Two years ago Animus missed the Adams 10m Nationals due to a broken mast, this year it looked like we would miss out again. Animus has not sailed this season due to work commitments and doing the Nationals just went into the too hard basket. With no regular crew and some maintenance required there was a lot to do. This is when Live Sail Die stepped in and asked what it would take to make sure we made it to the Adams 10m Nationals at Lake Macquarie.

After calling one of my regulars Tom Freeman who has sailed with me since the Flying Eleven days we decided to give it a go at putting a team together. He made a few calls and managed to get a mate of his who he sails Farr40's with as well as match racing in the youth fleets. Dave Chapman was in which makes three.

It was then that I called Big Dave Nelson. Dave was part of the winning crew back in 2002 when Animus was known as SSV under the ownership of the White family. I was part of the crew then along with my father Phil Yeomans and Dave has sailed with us on many occasions since.

My good friend and Two-handed partner in crime Kate Cooper was in "if we really needed her" even though she should be finding a new place to live. I did try and now with just 5 days to go Kate is definitely in.

This is where the internet came into play with Facebook and 12' skiff sailor Brad Greenrod saw that I was putting a team together and sent me a message that he was interested. We now have a crew!

Next step was to get Animus up to Lake Macquarie and looking at Seabreeze a week delivery would have been very wet bashing into strong Noreasters. So Sunday morning with the help of my father and our shorecrew (Mum) Animus arrived at the lake. It was a very long motor without much breeze. I managed to take just a couple of photos during the trip. If you have never been into the Lake check out the the video on the Adams 10m Website. I did not take any photos or video going up the channel this time around as we were warned by the Coast Guard twice that several boats had to be pulled through the day before. In fact they had already had three that morning and whilst we were going through a smaller boat along side was not paying enough attention and ran aground. It is only about 1.2 to 1.4 metres deep in parts at high tide so it is a bit of an experience to say the least when your draft is 1.8m. Let alone the rushing tide through such a small channel.

So Animus is now at LMYC ready to compete in another Nationals. This is something I have done since I was a kid as my Uncle and Father have sailed the 10's my whole life and now I do. It is always remarkably close racing with as many as half the fleet a good chance when they are having their good day. Ben Nossiter after roughly 20 years of trying finally claimed victory at last years titles. Animus is out defend our title, the 'Pat Carroll Memorial Trophy' for the first placed timber seat yacht. However as we have proven in the last 10 years just because we have timber seats does not mean we won't be up there at the front of the fleet.

Who's turn will it be this year? We will have to wait and see. After all you have to be in it to win it!

Melissa Yeomans
Owner and Skipper of Animus

This years Adams 10m Nationals was all about Eat My Shorts, skippered by Chris Villa. Held at Lake Macquarie the local boat cleaned up the fleet of 16. With some of the closest racing seen for a while the competitive fleet included eleven making the trip up from Sydney Harbour.

Eat My Shorts however was the star of the show figuring in the placing of each race. This was their first win having placed on previous occasions. Saturdays racing was held in a hot Westerly, whilst the remainder of the event was held in a good sailing Southeaster. Star performer on Sunday however was MHYCs 2004 and 2006 winner Another Dilemma [Tim Gallego], taking the honours in 2 of the 3 races.

Series runner up, Backchat [Adrian Roche] also from LMYC was consistent throughout the racing. Last year’s winner Ben Nossiters (MHYC) Sirius couldn’t find the form from last year finishing fourth.

Throughout the weekend racing was close with the top ten not being decided until the conclusion of the last race. With only one General Recall during the entire series and no protests this made for enjoyable racing.

The Pat Carroll Memorial Trophy for first timber seater (Mark I boats) was won by Melissa Yeomans onboard Animus (MHYC) for the second year running. There were 4 boats competing for this Trophy commissioned in the memory of Class Stalwart Pat Carroll. Animus which is 30 years old and One, Craig Douglas prove that these boats can still be competitive in most conditions.

The crew of Animus are happy with our result as such a last minute entry. To be rounding the top mark with the leaders who had been in training was a fantastic effort. It was great to have Animus back out on the water and I had many other sailors tell me it was great to see us there. Now it is time to get back to work!

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