A wet and windless day on Sydney Harbour upset racing in most of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s divisions and classes on Saturday, with many boats retiring before the sou’easter finally kicked in late in the afternoon.
At one stage the Harbour was virtually a millpond, apart from the wash caused by ferries, motor cruisers and those annoying thrill boats. The ferry captains were very thoughtful of us sailors, taking avoiding action as we sat, windless, on their course from Manly to Circular Quay and vice versa.
The light easterly breeze died away about an hour after the start, leaving the entire fleet of Squadron boats, plus those from other clubs, just drifting and drifting.
After the race committee abandoned the third race of the Yngling and J24 mini regatta, we saw those remarkable ladies Joyce and Patricia Warn paddling Holly back up the harbour. Fortunately, the breeze filled in about the time they would have reached Bradley’s Head to give them a sail back to the Squadron.
In the two races of the mini regatta the Warn twins in Holly gained two seconds to finish the day equal with Hamish Jarrett who steered Pourquoi to a first and a third.
Finally, the breeze filled in from the south-east and we all got going again. It was great to see the brand new Mumm 30 Optimumm pacing it to windward with the Sydney 60 Sydney in a 15 knotter as older boats like Eventide and Mingara III finally filled their spinnakers.
Unfortunately, the damage had been done and there were many retirements. The most notable was in the Etchells, where there were only three finishers out of a fleet of 17. Just two Dragons finished the course.
Guy Stening celebrated his first race with his new Mumm 30 Optimumm by finishing only 2 minutes 38 seconds astern of Charles Curran’s Sydney and winning on corrected time from Jackie Claire (Geoff and Debbie Davidson) and Willyama (R Barron/S Sanlorenzo/T Stanley).
Only five of the 13 starters in Division 3 completed the course, with Andrew Rodger and Malcolm Shaw’s Currawong 30 Bloodhound, the half tonner designed by Professor Peter Joubert, taking first place from the classic yacht Eventide, skippered by Jim Merrington, and the Nantucket 31 Mingara III (Phillip Crane).
Eventide’s second place has strengthened the grip on the spring pointscore for the Julnar-designed sloop, which had sailed with the Sydney Amateur Sailing Club for more than 50 years until moving the Squadron fleet this season in search of more competition.
While Paul Hendrey’s Half Hour led the fleet around the course, Eventide’s heavy displacement kept her moving in the lightest breeze and when the sou’easter finally arrived her crew were quick to capitalise with a fast spinnaker set. Eventide’s nearest rival in the spring pointscore, Alouette (John & Judy Waring) was among the retirements.
With two more races to sail before the Christmas/New Year break Eventide has 32 points on the board after two discards, with Mingara III (Philip Crane) moving up to second place on 38 points, Alouette dropping to third on 40.12 points.
In Division 4, all boats finished the course, with Hornblower (Peter Campbell) the last to cross the line at 17:19:39! The Folkboat Clara Sayers (Don Taylor) finished 12 minutes astern of line honours winner and pointscore leader Esquisse 2 (Richard Staines), but won the race on corrected time.
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