The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron over the years has been given some magnificent perpetual trophies and last Saturday the four mixed handicap divisions of the RSYS spring/summer pointscore fleet each raced for one of these trophies.
These trophies, and others to be sailed for over the season, encapsulate the history of yacht racing with the Squadron over the past 145 years and are inscribed with the names of the most successful yachts that have raced over that period.
On Saturday, Division 1 raced for the Duke of Gloucester Cup, Division 2 for the Carleton Cup, Division 3 for the Tarring Cup and Division 4 for the Rawson Cup. For the Etchells fleet Saturday was the second race for the Club Championship and first qualifying race for the Etchells World Championship. For the Dragon class it was the second race in the Gold Cup series.
In total contrast to the previous Saturday, it was a perfect sunny spring day for sailing with the sou’wester easing away during the morning, to be replaced by a steady sou’ sou’ easter of 12-15 knots during the afternoon.
Division 1 raced for the Duke of Gloucester Cup presented by the Duke (brother of King George VI) after his arrival in Australia in 1945 to take up the position of Governor General. Flag Officers of the RSYS stepped down one position to enable the Duke to be elected Commodore.
The first race for the Duke of Gloucester Cup in November 1946 was won by Sir Claude Plowman’s Morna which went on to take line honours in the 1946 Sydney Hobart Race, the first of six line honours wins in the ocean classic as Morna and then as Kurrewa IV, owned by Frank and John Livingston.
The 2007-2008 winner of the Duke of Gloucester Cup is Charles Curran’s Sydney 60 Sydney which led the 20-boat fleet (the largest Division 1 fleet so far this season) around the 16 nautical mile course to win on corrected time from Bill Meiklejohn’s Jutson 15 Braveheart and Anthony Coleman’s Rod Johnstone-designed 12m sloop This is a J-120 production yacht which are very popular in the USA.
Sydney leads the fleet away
The Carleton Cup (Division 2) was presented to the Squadron in 1900 by T.H.Kelly Snr, a leading citizen of Sydney, following the election of his son T.H.Kelly Jnr, then aged 25, to membership of the RSYS. The younger Kelly bought the old yawl Electra. The original deed of gift was the Carleton Cup be for perpetual annual competition for yachts over 10 rating on a course that included an ocean leg.
Winner of the inaugural Carleton Cup race was the highly successful Thelma, owned by Past Commodore Dr Alexander MacCormack, his last race before leaving for South Africa to serve in Boer War. Knighted in 1913, he again served as Commodore from 1913-1920.
Unfortunately, Division 2 attracted only three starters, the other six entrants in this division generally racing in the Offshore Division. Winner of the Carleton Cup was Nicholas Hogg’s Jeanneau Spirit of Freya by just seven seconds on corrected time from Freya, a Hanse 40 owned by a syndicatre comprising A.King/H.Ranck/T.Carroll andW.Hutchinson), third place going to Double Trouble, Steve Wyatt’s 35-footer.
The Tarring Cup (Division 3) was presented in 1924 as a new trophy for the 21-foot Restricted Class by C.J.Henty, a descendant of Thomas Henty from the village of West Tarring, near Worthing in Sussex, who with his sons established the first farming settlement in Victoria, at Portland Bay, in 1834.
Winner of the first annual contest for the Tarring Cup in 1924 was Corella, the 21-footer owned by Lord Forster, the Governor General of Australia, Commodore of the RSYS and an active yachtsman. He presented the Forster Cup for interstate competition in the 21-foot Restricted Class, an event that some enthusiasts are trying to revive.
The 2007-2008 Tarring Cup winner is the Beneteau 35s5 Alouette (John & Judy Waring) who moved from Division 2 to Division 3 this season. Alouette, which also took line honours, won from John Jeremy’s East Coast 31 Tingari and Robert Albert’s Beneteau 305 Norn, only four seconds separating 2nd and 3rd.
Aloutte
The Rawson Cup (Division 4) dates back to the early 1900s when Admiral Sir Harry Rawson became Governor of New South Wales and presented the Squadron with the Cup. The first winner in the season of 1906-07 was the schooner Bona which went on to win it again the following season.
Another famous yacht of that era, Thelma, won it in the Squadron’s Jubilee Year of 1912 but at the end of the season she was wrecked near the ‘bombora’ off Dobroyd Point after being dismasted in a vain attempt to rescue a man overboard. A lifeboat safely rescued the rest of the crew, including owner Charles Lloyd Jones.
The Division 4 fleet enjoyed a great race after the previous Saturday gale that saw only one finisher. Whilst Tom Cehak’s Farr 727 Therapy dashed away from the fleet to take line and handicap honours for the Rawson Cup, positions changed several times between the following four or five boats.
Therapy, which also races with the Offshore Division on alternative weekends, won on corrected time from won from the Folkboat Keoki II (Peter Davidson) and the Bonbridge 27 Hornblower (Peter Campbell).
The Etchells and Dragon fleets competed in a Mini-Regatta of three races, with close racing in both classes, again in excellent sailing conditions.
Top boats on the day in the Etchells were Fifteen (David Clark and Andrew Smith) with a scorecard of 1-2-8 and Dot, skippered by veteran Max Whitnall, with placings of 5-5-1. Bushfire (Jervis Tilley) also sailed consistently with placings of 2-9-2 while the other race winner was Roulette (Mark Jounson).
Martin Bourke sailed Riga into first place in of the three races for the Dragon class. In race one only 34 seconds separated the first three boats, Riga, Toogara (Robert Alpe) and Karabos VIII (Norman Longworth).
Toogara finished the day with placings of 2-4-2, Karabos VIII 3-2-6 while Isis (Wolf Brett) had placings of 4-6-3. – Peter Campbell
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