7th April 2008
Weekend Racing Review
by Peter Campbell
The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s summer sailing season of 2007-2008 ended on Saturday with just one point – less in one case – separating the first and second placegetters in the Main or Short Inshore Series of the four mixed divisions.
Stopwatches and handheld computers were part of the equipment as crews did their calculations after their opponents crossed the finish line off Bottle & Glass at the end of a day of light and variable winds on an otherwise perfect autumn day on Sydney Harbour.
The closeness of the Main Series points after 23 races in a wide range of weather conditions, from gales to drifters between 1 September 2007 and 5 April 2008, is a tribute to the Performance Handicapping System developed and administered by John Maclurcan.
Reinforcing this end result has the number of individual race winners in each mixed division – for example, nine different boats won races in Division 1, eight in Division 3 and six in Division 4.
While the pointscore racing has ended, there is one more event to sail next Saturday, 12 April – the prestigious Varuna Cup, to be contested by the first three placegetters in the Main and Short Inshore Series of each of the mixed divisions and one-design classes. It will be decided on PHS handicaps.
Saturday’s final pointscore races saw cliff-hanger results in the final races for all four mixed divisions, while the Etchells, Dragons, Ynglings and J24s raced in their Autumn Championship Regatta to complete their summer programmes.
A last race victory by just 26 seconds has given the M30 Yandoo, skippered by John Formosa, the Main Series for Division 1 by 47.81 points to 48 points from Geoff and Debbie Davidson’ Beneteau 36.7 Jackie Clare. Third overall was the Northshore 38 Willyama (R Barron/S Lanlorenz/T Stanley) on 54 points.
Yandoo also won the Short Inshore Series from former Admiral’s Cup skipper Graeme Lambert and his Sydney 36 Impetuous Too and Jackie Clare.
Jackie Clare took out the Inshore IRC Series from Impetuous Too and Charles Curran’s Sydney 60 Sydney. Willyama won the Summer Series from Equinox, John Molyneux and Peter Bray’s Bavaria Match 38, third place going to Sydney.
Division 2’s activities saw a season long SIS and a Summer Series, with Ray Simmonds' Rush winning the Summer Series from Nicholas Hogg’s Spirit of Freya and Arcturus II (Peter Davenport). Double Trouble (Steve Wyatt) Cavalier 395 won the SIS pointscore from Spirit of Freya and Ambitious (David Matthews).
After 50 years of Eventide’s sailing with the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club, James Merrington decided to race with the Squadron this season, in search of more competition. He found it in Division 3, and came out with a double pointscore win.
The classic Julnar-designed sloop won the Main series by five points Philip Crane’s Nantucket 31 Mingara III, third going to John Jeremy’s East Coast 31 Tingari. In the SIS, Eventide’s winning margin was just two points from Mingara III, with another four points to Paul Hendrey’s Half Hour, another half tonner of past eras.
Half Hour won both line and handicap honours in Saturday’s final race for Division 3 to clinch a close fought Summer Series from Mingara III and Eventide.
In Division 4, the Main Series went right down to the wire with Richard Staines’ Hood 23 Esquisse 2 and Peter Campbell’s Bonbridge 27 Hornblower equal on points going into the final race. Each boat had won six races over the season.
Esquisse 2 took the honours in a very tactical, light air race, finishing one place ahead of Hornblower by just 44 seconds on corrected time, taking the Main Series by one point from Hornblower. Third place went to the Hood 25 Kirsten II (J Bowman/K Chase and J Goldie).
Esquisse 2 also won the SIS pointscore, by a convincing 13 points from Alan Levick’s Compass 750, Velocity and Ian Lacey’s Seaway 25, Manhatten Transfer.
Hornblower won the Division 4 Summer Series with one race to spare, from Manhatten Transfer and Esquisse 2.
Saturday’s Autumn Regatta for the one-design classes included the final pointscore races for the Dragons and Ynglings, while the Etchells had completed their pointscore racing the previous Saturday.
In the Dragon class, the Main Series saw a comfortable overall win by Robert Alpe’s Toogara from Martin Burke’s Riga and Wolf Breit at the helm of Tatsu. Riga dominated the Summer Series with five wins and a third place, winning from Liquidity (Richard Franklin) and current State champion Karabos VIII (Norman Longworth)
Riga also won the Dragon Gold Cup with a scorecard of 2-1-1-4-1-1 from Karabos VIII and Toogara (Robert Alpe).
In the Yngling class, NSW champion Hamish Jarrett, helming Pourquoi, dominated the pointscores, winning the Main Series (scratch) by a massive 23 points from Joyce and Patricia Warn’s Holly, with just one point to Troika (Ruth McCance).
Troika won the Main Series (handicap) from Pourquoi and Black Adder (Gary Pearce). The Yngling Summer Series was close with Pourquoi winning by just two points from Black Adder and Troika.
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