Each year, at the end of the summer sailing season, the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron conducts the Varuna Trophy Race, an event that brings together the leading yachts from each of the divisions, mixed handicap, one-design and offshore, to compete against each other in a single race on the Harbour.
The Varuna Trophy, presented by Dr John Musgrove, a Squadron member since 1946 and owner of the classic yacht Varuna, is a one-off race between the top placegetters in the summer season’s Main and Short Inshore Series pointscores.
Apart from being a rare opportunity for the smallest boats in the Squadron fleet to mix it with the biggest boats on the starting line, the Varuna Cup is a test of handicapping boats to achieve a level playing field.
The 2007 Varuna Cup proved to be a classic illustration of the success of the Squadron’s Performance Handicap data base, not just for a single division but in handicapping right across the broad spectrum of boats large and small, old and new, faster and slower.
Last Saturday’s fleet ranged from the Division 1’s Sydney 60 Sydney, which took line honours, to Division 5’s Manhatten Transfer, a Seaway 25, which won the race on handicap, and included top boats from every mixed handicap division and the International Yngling one-design class. Missing were the Etchells and Dragons and a couple of other pointscore winners because of the Squadron Cruise and other commitments.
Manhatten Transfer was the smallest and lowest handicapped boat in the fleet on 0.7945; Sydney the biggest and highest rating boat on 1.3547.
Fifty-six minutes separated the first and last boats in the fleet, but there was less than six minutes between them on corrected times.
Manhatten Transfer, skippered by Ian Lacey from Vaucluse Yacht Club, won the Varuna Trophy from Morag Bheag, Squadron member John Maclurcan’s 38-year-old Illingworth & Primrose-designed cruiser/racer from Offshore Division 3. Third place went to Division 4 boat Bloodhound, a Currawong 31 owned by Squadron members Andrew Rodger and Malcolm Shaw.
The light east-north-easterly breeze of 8-10 knots suited Manhatten Transfer which won by 1 minute 13 seconds, but only 28 seconds separated the next four boats on corrected time – Morag Bheag, Bloodhound, Braveheart (Bill Meiklejohn) and Sydney (Charles Curran).
“We had a wonderful sail…a good start, excellent crew work…and now to win this fine trophy,” Manhatten Transfer’s skipper Ian Lacey said after the race.
His winning crew were Seon Indyk, Sarah Taouil and his brother, David Lacey.
“We were duelling with fellow Division 5 boat Kirsten II for most of the race until they had a man overboard…but he was picked up within 30 seconds by a Maritime boat,” Lacey added.
Kirsten II apparently recovered quickly from the incident to finish 9th across the line, still ahead of Manhatten Transfer, but 11th on corrected time.
While Ian Lacey was clearly pleased with winning the Varuna Cup, even more delighted was runner-up John Maclurcan, despite not winning with Morag Bheag..
“We had a wonderful sail, but what really pleases me is the obvious success of the Performance Handicaps across such a broad range of boats,” said Maclurcan, the Official Handicapper for Performance Handicap racing at the RSYS and for most other Sydney clubs, for both inshore and offshore racing.
“It proves the data base is really working…56 minutes between first and last to finish in the Varuna Cup, yet only five and three-quarter minutes between the fleet on corrected time,” he added. – Peter Campbell
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