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A 15-18 knot summer nor’easter on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon provided a superb day of sailing on Sydney Harbour to complete the Squadron’s Spring Series for mixed divisions and one-design classes.
The Harbour was at its busiest this season with the Squadron fleet of 60 yachts competing for water space with some 400 dinghies taking part in the SIR regatta, along with fleets from other yacht clubs and a number of Rolex Sydney Hobart contenders out for a practice sail.
Adding to the congestion were many cruising yachts, motor boats and packed charter boats out for Christmas party cruises.
Dodging through 80 to 100 Lasers and 40 or so 29ers racing on the main harbour called for a constant look-out and careful steering, but no serious incidents were reported.
Saturday marked the final race in the Spring Series for Divisions 1, 3 and 4, the International Etchells, Dragons and Ynglings.
The Etchells sailed 11 Spring Series races in addition to their mini-regattas, with Jervis Tilly taking the Spring pointscore with Bushfire, scoring 25 points for a comfortable margin from dot (Matt Whitnall) on 36 points, which won Saturday’s final race.
Third place overall went to The Front Row (Ben Lehmann) on 48 points, followed by Humpback (Steve Barlow & Peter Gardner) on 51 points and Fifteen (David Clark & Andrew Smith) on 55 points.
Robert Alpe steered his Dragon Toogara into first place on Saturday but he had already won the Spring Series, finishing with 26 points, well clear of Tatsu (Wolf Breit) on 46 points and Karabos VIII (Norman Longworth) on 51 points. Fourth place went to Riga (Martin Burke) on 55 points, fifth to Imagination (Martin Cooper) on 77 points.
The Yngling class saw a Spring Series scratch win for Hamish Jarrett in Pourquoi, scoring 25 points that included six wins. Second place went to Troika (Ruth McCance) on 33 points, which also took out the handicap pointscore with seven wins on corrected time.
Troika took second place in the scratch series on a countback from Joyce & Patricia Warn in Holly who also finished with 33 points. Black Adder (Gary Pearce) finished fourth on 57 points, Yertle (James Hawkins & Andrew Howe) fifth on 58 points.
Division 1 has proved to be one of the closely contested divisions in the Squadron fleet, not only in the racing but also in the Spring Series pointscore.
Arcturus II (Peter Davenport) won Saturday’s race by just 16 seconds from Sydney (Charles Curran) on corrected time with only 27 seconds separating the top four placegetters, Norske (Bruce Dickson & Catheriune Hespe) finished third and Equinox (John Molyneux & Peter Bray) fourth.
In the Spring Series pointscore, only two points separated the first two boats after 14 races, with Geoff & Debbie Davidson’s Beneteau First 36.7 Jackie Clare taking the series with 31 points, just two ahead of the Mumm 30 Yandoo (John Formosa).
Third overall on 45 points was the Northshore 38 Willyama (R Barron/S Sanlorenzo/T Stanley) just one point in front of John Molyneux and Peter Bray’s Bavaria Match 38 Equinox with Saturday’s race winner Arcturus II finishing fifth overall on 54 points.
One of the oldest boats racing now racing with the Squadron, James Merrington’s Eventide took out the Division 3 Spring Series. After the boat had sailed for more than 50 years with the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club, James decided to race with the Squadron in search of great competition.
Eventide sailed a consistent series to finish with 36 points, winning from Alouette, John and Judy Waring’s Beneteau 35s5, which scored 41 points, third place on 43 points going to Mingara III, Philip Crane’s Nantucket 31. Bloodhound (Andrew Rodger & Malcolm Shaw) placed fourth on 49 points, Tingari (John Jeremy) fifth on 53 points.
The modified Etchells Wallop (Bryan Collis & Stephen Wall) won its second successive race in taking out Saturday’s final Spring Series heat, joining the crew of Division 4 last race winner Hornblower for a Christmas celebration – they are in adjacent berths on the marina at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia!
In Division 4, after 14 races, with three discards, only three points separated Spring Series winner Esquisse 2, Richard Staines’ Hood 23 and Kerstin II, the Hood 25 owned by John Bowman, Ken Chase and John Goldie. Esquisse 2 won four races earlier in the season, but Kerstin II made a strong late bid with three wins and a second in the last six races.
Saturday’s final race saw Kerstin II lead the fleet around the course, but on corrected time first place went to Peter Campbell’s Bonbridge 27 Hornblower, while Esquisse 2 was back in sixth place.
The final Spring Series pointscore saw Esquisse 2 on 26 points and Kerstin II on 29 points, followed by the Seaway 25 Manhatten Transfer (Ian Lacey) on 38 points and the Folkboat Clara Sayers (Don Taylor) and Hornblower equal fourth on 39 points.
Clara Sayers retired after finishing when skipper Don Taylor realised he had sailed around an incorrect mark amid confusion over the fact that the NC navy buoy had been lifted out and was sitting on a barge, although in the same position. Taylor’s sportsmanship cost Clara Sayer’s third place in the race and third in the Spring Series.
Saturday racing with the Squadron will resume on 19 January 2008 with the Summer Series and continuation of the Main Series for all classes and divisions.
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