No Etiquette consistently to win by just one point from Geoff Oliver’s Bull 7000 Excitabull. Geoff came all the way from Albany to provide another highlight for spectators one lunchtime, when his boat slowly dragged her anchor off the shore and floated through the moored fleet. Luckily, damage was averted by one of the RIB crews who bolted down their lunch and claimed salvage rights.

We were able to conduct an interesting Class Based Handicap series in conjunction with the PBH event this year, as all the Sport Boats had current CBH ratings. The winner was Parabellum skippered by local Shane Phillips. Hopefully more Sports Boats with current CBH ratings will join us next year.

The Overall Regatta Champion is determined by a formula taking into account a boat’s gross points score and the sum of the total numbers of boats starting in each race in each Division.

David Thoms on K-Factor had a fantastic regatta, coming 3rd in the Race to Rockingham, 1st in Division 2, winning the award for Best Dressed Crew and winning the Overall Regatta Champion Trophy.