Congratulations to Team Australia; Rod Waterhouse and Chris Way for winning the 2022 Worrell 1000.
The Worrell 1000 is an offshore long-distance beach catamaran sailboat race held in May 2022 in the Atlantic waters between Florida and Virginia Beach, Virginia. The motto of the race is: "Iron Men, Plastic Boats."
The origins of Worrell 1000 can be traced to a bet in a bar at the Worrell Bros., a Virginia Beach resort restaurant. The bet was between the owners of the bar, brothers Michael and Chris Worrell. The bet was that it was impossible to sail a sixteen-foot catamaran from Virginia Beach to Florida. On October 1, 1974, Michael Worrell and his crew Steve McGarrett left the Virginia Beach oceanfront with hopes of reaching Florida in one piece. Although they did not win the bet they still sailed through two hurricanes and had to make multiple boat repairs. After twenty days, they had to stop in Fort Lauderdale, Florida due to their catamaran being in poor condition.
Later, Worrell thought of turning the 954-mile journey into a regular regatta. The inaugural race, called "Worrell Bros. Coastwise Race", took place in May 1976. In 1979, Michael Worrell sold his half of Worrell Bros. to his brother Chris, who shortened the name of the race to Worrell 1000.
The teams, by invitation only, come from around the world and have come from as far away as South Africa and Australia, who, in 1981, was the second foreign team to win the Worrell 1000.
Rod Waterhouse has been travelling the planet for over 50 years on everything from Hobie 16’s to 60 footers as a serial weekend racer to hired delivery skipper. He’s also enjoyed many seasons captaining the family yachts while crossing oceans, canals and the Mediterranean with his wife Kerry and two children, Jason and Bridget, before settling in Pittwater. Rod and Kerry actually met racing Hobie 14s in 1975.
RPAYC member Chris Way has also had a passion for sailing for years, finishing 5th in a world sailing championship event in Sicily in 2017, in addition to a 2nd in the 2014 Platu 25 One Design Championship held at Ocean Marina, Pattaya, Thailand and is current Easy Tiger: Chris Way (Skipper). Easy Tiger secured podium position in the Ocean Marina Yacht Club PLATU Championship of Thailand 2022(30 April - 2 May 2022). This year’s Championship will be held over five rounds with a team’s best three scores to count. Fellow RPAYC members were on Easy Tiger with youth sailor Antony Hawke on bow, Andy Hewson (who just happens to be the GM of Tiger beer based in Singapore) on strings, Peter Winter on trim/tactics and Guy Kennard on main all the way from RPAYC Australia despite having to negotiate their way through restrictive Covid regulations. Team Oz comprising Brett Dryland, Rod Waterhouse, Evan Darmanin and Chris Way were also part of the rebadged Tour de France/Voile fleet which began from Dunkirk France in July 2015, so there's a long history of these crewmates taking on the best in the world in international sailing competitions.
After being cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Worrell 1000 came back in 2022 with 13 Teams keen to pit themselves against the elements, test themselves and each other. Crews from the Netherlands and Great Britian as well as the Australians were part of the 2022 Worrell 1000.
This year's Worrell 1000 comprised 13 (long) legs and 87 hours, 40 minutes and 44 seconds spent on the water by Team Australia put them in podium position ahead of 2nd: Team Fast Forward Composites - 90:35:38 and 3rd: Team Rudee's 91:45:38.
The sail sections this year were: Hollywood Beach to Jensen, Jensen to Cocoa, the Cocoa to Daytona was cancelled, Daytona to Jacksonville, Jacksonville to Tybee, Tybee to Folly Beach, Folly Beach to Surfside, Surfside to Wrightsville, Wrightsville to Atlantic Beach, Atlantic Beach to Hatteras, Hatteras to Kill Devil Hills, and Kill Devil Hills to Virginia Beach, along the East Coast of the United States.
Racing started on the beach adjacent to the Hollywood Beach Marriott on Monday, May 9th, 2022 and ran until Saturday May 21st, 2022 with the start in Kill Devil Hills NC on the beach adjacent to the Quality Inn Carolina Oceanfront.
There was an Awards Banquet on Sunday, May 22nd, 2022 for the racers, their teams and family members/crews as well as the Worrell 1000 Race Committee and Organising Authority members.
Team Australia's first place in 2022 backs up their 2019 Worrell 1000 Reunion Race win, with MC at the Awards Banquet stating:
''His first race was in 1981 – he has sailed 14 Worrells with 14 finishes and 5 wins. He started out in a Hobie 16 and sailed non-stop, sailing 4 ½ days; you guys who have done that know what that means. He was 22 years old and sailed with Brett Driven/Dryven, who was also 22 years at the time and is a lifelong friend. He has sailed with Don Wood, his father-in-law who has just recently passed, who was 44 at the time. The Press called them ‘an old man and a couple of kids’. 4 years later, here we are in 2022, Rod is 63, Chris is 64 – Chris is a lifelong friend and somebody who sails the blue water all the time – ladies and gentlemen your 2022 Worrell Champions – Team Australia; Rod Waterhouse and Chris Way. ''
Rod stated in accepting this year's win and trophy:
''Thank you everybody.
