Sail Port Stephens – Top divisional honours for the first entry

by Lisa Ratcliff on 15 Apr 2015 The owner of the first boat to register for the 2015 Sail Port Stephens regatta is “chuffed” to be taking home top divisional honours by the narrowest of margins in the completed Commodore’s Cup series.

Dave Griffin and his Royal Motor Yacht Club crew on board the Titan 36 Al Fresco from Pittwater in Sydney beat John Veale and Graeme Davey’s Elan 340 GWhizz by one point after three passage races, two inshore on Nelson Bay and the closing Three Islands Race mostly offshore today, Wednesday April 15, 2015 in magic conditions.

“We had been looking forward to the regatta for a long time,” said an excited Griffin having just seen the final scores. “We had a ball last year, even in the rain, so we booked the same house and we were the first to enter this year. We’ve enjoyed the Commodore’s Cup immensely, Kerinda gave us a great tussle all three days and socially it’s been excellent. We’ll be back again next year!”

The fun isn’t over for Al Fresco. They’ll take a break along with other crews for a layday tomorrow and be back out on Friday for the second half, this time racing in the Performance Cruising division with many of the same boats and faces.

Division one of the Commodore’s Cup was taken out by Mark Skelton’s Beneteau 40.7 called JAB, their lead a little more comfortable than Al Fresco’s at three points clear of the second placegetter, Steve Connor and his 39-foot Jones design called Arch Rival from Sydney.

“Last year was our first year and we won Performance Cruising division. This year we decided to do the whole regatta,” said Skelton. “Today was lovely; we had a great start and first beat that carried us through. It’s very unique and different sailing around islands as course marks compared to racing around the buoys. You can get trapped in no breeze under them.”

Skelton and JAB sail for Wangi Amateur Sailing Club on Lake Macquarie and on board racing for Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club is trimmer Rob Howard, the other half of the Schouten Passage partnership. Jan Howard and her ‘skirts’ crew weren’t able to get near sistership JAB’s final top scoring result with Schouten, but they seemed to fulfil the fun quota set prior to the opening race on Monday.

Skelton are his crew are staying on at Port Stephens for the Performance Cruising series starting Friday through to Sunday April 19, 2015 and the skipper says he’s very comfortable with the building forecast.

Last year’s rainy Sail Port Stephens is a distant memory, replaced by a third magic day of sunny skies, a top temperature of 26 degrees and 10-12 knots of north-easterly breeze outside the heads, less inshore which was perfect for the first of the two-day Junior One Sail Series just off the Port Stephens Sailing and Aquatic Club at Soldiers Point. Kids in BICs, Optimists, Laser Radials, Laser 4.7s and Sabots completed two races on flat water with a fair bit of woo-hooing and the odd crash in the pre-start. Harry Bailey’s Open BIC called Newcastle Yacht Club leads the series.

This evening many of the 40 Commodore’s Cup crews will gather at the Nelson Bay Bowling Club for dinner and official trophy presentation.

Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson reckons “it’s been an incredibly good Commodore’s Cup series, fantastic weather and a good variety of courses with some very close racing. Today there were three division one boats overlapped on the finish line.”

Tomorrow, Thursday April 16, is a layday for the keelboat fleet prior to the opening of the second stage Port Stephens Trophy incorporating the NSW IRC Championship on Friday 17th.

The Hunter coastal forecast for Friday is south-east to south-westerly winds 15-20 knots tending east to south-easterly 10-15 knots in the evening then tending east to NE in the late evening. Stronger northerly winds are likely on Saturday.

Pantaenius’ major sponsorship of Sail Port Stephens continues for the second year and the regatta is proudly supported by the NSW Government through its tourism and major events agency, Destination NSW.

