Botany Bay Race more than a victory for Great Xpectations

by Di Pearson on 25 Oct 2014 Rod Wills’ Great Xpectations went above and beyond this afternoon to beat Julian Farren-Price’s About Time for a win in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Botany Bay Race, the second of the Club’s Ocean Point Score Series – but today’s victory spilled over into something else for Wills.

A member of the CYCA, Wills was targeting more than first place today. Given the all-clear after a bout with prostate cancer, the normally reserved Wills said today: 'When I was at home recovering, I decided I needed to make people aware of this terrible disease, so I am going to do that via research and awareness and raising money for the Garvan Institute.'

Wills pointed out that prostate cancer is the most common cause of cancer and the second most common cause of cancer deaths in men in Australian men, and that one in nine will develop the disease, with around 3,300 dying each year. 'It is a little talked about subject, so I’m speaking up,' said Wills who will mount a challenge for the 2015 Rolex Sydney Hobart to continue his awareness campaign.

In today’s race, Wills’ X-43 yacht defeated Farren-Price’s Cookson 12 by just under two minutes on corrected time, and also won Division Two, with About Time claiming the top spot in Division One. A second Division Two boat, Dennis Cooper’s Sydney 36 cruiser/racer, Amante, was third overall.

Great Xpectations owner was thrilled to beat About Time, which has been almost invincible for the last four years. However, Farren-Price reversed the trend under ORCi, beating Great Xpectations overall, with Amante third again. But Wills was thrilled to learn he had won PHS too, from Quetzalcoatl, Antony Sweetapple’s Don Jones designed 12.3m. Wax Lyrical, the X-50 owned by Les Goodridge was third.

'We didn’t let About Time and Pazazz (Rob Drury’s Cookson 12) out of our sights through the race, so we knew we were looking good for a win,' confirmed Wills, who felt the east side of the Harbour was the right way to leave the Harbour.

'We headed towards Watsons Bay and got a nice puff out of there, along with a push from the outgoing tide, so we took a few boats at Sow and Pigs,' he said.

Leaving the Heads, Great Xpectations took a long tack out to sea, following About Time in a 10-12 knot breeze which was slowly clocking left to the south. 'We had a nice run into the Botany Bay mark, where we saw Occasional Coarse Language (Warwick Sherman’s Ker Gts43), and used them as our benchmark for the run to the finish.' Wills commented.

Back inside the Harbour, heading to the Rushcutters Bay finish line, Wills said his boat reached 8½ knots in boat speed. 'It was a great way to finish a beautiful day’s sail – and especially so because I have some new crew on board. They were pretty chuffed,' he said.

Last week’s line honours winner, Paul Clitheroe’s TP52 Balance, once again battled for that prize with 2013 Rolex Sydney Hobart victor, Victoire (Darryl Hodgkinson), but this time it was a lot closer, with Balance out-sailing Victoire by a matter of four minutes and 14 seconds, crossing the Rushcutters Bay finish line in a 10 knot breeze which had trucked further south from the original sou’wester.

As Balance sailed through the finish line at 14.36.21 hours, both Sam Haynes’ Rogers 46 Celestial, and Bob Cox’s DK46 Nine Dragons, had entered the Harbour, with the remaining yachts following in fairly quick succession.

If lacking slightly in wind strength at the start, crews could not have conjured up a more picture-perfect day; sunny skies, warm sun, and enough wind later to at least propel the boats around the course in good time.

Robyn Morton, Principal Race Officer, said from the start boat this morning: 'We got the boats away in a seven - eight knot south-westerly, but a short time later the breeze died a little and it took the fleet an hour or so to reach the front door,' she said of the yachts’ slow exodus from the Harbour and through the Heads.

Going into Race three of the Ocean Pointscore Series, the Port Hacking Race on Saturday November 15, starting at 10.00am, defending champion About Time leads the IRC Pointscore from Great Xpectations by five points.

