Cabbage Tree Island IRC win to Limit

by Peter Campbell on 9 Nov 2008 Alan Briety’s Corby 49 Limit has scored back-to-back IRC wins in the CYCA’s Cabbage Tree Island Race for the prestigious Halvorsen Brothers Trophy, sailed off the New South Wales coast over the weekend.

With West Australian-based Briety back on board after a knee re-construction operation and calling tactics, Limit scored a hard fought win in this Blue Water Pointscore race from Syd Fischer’s TP52 Ragamuffin and David Beak’s Beneteau First 44.7 Mr Beak’s Ribs.

Maxi yacht Wild Oats XI, Bob Oatley’s Reichel-Pugh 98, broke the race record by 35 minutes with an elapsed time of 17 hours 58 minutes 48 seconds for the 180 nautical mile race, strengthening her favouritism for a record fourth successive line honours in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

This was the maxi’s first offshore race since undergoing ‘go faster’ modifications. On IRC corrected time she placed eighth overall in the 26 boat fleet, of which 23 boats have been nominated for the Hobart Race.

'She is a new dimension in ocean racing,' commented Yachting NSW president Roger Hickman, who helmed Limit to victory in the Blue Water Pointscore (IRC) division. 'However, there was some impressive sailing among boats in the 40 to 50 foot LOA in the race and it augers well for close competition in the Rolex Sydney Hobart,' the two-times Hobart Race winner said.

The Cabbage Tree Island Race started on Friday evening, taking the fleet up the NSW coast to the island just north of Port Stephens and back to Sydney.

Wild Oats XI finished just between 2pm yesterday with the last boat Impeccable, skippered by 86-year-old John Walker, coming in last at 10.46am today.

While Limit has been nominated for the Rolex Sydney Hobart, it is unlikely she will race south as Briety’s new Limit, a state-of-the-art Reichel-Pugh 62, is due to be launched within a few weeks. 'Everything is on track with the new boat,' Roger Hickman said today.

'The Blue Water Pointscore is very important to us and we will sail the Corby 49 in all races except the Rolex Sydney Hobart,' Hickman added.

Describing the Cabbage Tree Island Race, in which Limit finished fifth across the line last evening, within sight of the three TP52s, Ragamuffin, Wot Now (Graeme Wood) and Wot Yot (Trevor Sykes), Hickman said it had been a tactically demanding race.

'Physically, it was not a hard race, but mentally it certainly was…there were many changes in wind direction and strength and you had to anticipate these and be ready to tack or change sails.

'The outcome was in the balance between us the TP52s right up until we crossed the line because a southerly change as we neared the Heads last evening.

'In the end we beat Syd (Fischer) by just over four-and-a-half minutes. Then Mr Beaks Ribs came in early this morning to take third ahead of Wot Now and Wot Yot.'

The Tasman Series (PHS) went to casual entry Isabella, notching up her qualifying race for the Rolex Sydney Hobart.

Owned by John Nolan from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, Isabella is a Hanse 400E, whose only previous long offshore race had the RPAYC’s Pittwater Newcastle event.

Isabella won the Tasman Series division comfortably from Steve Trevillion’s Online and Phil Molony’s Archambault 40 Papillon, which will be racing to Hobart for the second time this year.

After four races for the CYCA’s 2008-2009 Blue Water Pointscore, unofficial calculations show the modified Farr 40 AFR Midnight Rambler (Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas) still leading on 15 points, but now just one point ahead of Limit on 16, followed by Balance (Paul Clitheroe) on 17 points and Ragamuffin 19 points.