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Full results

Place	Sail No	Boat Name	From	Elapsd	AHC	Cor'd T	BCH	CHC	Skipper	Score	Fin Tim
1	415	ARCH RIVAL	DSC	02:47:16	1.027	02:51:47	1.086	1.071	Steve Connors	1.0	14:52:16
2	6609	AMANTE	CYCA	02:54:31	1.022	02:58:21	1.041	1.035	Dennis Cooper	2.0	14:59:31
3	500	ANTIPODES OF SYDNEY	CYCA	03:02:55	0.978	02:58:54	0.993	0.988	Greg Newton	3.0	15:07:55
4	6834	BREAKTHROUGH	CYCA	02:58:51	1.001	02:59:02	1.016	1.009	Nods Emsley	4.0	15:03:51
5	W108	JAB	WASC	02:49:39	1.060	02:59:50	1.071	1.066	Mark Skelton	5.0	14:54:39
6	35000	NEXT LIGHT	CYCA	03:08:15	0.965	03:01:40	0.965	0.965	Chris Ryan	6.0	15:13:15
7	33345	BLACK SHEEP	CYCA	02:42:11	1.122	03:01:58	1.120	1.121	Derek & Martin Shepp	7.0	14:47:11
8	MH3033	ZENITH	MH	02:54:02	1.053	03:03:15	1.044	1.049	Scott Beach	8.0	14:59:02
9	N349	SCHOUTEN PASSAGE	NCYC	02:58:05	1.031	03:03:36	1.020	1.026	Jan & Richard Howard	9.0	15:03:05
10	8009	OCC. COARSE LANG ONE	RPAYC	02:46:41	1.105	03:04:11	1.090	1.097	Robert Alder	10.0	14:51:41
11	USA40063	PT 73	NCYC	02:34:44	1.192	03:04:26	1.174	1.182	Phill Arnell	11.0	14:39:44
12	M102	TOY STORY	LMYC	02:34:35	1.199	03:05:21	1.175	1.184	Thomas Woods	12.0	14:39:35
13	67	COLORTILE	CSC&RMYC	02:34:40	1.211	03:07:18	1.175	1.186	Kristy/Warren Buchan	13.0	14:39:40
14	6698	FIREFLY	RMYC	03:06:36	1.026	03:11:27	0.974	0.987	Dean Gillies	14.0	15:11:36

Place	Sail No	Boat Name	From	Elapsd	AHC	Cor'd T	Skipper	Score	Fin Tim
1	3425	GWHIZZ	GFS	02:41:40	0.970	02:36:49	J Veale/ G Davey	1.0	14:51:40
2	6584	KELSEA BLUE	GSC/RSYS	02:33:16	1.026	02:37:15	Adrian Williams	2.0	14:43:16
3	5708	KERINDA	RMYCT	02:23:47	1.100	02:38:10	Len Payne	3.0	14:33:47
4	PH3200	STEADFAST	CSC/RMYC	02:48:50	0.961	02:42:15	Glenn Smith	4.0	14:58:50
5	6636	AL FRESCO	RMYC	02:27:25	1.107	02:43:11	Dave Griffin	5.0	14:37:25
6	351	HIGH VOLTAGE	TBA	02:56:59	0.925	02:43:43	Micha Lane	6.0	15:06:59
7	6740	EVEN FINER	GSC	02:53:11	0.947	02:44:00	Geoff Dilworth	7.0	15:03:11
8	6940	INCEPTION	GSC	02:49:46	0.968	02:44:20	John Sprague	8.0	14:59:46
9	6593	LU LU BELLE	MHYC	03:05:41	0.888	02:44:53	Peter Lewis	9.0	15:15:41
10	3267	IN THE MOOD	RMYCBROKENBAY	02:36:08	1.058	02:45:11	Keith Masters	10.0	14:46:08
11	63344	KOKO	GSC	02:47:53	0.984	02:45:12	Roy Leslie	11.0	14:57:53
12	4903	EGGSILANTE	GSC	03:09:52	0.882	02:47:28	John Egger	12.0	15:19:52
13	7788	ALLSAIL DANCING STAR	RPAYC/RMYCBB	02:54:12	0.962	02:47:35	Russell Waddy	13.0	15:04:12
14	MYC7	TENSIXTY	MYC	02:41:57	1.041	02:48:35	Ian Green	14.0	14:51:57
15	6990	GREAT WHITE	CYCA	02:49:59	1.015	02:52:32	Bob Penty	15.0	14:59:59
16	6571	PASSION	GFS	02:51:21	1.008	02:52:43	David Edmiston	16.0	15:01:21
17	9385	KITE	RMYCT	02:57:46	0.988	02:55:38	Ian White	17.0	15:07:46
18	6906	BANDALENI	ASC	03:28:17	0.850	02:57:02	Greg Kowalski	18.0	15:38:17
19	6767	BIG BLUE	WYC	03:12:41	0.932	02:59:35	Stephen Phillips	19.0	15:22:41
20	8420	JUBLILEE	CYC	03:41:26	0.817	03:00:55	Ian Arthy	20.0	15:51:26
21	BOW1	BELLS BREEZE	PSYC	03:20:45	0.919	03:04:29	Julian Bell	21.0	15:30:45
22	BOW11	MARGARITAVILLE	CPSA	03:25:56	0.905	03:06:22	Paul O'Rourke	22.0	15:35:56
23	259	JIA	GSC	03:54:34	0.824	03:13:17	Chris Bebb	23.0	16:04:34