''I’m going over old ground but thank you to the race officials – John and Beverly in particular, Robin, Jeanine, Bill and Chuck.
This race is a volunteer run event. To keep this thing going after such a quiet time and reinventing it 3 years ago, none of us would have this opportunity to celebrate and move forward for the next generation – so thanks to the whole team, we really do appreciate it.
I want to acknowledge the other place getters; Team Rudee's, the two Rudys - Randy Smith and Dalton Trebo – I think we all know these are two super quick sailors, they are incredibly inspiring to us all. People are asking us if we’ll be back in 2 years time for the 50th and so the challenge is out there – Randy, if you do it, I’ll come in too. ''
(Laughs – big thumbs up.)
''Tommy, Team Fast Forward, it’s the same league again into Hatteras. We were close behind Tommy and were able to relax and put the GPS down because we had Tommy just in front of us and were super confident just following him. Next we saw something was wrong and he was rounding up, next thing he capsizes – things just got worse and worse.
The interesting thing is at that point we were suddenly the chief navigators, so – we have three devices on the boar; 2 phones and a wristwatch, so when Chris’ GPS packed up straight away so I knew it was down to me, ‘I’ll use the watch’ – the watch I couldn’t get started – it kept getting stuck on telling me how many steps I’d done for the day, so that was no good. (laughter). The last recourse was my phone – which was inside a condom because of what Randy had told me (louder laughter) – it worked, absolutely brilliant – but then I started scrolling and the thing broke! (more laughter)
I’d like to acknowledge my team – first off our sponsor Tony who has just done so much for us all – thank you Tony. Our incredible mechanic Brett White – Brett this boat was reliable, fast and he put us here, so thank you Brett for all your efforts. Last presentation I neglected to mention my beautiful wife, so this time, my wife and my best friend, Kerri, thank you.
To my team mate and mate Chris – thank you for being so tolerant of me.''
And then Rod said:
''Picture this – you are two on the wire going upwind in winds reaching 30, seas are 6 to 8 feet. You are cold and starting to shiver, your harness is digging into your hips and you’re trying to adjust your gear to relive pain in your kidneys and your back. Your life jacket is chaffing into your chin, your hand steering is going numb and you’re having to change grip constantly, you need to go to the bathroom but can’t as you’re in a race and stopping the boat is not an option. You don’t want to let your team mate down. You are hungry and thirsty but the food is not accessible in these conditions.
You see another huge wave in front peaking and you tighten up slightly as the boat rises before crashing back down, rig shaking. The cold wave hits the crew square and you duck behind the avoid the worst. He sheets back in the mainsail with hands you know are already blistering. A massive gust hits and shakes the boat. You just try to keep it from being thrown forward and keep it upright.
And the worst thing is, you look forlornly at your watch; it’s 11am – you are just one hour into a 10-hour leg upwind, all sailing in plastic boats!
Congratulations to all the competitors, I’m absolutely honoured to be among you and to be your friend.
Thank you.''
Brett White said; ‘’An absolute pleasure to be the team manager and such a humble experience to bring this together for the second time.’’
Mr. White as always, underplays his part in this iconic race. On May 13 he joined the team CAT in a HAT as a skipper.
He stated then; ''Excited sailing with Larry Ferber! Zack Panetti decided to withdraw from the race after extremely hard LEG2. He will be joining ground crew and do the pushing for Team Australia.''
This alone underlines the camaraderie that takes place between crew and team members for the Worrell 1000.
Past Unit Commander Victor Lawrence with current Unit Commander Jimmy Arteaga packing up the old Base building, May 22, 2022. Photo: Michael Mannington OAM, Community Photography
At the official commissioning of the Marine Rescue Broken Bay New BB30 - The Michael Seale - Pittwater MP Rob Stokes added further celebration to the Naming Ceremony when he announced 100 thousand dollars would be provided to upgrade the club rooms and base for the Marine Rescue Broken Bay unit through the state government's Community Building Partnerships.
At its April 2022 General Meeting the Council voted to accept the tender of Grindley Interiors Pty Ltd for RFT 2021/233 – Construction Services for Marine Rescue Rowland Reserve Building Replacement for the sum of $988,563.43 excluding GST. The building will be constructed with sustainable materials where feasible, ensuring compliance with the Building Code Part J requirements.