Cruising Yacht Club of Australia
2008 - 2009 Blue Water Pointscore
Cabbage Tree Race - Race 4 - 7th November 2008
Provisional Results
BLUEWATER POINTSCORE (IRC)				7/11/2008 20:00
Yacht	Sail No.	Owner/Skipper	TCC	Elapsed Time	Corrected Time	Place	Points
Limit (Corby 49)	43218	Alan Briety	1.271	1 01:52:17	1 08:52:57	1	1
Ragamuffin	AUS 70	Syd Fischer	1.344	1 00:31:23	1 08:57:32	2	2
Mr Beak's Ribs	8447	David Beak	1.111	1 05:45:15	1 09:03:25	3	3
Wot Now	6952	Graeme Wood	1.360	1 00:43:19	1 09:37:19	4	4
Wot Yot	6953	Graeme Wood	1.333	1 01:18:52	1 09:44:39	5	5
AFR Midnight Rambler	8338	SEB Corporate Promotions	1.164	1 05:22:17	1 10:11:18	6	6
Balance	7771	Paul Clitheroe	1.174	1 05:21:36	1 10:28:07	7	7
Wild Oats XI (cas)	AUS 10001	Robert I Oatley	1.928	0 17:58:48	1 10:39:56	8	0
Online	SYD 181	Steven Trevillion	1.072	1 08:24:02	1 10:44:00	9	8
Patrice SiX	360	Tony Kirby	1.127	1 06:50:59	1 10:46:03	10	9
Pla Loma IV (MHYC)	MH 7	Rob Reynolds	1.191	1 05:22:16	1 10:58:52	11	0
Mahligai	BRU 1	Murray Owen & Jenny Kings	1.181	1 05:39:51	1 11:02:00	12	10
St Jude (cas)	6686	Noel Cornish	1.182	1 05:50:53	1 11:16:49	13	0
Obsession (cas)	AUS 2999	Obsession Syndicate	1.101	1 08:19:26	1 11:35:19	14	0
Eleni (cas)	MH 60	Tony Levett	1.109	1 08:24:04	1 11:55:58	15	0
Secret Men's Business #1	8300	Rob Curtis/Ross Trembath/Doug Snedden	1.166	1 06:53:25	1 12:01:05	16	11
Strewth (cas)	6188	Geoff Hill	1.165	1 06:56:24	1 12:02:42	17	0
Papillon	N40	Phil Molony	1.095	1 09:03:37	1 12:12:04	18	12
Copernicus	6689	Greg Zyner	1.084	1 09:25:38	1 12:14:06	19	13
Isabella (cas)	6654	John Nolan	1.052	1 10:35:25	1 12:23:20	20	0
MRZ (MHYC)	MH 9	Phillip Rowe	1.113	1 09:13:33	1 12:58:49	21	0
Impeccable (cas)	MH 106	John Walker	0.960	1 14:45:50	1 13:12:48	22	0
TASMAN SERIES (PHS)				7/11/2008 20:00
Yacht	Sail No.	Owner/Skipper	TCF	Elapsed Time	Corrected Time	Place	Points
Isabella (cas)	6654	John Nolan	0.9577	1 10:35:25	1 09:07:38	1	0
Online	SYD 181	Steven Trevillion	1.0387	1 08:24:02	1 09:39:16	2	1
Papillon	N40	Phil Molony	1.0495	1 09:03:37	1 10:41:48	3	2
Mr Beak's Ribs	8447	David Beak	1.1751	1 05:45:15	1 10:57:51	4	3
Quetzalcoatl	2001	Bruce / Lee Warner / Sweetapple	1.0787	1 08:30:52	1 11:04:24	5	4
Secret Men's Business #1	8300	Rob Curtis/Ross Trembath/Doug Snedden	1.1397	1 06:53:25	1 11:12:20	6	5
Eleni (cas)	MH 60	Tony Levett	1.0871	1 08:24:04	1 11:13:24	7	0
Copernicus	6689	Greg Zyner	1.0538	1 09:25:38	1 11:13:32	8	6
Balance	7771	Paul Clitheroe	1.2029	1 05:21:36	1 11:19:02	9	7
AFR Midnight Rambler	8338	SEB Corporate Promotions	1.2071	1 05:22:17	1 11:27:15	10	8
Pla Loma IV (MHYC)	MH 7	Rob Reynolds	1.2086	1 05:22:16	1 11:29:53	11	0
Mahligai	BRU 1	Murray Owen & Jenny Kings	1.1980	1 05:39:51	1 11:32:16	12	9
Obsession (cas)	AUS 2999	Obsession Syndicate	1.1031	1 08:19:26	1 11:39:23	13	0
Strewth (cas)	6188	Geoff Hill	1.1569	1 06:56:24	1 11:47:40	14	0
Tow Truck (cas)	M 6	Anthony Paterson	1.2000	1 06:09:05	1 12:10:54	15	0
MRZ (MHYC)	MH 9	Phillip Rowe	1.0909	1 09:13:33	1 12:14:46	16	0
Patrice SiX	360	Tony Kirby	1.1785	1 06:50:59	1 12:21:23	17	10
Limit (Corby 49)	43218	Alan Briety	1.4107	1 01:52:17	1 12:29:48	18	11
Ragamuffin	AUS 70	Syd Fischer	1.5054	1 00:31:23	1 12:55:01	19	12
Wot Now	6952	Graeme Wood	1.4968	1 00:43:19	1 13:00:14	20	13
Wild Oats XI (cas)	AUS 10001	Robert I Oatley	2.0777	0 17:58:48	1 13:21:25	21	0
St Jude (cas)	6686	Noel Cornish	1.2525	1 05:50:53	1 13:23:05	22	0
Abracadabra (cas)	5612	James Murchison	1.1246	1 09:23:16	1 13:32:52	23	0
Impeccable (cas)	MH 106	John Walker	0.9757	1 14:45:50	1 13:49:19	24	0
Wot Yot	6953	Graeme Wood	1.5106	1 01:18:52	1 14:14:24	25	14
Krakatoa II	55555	Rod Skellet	1.1796	1 08:38:21	1 14:30:04	26	15