Atomic wins BMW Winter Series

by Media Services on 14 Jul 2006 Following a nail biting victory last Sunday over Talent 2 and Vanguard, the Azzura Yachts built Atomic successfully wrapped up a great season of racing by winning the BMW Sydney Winter series on Sydney Harbour.

Atomic, a Murray, Burns and Dovell designed 52’ canting keel yacht, spent the season racing boat for boat against many of the countries most impressive 60’ yachts including Loki, Vanguard, the new Swan 60 Ginger and Talent 2.

Racing was particularly enjoyable for the crews on board these five yachts due to their similar speeds and starting either together, or within a couple of minutes of one another. The last race highlighted just how close the competition was with Atomic needing to beat Talent 2 to take out the series. The close race began with both yachts luffing together on the start line and continued with each yacht swapping the lead several times throughout the race.

The light breeze on Sunday resulted in great distance changes and on several occasions there was only a few meters separating the yachts. With all of these high performance yachts using asymmetric spinnakers and sailing apparent angles downwind, the separation between theses yachts increased and hence the opportunity to gain or to lose the lead made for some nail biting racing.

Great tactical calls from John Harris and David Sampson on board Atomic helped to guide the black boat down the course under spinnaker, whereas the longer boats were often quicker and kept on the favoured side upwind to maintain their lead in the dying breeze.

Charlene Yates, regular crew on Atomic, put the win in the series down to their great team work and confidence in each others strengths.

She commented 'With the combination of a fabulous crew, a high performance boat and a hunger to put it to the test, week on week we improved sailing the boat out of sight which is what the series is all about and is the reason why we have done so well. To reach top speeds of 19.9 knots and keep the boat upright in the second week of the series, speaks for itself.'

Denis O’Neil, previous owner of the Sydney 38 Pitch Black, commissioned the design of Atomic two years ago. Following his involvement with Azzura Marine through the purchase of a Sydney Yacht, Denis continued this relationship with the construction of Atomic through another of Azzura Marine’s brands, Azzura Yachts.

Azzura Yachts also built Loki and Vanguard from its Azzura Marine facilities.