Council stated on Friday, May 27; Marine Rescue currently occupy a 20-year-old repurposed Council demountable which is in need of replacement. Council, with funding support from Marine Rescue NSW and the NSW Government, is removing the old demountable and constructing a new purpose-built building for their use. This building will be located in the same location, being a slightly larger single level building. To ensure the requirements for Emergency Operations and accessibility legislation are met, the design will require a slight increase of floor space from 116sqm to 180sqm. Please note that it will remain a single level building.
The new operations base is needed due to the significant boating increase that has occurred on Pittwater which is expected to keep growing into the future. The project was strongly supported by the community during the engagement process.
Marine Rescue has currently moved to a temporary base in the reserve. The works start June 6th and will take 5 months weather depending, ready for the busy Summer period.
The new design will continue to provide Sailability with shed and storage space. The President of Pittwater Sailability has been involved and informed to ensure the proposal will not impact their shed or usage of the depot.
Native species and other suitable plants will be incorporated into any gardens altered as part of the project.
Mayor Michael Regan said:
“It’s great to see this project commence, providing a modern updated home base for this important service which will cater for their needs now and into the future.”
Pittwater Online spoke to MRBB Unit Commander Jimmy Arteaga about this great new development for the Unit, as well as local and visiting boaters.
The April Council meeting selected the tender for the construction of the new Unit Base at Bayview, which, combined with that allocated by the NSW community Building fund and MRNSW, means works are just about to commence. Exciting times Jimmy?
Yes – although it has been a hard slog in the background across many years to get the approvals and this opportunity, so this is a fantastic result for Marine Rescue Broken Bay.
Where will Marine Rescue Broken Bay be based while the demolition of the old unit building and construction of the new takes place?
The Broken Bay Unit will be housed in demountables in the Rowland Reserve carpark during the construction phase. With thanks, The Northern beaches Council will be installing containers for our use. We’ll move our operations out of the Base to these containers to enable us to operate from them for around 8 months, which currently is the time scheduled for the build.
And Marine Rescue Broken Bay has a new boat on the way?
That is correct. Our current 6.5m Gemini RHIB has reached its end of life, and it’s possibly had a hard life, it’s our ‘go-to’ boat that we have used for fast response; it’s also been used in flood rescues up at Taree and again this year at Wiseman’s Ferry, and it’s completed many trips to Sydney Harbour as well on top of the frequent use around the waters of Pittwater and Broken Bay. Consequently, it has reached its end of life and we’re needing to get a replacement.
The new boat will be a split console Naiad RHIB, a little bit smaller than our current vessel at 7.5metres, and the first 7.5 vessel in the Marine Rescue fleet in this configuration. At this stage it will have twin 175 horsepower engines. It has been designed to have a drop-down bow as one of the learnings we found in helping people off beaches or off rocks with the Gemini, it was difficult to get ‘not so nimble’ people into the Gemini because of the high sides, therefore the drop-down bow on the new boat will make it a lot easier for people to get in and out of the new boat removing any potential injury.
When will you take delivery of the new vessel?
The build is nearly complete with the electrical fit-out currently underway. The new vessel is expected to take its maiden voyage on Monday, May 30th, to be followed by sea trials late May up at Yamba (where it is being built), before it heads to the waters of the Pittwater in mid-June. The boat is scheduled to enter active service in the second half of July.
We had been expecting the delivery sooner but due to floods and Covid, we’ll see it in use in the second month of Winter.
New MRBB vessel - build currently being finalised. Photo: courtesy MRNSW
Pittwater MP Rob Stokes, NSW Minister for Infrastructure, Cities and Active Transport, who visited MRBB on their last pack up day, Sunday May 22nd, said “This is one of our community’s most important volunteer organisations and the service they provide is superb.
“There is such an incredible depth of knowledge and experience amongst the unit’s volunteers – meaning our local boaters are in excellent hands.
“Marine Rescue is one of those services you never want to call upon – but it’s great to know they’re available when necessary.
“It’s been fantastic to see progressive upgrades introduced to the Unit’s equipment and wharf infrastructure over recent years – but the new base will be a huge boost for our community.''
Marine Rescue Broken Bay Unit Members and visiting Hon. Rob Stokes, MP for Pittwater, Sunday May 22nd, 2022. Photo: Michael Mannington OAM, Community Photography.
May 26, 2022
Member for Pittwater Rob Stokes visited Mona Vale Public School today to view the start of construction on the school’s new performing arts centre.
The facility is part of the major upgrade already underway at Mona Vale Public School, delivering state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor learning spaces, new school hall and canteen, and upgraded support facilities.
“This is an exciting time for students and our wider community,” Rob Stokes said today.
“The works underway throughout the school campus are delivering generational improvements and are setting a new benchmark for our local education facilities.