Complete Results:

Series Results [IRC] up to Race 2

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 2	Race 1
1		7700	ABOUT TIME	Julian Farren-Price	CYCA	3.0	2.0	1.0
2	1.0S	6343	GREAT XPECTATIONS	Rod Wills	CYCA	8.0	1.0	7.0
3		52002	BALANCE	Paul Clitheroe	CYCA	8.0	6.0	2.0
4		226	SWISH	Steven Proud	MHYC	11.0	8.0	3.0
5	3.0S	6609	AMANTE	Dennis Cooper	CYCA	12.0	3.0	9.0
6		6774	JACKPOT	Adrian Van Bellen	CYCA	12.0	4.0	8.0
7		6686	ST JUDE	Noel Cornish	CYCA	13.0	9.0	4.0
8		99	PAZAZZ	Rob Drury	RSYS	15.0	5.0	10.0
9		AUS5299	VICTOIRE	Darryl Hodgkinson	CYCA	16.0	10.0	6.0
10		8008	OCC.COARSELANGUAGE 2	Warwick Sherman	CYCA	19.0	7.0	12.0
11		360	PATRICE	Tony Kirby	CYCA	22.0	17.0C	5.0
12		248	WAX LYRICAL	Les Goodridge	CYCA	23.0	12.0	11.0
13		335	WILLYAMA	R Barron/S San	RSYS	25.0	11.0	14.0
14		A140	ARIEL	Ron Forster	CYCA/SASC	30.0	17.0C	13.0
15		6377	TRITON	Michael Cranitch	CYCA	31.0	13.0	18.0C
16		8824	CHANCELLOR	Edward Tooher	CYCA	35.0	17.0C	18.0C
16		35	IMAGINATION	Robin Hawthorn	CYCA	35.0	17.0C	18.0C

 

Series Results [ORCI] up to Race 2

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 2	Race 1
1		7700	ABOUT TIME	Julian Farren-Price	CYCA	4.0	3.0	1.0
2		6343	GREAT XPECTATIONS	Rod Wills	CYCA	7.0	2.0	5.0
3	1.0S	6609	AMANTE	Dennis Cooper	CYCA	8.0	1.0	7.0
4		52002	BALANCE	Paul Clitheroe	CYCA	8.0	6.0	2.0
5		AUS5299	VICTOIRE	Darryl Hodgkinson	CYCA	10.0	7.0	3.0
6	2R	99	PAZAZZ	Rob Drury	RSYS	13.0	4.0	9.0
7		226	SWISH	Steven Proud	MHYC	13.0	9.0	4.0
8		SYD181	ONLINE	Stephen Trevillion	CYCA	17.0	5.0	12.0
9	2R	8008	OCC.COARSELANGUAGE 2	Warwick Sherman	CYCA	19.0	8.0	11.0
10		248	WAX LYRICAL	Les Goodridge	CYCA	19.0	11.0	8.0
11		360	PATRICE	Tony Kirby	CYCA	22.0	16.0C	6.0
12		2001	QUETZALCOATL	Antony Sweetapple	CYCA	25.0	12.0	13.0
13		A140	ARIEL	Ron Forster	CYCA/SASC	26.0	16.0C	10.0
14		6837	MINERVA	Tim Cox	RSYS	27.0	10.0	17.0C
15		8824	CHANCELLOR	Edward Tooher	CYCA	33.0	16.0C	17.0C

Series Results [PHSTCF] up to Race 2

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 2	Race 1
1		6343	GREAT XPECTATIONS	Rod Wills	CYCA	4.0	1.0	3.0
2		2001	QUETZALCOATL	Antony Sweetapple	CYCA	11.0	4.0	7.0
3		248	WAX LYRICAL	Les Goodridge	CYCA	12.0	11.0	1.0
4	5.0S	195	SAMARKAND	Walter Carpenter	MHYC	13.0	8.0	5.0
5		7700	ABOUT TIME	Julian Farren-Price	CYCA	13.0	7.0	6.0
6	2.0S	6609	AMANTE	Dennis Cooper	CYCA	15.0	2.0	13.0
7		6774	JACKPOT	Adrian Van Bellen	CYCA	15.0	6.0	9.0
8		226	SWISH	Steven Proud	MHYC	16.0	14.0	2.0
9		99	PAZAZZ	Rob Drury	RSYS	17.0	5.0	12.0
10	3.0S	SYD181	ONLINE	Stephen Trevillion	CYCA	19.0	3.0	16.0
11		6686	ST JUDE	Noel Cornish	CYCA	19.0	15.0	4.0
12		52002	BALANCE	Paul Clitheroe	CYCA	24.0	16.0	8.0
13	9.0S	335	WILLYAMA	R Barron/S San	RSYS	27.0	9.0	18.0
14	10.0S	AUS5299	VICTOIRE	Darryl Hodgkinson	CYCA	27.0	17.0	10.0
15	12.0S	8008	OCC.COARSELANGUAGE 2	Warwick Sherman	CYCA	27.0	12.0	15.0
16		6396	SPORTS BAR	Nev & Jo Blair	CYCA	27.0	13.0	14.0
17		8330	SHIBUMI	B Moore P Thompson	MHYC	30.0	10.0	20.0R
18		360	PATRICE	Tony Kirby	CYCA	34.0	23.0C	11.0
19		A140	ARIEL	Ron Forster	CYCA/SASC	40.0	23.0C	17.0
20		6837	MINERVA	Tim Cox	RSYS	41.0	18.0	23.0C
21		6377	TRITON	Michael Cranitch	CYCA	42.0	19.0	23.0C
22		35	IMAGINATION	Robin Hawthorn	CYCA	46.0	23.0C	23.0C
22		8824	CHANCELLOR	Edward Tooher	CYCA	46.0	23.0C	23.0C
22		10000	BRINDABELLA	Jim Cooney	CYCA	46.0	23.0C	23.0C

