20th October 2008
By Peter Campbell
Squadron Life Members Joyce and Patricia Warn, the senior ladies of sailing on Sydney Harbour, are still a formidable pair to beat when it comes to racing in the International Yngling Class.
They showed their skills, honed over many seasons of sailing, with an impressive victory in Saturday’s heat 6 of the Spring Series, sailing their latest Yngling Holly with Jenni Bonnitcha joining them as crew.
A fleet of 95 yachts, the biggest fleet of the season, turned out to race, including 23 in the combined Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron/Middle Harbour Yacht Club Division 1 and 27 in the International Etchells Mini Regatta.
Racing started in a 10 knot easterly breeze that backed to the nor’east during the afternoon, freshening to 16 knots.
Ten boats raced in the Yngling class, with Holly leading the fleet home after a close race, winning by 22 seconds from Black Adder (Gary Pearce) with a further 1 minute 28 seconds to Shining Star (Chris Harper).
The Warn twins, aged in their mid-seventies, have been racing Ynglings for some 28 seasons, including many times competing in world championships and international events. When not racing on Sydney Harbour, they have been regular members of the Squadron’s race management team, including during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
The International Dragon class also attracted 10 starters with the first appearance this season of Martin Burke’s Riga and Gordon Ingate’s Whim. Riga won by 19 seconds from Sidewinder (Carl Ryves) and Liquidity (Richard Franklin).
The 80-year-old Gordon Ingate plans to defend the Prince Philip Cup on his home waters when the Squadron hosts the prestigious championship on the Harbour in January.
One of his opponents will be Hobart yachtsman Nick Rogers who in January this year crewed for Ingate when he won his first Prince Philip Cup on Hobart’s River Derwent. Next January Rogers will be helming his own boat, Karabos, which he launched last Saturday at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.
Karabos is the first new Dragon to be launched in Hobart in 20 years and is the 205th Dragon registered in Australia.
Top honours in the big Division 1 fleet went to the ocean racing yacht Pla Loma IV, skippered by former MHYC Commodore Rob Reynolds. Pla Loma IV is a DK43 and is among the 78 boats nominated so for this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
MHYC boats filled five of the first six places on corrected time, but Commodore Bill Wood and his partners upheld the Squadron’s honour with a second place in their Beneteau 40.7 Kookaburra III.
The Division 2 fleet raced with the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club but some 10 boats, including two Squadron boats, alouette (John & Judy Waring) and Allegro (Jackie Taylor), disqualified for breaking the start and failing to return.. Protests have been lodged against the race committee of the Amateurs.
The International Etchells fleet was out in force for the Mini Regatta, which also was three vital races in the Worlds Qualifying Series – for the 10 places available for the Sydney Fleet in the Etchells World Championship on Melbourne’s Port Phillip next March.
With 27 boats on the line, the starts were aggressive, to say the least, with race officer Tony Denham responding with the harshest of racing rules start line penalties - the black flag (BFD) for a large number of competitors in two of the three heats.
The heats, with the exception of the two heat winners, saw different placegetters in each race.
Humpback (Stephen Barlow & Peter Gardner) took out the first heat while Fifteen (David Clark & Andrew Smith) won the next two and in an unofficial tally of performances finished equal, Humpback with a 1-2-7 scoreboard, Fifteen with an 8-1-1 result.
Among the consistent results apart from the heat winners were dot (Max Whitnall) with a 4-3-5 scorecard and North Sydney Station (Ed McCarthy & Michael Coxon) with 5-10-10. Fathom (Rupert Henry) had a 6th and a 2nd but was black flagged in heat two, as was Bushfire (Jervis Tilly) whose other placings were a 9th and a 4th.
In heat one of the Mini Regatta three boats were listed BFD while in heat two 10 boats were listed BFD. Shindig (David Sturrock), Featherschalkbeans (Michael Jones) and Vincero (Nick Kingsmill) were black flagged in both heats.
Results of the Mini Regatta a provisional, however, with several protests lodged by Etchells skippers.
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