“The new performing arts centre will become a focal point of the school and provide opportunities never before available to local students.
“Through innovative shared-use arrangements, the wider community will also be able to benefit from this dedicated performance facility,” Mr Stokes said.
Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell celebrated the start of construction works and said the new performing arts centre will be an important addition to the Mona Vale campus.
“The new performing arts centre will benefit the school and the local community for years to come,” Ms Mitchell said.
“Our schools are the centre of our communities. The upgrade at Mona Vale Public School is part of the government’s commitment to support families in this area.”
The new Performing Arts Centre will provide space for an audience of approximately 200 seated visitors and will provide theatre performance space and a space for music rehearsals and dance performances.
The performance space will complement the existing school hall and provide dedicated performing arts space for the school and community.
The NSW Government is investing $7.9 billion over the next four years, continuing its program to deliver 215 new and upgraded schools to support communities across NSW. This is the largest investment in public education infrastructure in the history of NSW.
MVPS Principal - Ms Shannan Judge and Pittwater MP Rob Stokes, NSW Minister for Infrastructure, NSW Minister for Cities and Active Transport in MVPS construction site
Background
A construction contract was awarded to Stephen Edwards Constructions. PMDL are the Architects for the build. PMDL have international expertise in the education, commercial, workplace, retail, leisure and hospitality sectors. Previous school projects include Saint Ignatius’ College Therry Building, Saints Peter and Paul Assyrian Primary School, and Pymble Ladies’ College Kate Mason Senior Learning Centre among many other outstanding projects.
The project will deliver:
- A new Block R building containing 6 learning spaces and 3 support classes
- Upgrading and refurbishing Blocks B, D, E and H
- A new Block S Performing Arts Centre
- A new staff and administration space within Block R
- Removing Blocks C and G and improving open space and connectivity throughout the school for all students
The project has been designed to meet the following sustainability principles:
- Reducing greenhouse gas emissions
- Maximising indoor environmental air quality
- Resources conservation and management
- Careful selection of materials
- Minimising natural resource consumption and waste.
The sustainability aims for this project will be met by minimising the consumption of energy, water and material resources during construction, and through facilities designed to use energy and water efficiently.
This will be achieved through the installation of high efficiency fixtures and fittings such as ventilation, air-conditioning, lighting, water fixtures, solar panels and harvesting of rainwater. We will also investigate options to recycle and repurpose all materials we remove as part of this project, and the project will use renewable resources where possible.
We are targeting 4 star Green Star accreditation for Buildings R and S, which is a Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) certification that rates how sustainable a facility is. The project has registered with the GBCA to begin the accreditation process.
We recognise the many heritage features of the school that celebrate Mona Vale Public School’s legacy and history. We will continue to work in close consultation with the principal to preserve the heritage features on the school grounds.
Updates and Progression of Works
Site establishment as part of main works construction commenced in June 2021. Block G was fully demolished and the contractor continued with civil works. The first major concrete pour was completed for the new Block G by September 2021.
Major refurbishment of Building E commenced with work on the lift shaft expected to begin in mid-September 2021. Further major refurbishment of Building N was expected to start in December 2021.
By December 2021 Construction of the new Block R was continuing. The ground floor concrete slab and level 1 suspended concrete slab had been poured, the accessible pathway to the lift completed, and the sandstone blocks that form the Special Education Learning Unit (SELU) classroom covered outdoor learning area (COLA) installed.
Works continued over the summer school holidays and included; Block R upper-level concrete slab pours; landscaping to the area between Block R and the upper quadrant; and the start of refurbishment works to Block E, the Hall and Block N.
Refurbishments to student amenities, the Hall and Block E were expected to be completed in early Term 1, 2022, along with the new canteen.
Works to complete the new Block E lift were scheduled to continue throughout Term. 1, 2022.
The reinstatement of the School’s Time Capsule coincided with the landscaping works to Building R in 2022.
MVP School’s Time Capsule in 2012 - part of Mona Vale Public School's Centenary Celebrations in 2012
The May 2022 Update from the NSW Government's Department of School Infrastructure Progress summary provides:
We worked hard during the Easter break to complete most of the work in Block E. This includes finishing the homebases, hall and new canteen. We also completed the junior covered outdoor learning area (COLA). All of these were completed in time for staff and students to enjoy them from Day 1 Term 2.
Work is continuing on the lift in Block E and refurbishment of amenities in Block N.
Construction of the new building (Block R) has progressed since our last update, with the roof and brick façade now nearing completion. Internal fit out of the building is underway and will continue through the next quarter.
Works have also started on the refurbishment of existing learning spaces and ground works for the new performing arts centre.
Refurbished learning space in Block E at Mona Vale Public School now being used by students
Students and staff in the refurbished hall at Mona Vale Public School
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