7th October 2008
By Peter Campbell
The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron has a new World Champion, with Guy Stening winning the M30 Worlds at the weekend off Newport, Rhode Island, the same seaport on the US coast where Australia II historically won the America’s Cup just over 25 years ago.
Stening and his team of Darren ‘Twirler’ Jones (mainsheet), Steve Maconaghy (tactician), Tristram Eldershaw (pitman), Curtis Florence (bow), Steve Quigly (trim and strategy) and Tim Davis (trimmer), sailing aboard Optimum, won the prestigious World Championships by four points from Jim Richardson’s talented team aboard Barking Mad.
The winning crew of Optimum
Optimum went into the last day with a nine point advantage over Barking Mad (USA, with Farr 40 legend Vincenzo Onarato, sailing Mascalzone Latino (ITA) in third place overall.
Optimum’s advantage was due to some very steady and fast sailing over the previous three days of moderate to (very) fresh conditions. In 11 hard-fought races on Narragansett Bay and Rhode Island Sound recorded an outstanding scorecard of 1-1-3-9-1-2-2-7-2-3-5 to finish with 36 points in the no-discard series.
For the three races on the last day, the race committee opted to race in the waters of Narraganset Bay rather than Rhode Island Sound, citing concerns over a left-over sea state from 30 knot winds on day three of the four-day regatta..
The final racing took place in winds from the west quarter at 7-14 knots. Barking Mad, being a local boat, exploited this opportunity to impressively claim three wins on the final day, which saw them win the final four heats of the regatta.
Optimum had a ten point day over the three races, which was enough to secure a very solid victory. It was a hard earned win, with the difference in wind direction between max right and max left being 80 degrees over the course of the racing.
Barking Mad finishing with 40 points from placings of 7-2-6-11-2-5-4-1-1-1-1 while Mascalzone Latino ended third on 62 points after a DNF in race eight following a collision with another Australian boat, Superfly, skippered by Lewis Perrin.
Asked of his expectations for the event, Stening commented: “We came here to win, no doubt about it. Our team has put a heap of work in since the last Worlds (in Sardinia), where we placed fourth. We are a very close team and we are absolutely over the moon at the moment. This is huge!”
Tactician Stephen McCongahy said: 'We sailed conservatively today, we had really good starts and we did what we had to do. A few more grey hairs, but a great day and a great regatta.”
Stening has been sailing in the Bruce Farr-designed high performance M30 (formerly the Mumm 30) class for more than three seasons after several seasons of racing in sports boats with the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron on Sydney Harbour.
Last season he won his first Australian Championship and, sailing a chartered boat, finished a close fourth in the 2007 M 30 Worlds at Porto Cervo, Sardinia.
He has worked hard towards winning the 2008 Worlds, often taking his crew out training and sail testing on Sydney Harbour in the usually fresh westerly winds of Sydney winter mornings. As part of his racing preparation, he also contested, and won, a M 30 regatta at Annapolis earlier in the year.
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