Series Results [IRCDIV] for Division 1 up to Race 2

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 2	Race 1
1		7700	ABOUT TIME	Julian Farren-Price	CYCA	2.0	1.0	1.0
2		52002	BALANCE	Paul Clitheroe	CYCA	5.0	3.0	2.0
3		226	SWISH	Steven Proud	MHYC	8.0	5.0	3.0
4		99	PAZAZZ	Rob Drury	RSYS	9.0	2.0	7.0
5		6686	ST JUDE	Noel Cornish	CYCA	10.0	6.0	4.0
6	4.0S	8008	OCC.COARSELANGUAGE 2	Warwick Sherman	CYCA	13.0	4.0	9.0
7		AUS5299	VICTOIRE	Darryl Hodgkinson	CYCA	13.0	7.0	6.0
8		248	WAX LYRICAL	Les Goodridge	CYCA	16.0	8.0	8.0
9		360	PATRICE	Tony Kirby	CYCA	18.0	13.0C	5.0
10		6377	TRITON	Michael Cranitch	CYCA	22.0	9.0	13.0C
11		35	IMAGINATION	Robin Hawthorn	CYCA	26.0	13.0C	13.0C

Series Results [IRCDIV] for Division 2 up to Race 2

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 2	Race 1
1		6343	GREAT XPECTATIONS	Rod Wills	CYCA	2.0	1.0	1.0
2	2R	6609	AMANTE	Dennis Cooper	CYCA	5.0	2.0	3.0
3		6774	JACKPOT	Adrian Van Bellen	CYCA	5.0	3.0	2.0
4		335	WILLYAMA	R Barron/S San	RSYS	8.0	4.0	4.0
5		A140	ARIEL	Ron Forster	CYCA/SASC	16.0	8.0C	8.0C
5		8824	CHANCELLOR	Edward Tooher	CYCA	16.0	8.0C	8.0C

Series Results [ORCIDIV] for Division 1 up to Race 2

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 2	Race 1
1		7700	ABOUT TIME	Julian Farren-Price	CYCA	2.0	1.0	1.0
2		52002	BALANCE	Paul Clitheroe	CYCA	5.0	3.0	2.0
3		AUS5299	VICTOIRE	Darryl Hodgkinson	CYCA	7.0	4.0	3.0
4		99	PAZAZZ	Rob Drury	RSYS	9.0	2.0	7.0
5		226	SWISH	Steven Proud	MHYC	10.0	6.0	4.0
6		8008	OCC.COARSELANGUAGE 2	Warwick Sherman	CYCA	13.0	5.0	8.0
7		248	WAX LYRICAL	Les Goodridge	CYCA	14.0	8.0	6.0
8		360	PATRICE	Tony Kirby	CYCA	17.0	12.0C	5.0
9		6837	MINERVA	Tim Cox	RSYS	19.0	7.0	12.0C

Series Results [ORCIDIV] for Division 2 up to Race 2

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 2	Race 1
1	2R	6609	AMANTE	Dennis Cooper	CYCA	3.0	1.0	2.0
2		6343	GREAT XPECTATIONS	Rod Wills	CYCA	3.0	2.0	1.0
3		SYD181	ONLINE	Stephen Trevillion	CYCA	6.0	3.0	3.0
4		2001	QUETZALCOATL	Antony Sweetapple	CYCA	8.0	4.0	4.0
5		8824	CHANCELLOR	Edward Tooher	CYCA	16.0	8.0C	8.0C
5		A140	ARIEL	Ron Forster	CYCA/SASC	16.0	8.0C	8.0C