Flinders Islet Race - Wild Rose takes the victory

by Jennifer Crooks on 22 Sep 2013 At the Flinders Islet Race,having come so close to winning the Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race and others in recent times, the crew on the vintage Farr 43, Wild Rose, took the bit between the teeth to score overall victory in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s 92 nautical mile ,finishing at 5.49.18 this morning.

Hickman and his regular crew were elated with winning the second race of the CYCA’s 2013/2014 Blue Water Pointscore Series and with tiredness replaced by excitement, were celebrating at the Club this morning after what he called 'a pretty tough race.'

Hickman dedicated their win to sailing mate and partner Sally Gordon, who along with Andrew Short, tragically lost their lives in this same race four years ago.

'We dropped roses and some of her ashes at the Island and said a few words for her,' Hickman said.

'I think Sally decided we would win, because while others were getting stuck on approach to the Island, we got a nice little six knot south/south-westerly which took us around the Island. Then a nice night-time seven knot westerly made it easy to reach back to Sydney, although it was soft again when we got inside the Harbour at dawn.'

Wild Rose triumphed over the smallest yacht in the fleet and 1988 Hobart overall winner, Travis Read’s Davidson 34, Illusion. BWPS novice, Back Sheep, the Beneteau 45 owned by Derek and Martin Sheppard, was third overall,

Hickman said Loki’s record of seven hours 48min 44sec set in 2010 was never in doubt after the predicted 15-25 knot south-westerly failed to materialise on Saturday. Instead, the fleet started in a weak five knot south/south-westerly off Point Piper at 10.00am.

'Then an east-sou-easterly got us to Botany Bay, but then the breeze went soft. It was the strong two knot southerly current that kept pushing us along in the right direction. It was sloppy, but at least we had the current with us, the bigger boats had to sail against it.'

'The Blue Water Pointscore is very special – it’s historic – and we’ll keep doing it while it exists,' said Hickman, sharp and fresh from participating in the Dragon Worlds and Cowes Week these past two weeks. He has four BWPS victories to his credit, with Wild Rose and sailing aboard John Storey’s Atara and Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban.

'It was sloppy and light for some of the race, and when it’s like that, the ‘old girl’ is hard to sail,' Hickman said of his 28 year-old boat, originally owned by Bob Oatley. 'Even Luna Sea (James Cameron’s Hick 35) was hanging on to us.'

The going was tough, and at the 16.05pm sked yesterday, the two leading boats, Andrew Wenham’s Southern Excellence (the former Ichi Ban) and Darryl Hodgkinson’s Victoire (the former Jazz) still had two and a half and three and a half nautical miles to make the Islet, which is off Wollongong.

Wenham’s Volvo 70 rounded shortly before 5.00pm, in faster time than yacht owners originally anticipated, having consulted the weather models in the lead-up to the race.

Third placed Black Sheep’s co-owner, Derek Sheppard, was thrilled to make the podium in third place in his first season and first BWPS as a skipper. 'It was great to get this result, it was light, but we stuck in there,' said Sheppard, who co-owns the boat with his brother Martin, who was also aboard for the race.

The amusingly named yacht did not match the brothers’ result this morning, and the Sheppards are hoping this is one of many good results to follow.

'We sneaked our way through a lot of holes. It was very light, but we just tried to keep the boat moving,' Sheppard said.

'We couldn’t be doing this without the CYCA’s help – they’ve done a great job looking after us. It’s quite challenging when you first get into ocean racing as an owner, but they’ve been great in getting us organised and helping with the paperwork and other things,' he ended.

Following Race two of the BWPS, Wild Rose leads Papillon (Phil Molony), with Black Sheep third.

Darryl Hodgkinson’s canting keeled Cookson 50, Victoire, which took line honours in the Flinders Islet Race, leads the charge for the new Line Honours trophy.

Race three of the series is the Bird Island Race on October 11.

IRC results Start : Div1 10:00 Div2 10:00

Place	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Div No	Fin Tim	Elapsd	AHC	Cor'd T	Score
1	4343	WILD ROSE	Roger Hickman	2	01:05:49:18	19:49:18	1.038	20:34:30	1.0
2	5356	ILLUSION	Travis Read	2	01:07:18:11	21:18:11	0.988	21:02:51	2.0
3	33345	BLACK SHEEP	Derek Sheppard	2	01:04:59:49	18:59:49	1.118	21:14:19	3.0
4	8339	LUNA SEA	James Cameron	2	01:07:07:05	21:07:05	1.016	21:27:21	4.0
5	8338	MIDNIGHT RAMBLER	Ed Psaltis/ Bencsik/	1	01:04:13:14	18:13:14	1.189	21:39:51	5.0
6	A140	ARIEL	Phil Damp	2	01:06:11:35	20:11:35	1.083	21:52:09	6.0
7	6841	PAPILLON	Phil Molony	2	01:06:05:28	20:05:28	1.092	21:56:22	7.0
8	6689	COPERNICUS	Greg Zyner	2	01:06:35:02	20:35:02	1.066	21:56:33	8.0
9	421	CELESTIAL	Sam Haynes	1	01:04:01:24	18:01:24	1.264	22:46:53	9.0
10	AUS5299	VICTOIRE	Darryl Hodgkinson	1	01:03:54:45	17:54:45	1.352	01:00:13:04	10.0
11	8824	CHANCELLOR	Edward Tooher	2	01:07:53:50	21:53:50	1.109	01:00:17:02	11.0
12	GBR5211L	FRANTIC	Michael Martin	1	01:04:06:29	18:06:29	1.347	01:00:23:30	12.0
13	AUS03	SOUTHERNEXCELLENCEII	Andrew Wenham	1	01:04:05:35	18:05:35	1.591	01:04:47:10	13.0
DNC	226	SWISH	Steven Proud	1			1.239		17.0
DNC	1236	LOCAL HERO	Peter Mosely	2			1.049		17.0
DNC	7771	BALANCE	Paul Clitheroe	2			1.131		17.0
DNC	11033	KERISMA	Grant Dawson/ Brent	2			1.151		17.0
DNC	52002	QUEST	Bob Steel	1			1.351		17.0
DNC	A5	AUDI SUNSHINE COAST	Rodney Jones	1			1.285		17.0
DNC	A169	NAUTICAL CIRCLE	Ian Prentice	2			1.099		17.0