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7th January 2009
By Peter Campbell
Photo: Mel Nathan
Tasmanian yachtsman Nick Rogers now has his sights set firmly on a ninth win as a helmsman in the Prince Philip, the Australasian championship for the classic International Dragon yachts, being conducted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron sailed on the Harbour.
Steering Karabos IX, Rogers overcame a mediocre start on Wednesday to win heat four of the series and open up a commanding 16.3 points lead over 82-year-old Sydney yachtsman Gordon Ingate, sailing Whim.
Rogers has won the Prince Philip Cup eight times as a helmsman and in Hobart last year sailed as mainsheet/tactician when Ingate won the Cup – for the first time at the age of 81. Rogers’ long term objective is another World Championship win in the prestigious Dragon class, with the Worlds to be sailed on Melbourne’s Port Philip in 2011. With placings of 2-3-4-1 in the 24 boat international fleet, Karabos IX is on 16.7 points under the old Olympic scoring system still favoured by the Dragon class.
Whim has moved back to second overall on 33 points from placings of 1-4-11-4.
However, Russian yachtsman Mikhail Muratov, sailing Murka 3 is still an obvious threat, placing second in today’s 12 nautical mile race to be third overall on 48 points, despite a disqualification from race one. Murka 3’s placings have been dsq-1-8-2, so the Russian cannot afford another bad result.
Close on the overall points ladder are the Sydney yacht Abracadabra, skippered by David Seaton, on 48.7 points and the Russian woman Olga White, helming Murka 9 with three heats to sail over the next three days. However, Murka 9 was a non-finisher yesterday. “We got a shocking start today and decided to tack out to the east to get clear air in the east-north-easterly breeze,” Rogers said after his win.
“We kept taking short digs to the right-hand side of the course, with the pressure building from the east each time we tacked. By the time we got to the windward mark, near the Harbour’s ‘Wedding Cake’ channel marker, we were out in front.
“Then we sailed under spinnaker straight back up the harbour towards Bradley’s while most of the fleet sailed down the eastern side…. and they got murdered,” Rogers added.
Karabos IX was never headed, going on to win by 3 minutes 20 seconds, the biggest winning margin so far in the regatta. Second place went to the Russians in Murka 3 with the Victorian boat Amazing Grace (Tony Moody & Charles Stanton) taking third place ahead of Whim, Abracadabra and Sidewinder (Carl Ryves) all from the Squadron.
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