Sail-World.com : Le Billet Defends Her IRC Crown
|
Le Billet Defends Her IRC Crown |
|
|
'Le Billet'
Crosbie Lorimer
|
In a series that's had it all, Bill Ebsary's Beneteau First 44.7 Le Billet has defended her IRC series crown by winning the historical 27th Pittwater & Coffs Harbour Offshore Series, altered this year due to severe weather conditions lashing the mid North Coast, forcing the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club's series organisers to change course and host the event from Pittwater, the first time in the 27 year tradition of the event.
In a series that's had it all, the winners were announced at tonight's prize giving at a buzzing Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, presided over by Commodores Angus Gordon (RPAYC) and Darren Digney from the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club.
Bill Ebsary's Le Billet won in convincing style with five wins from five events. The Beneteau 44.7 who finished first last year and second in the 2005-06 series, defended the coveted IRC overall series trophy. She finished seventh over the line second on handicap in the altered 210nm 2008 Pittwater return race and had a perfect record in all five races for those yachts contending the series.
Le Billet was in an unbeatable position leading into today's Race five, the final race of the series, a 11nm race within spectacular Pittwater renamed the Far South, South Solitary Islands race in honour of our friends in Coffs Harbour who are deeply disappointed the fleet weren't able to get to Coffs this year for their annual sojourn and fun in the sun.
With seas peaking at around 5.5 metres last night with winds gusting beyond 30 knots from an east-south-east direction, the forecasters got it right and the decision made by the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in conjunction with the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club was unequivocally the right one made with foresight. The competitors, whilst disappointed not to race to Coffs this year, supported the decision and enjoyed the quickly altered course.
Today's race, to complete the five race series, was sailed in a 10-15 knot SE breeze with rain squalls then sunshine followed by more rain. With a large, bumpy swell offshore today the decision was made by the Race Committee to opt for a course that had the fleet sailing inside Pittwater due to the start boat being unable to hold position offshore due to large swells.
The start was inshore with a following swell which made it interesting with boats surfing at the start with all starting without incident.
In the Seven boat IRC Division, the winner today was Le Billet both first over the line and on handicap in an elapsed time of 1hr 24 mins 32secs, followed by The Business, Grant Halliday's Sydney 38 in second three minutes behind the winner with the Murray 37, Dark & Stormy Witch owned by Bruce Staples and Jimmy King finishing third, a further three minutes back.
In PHS, 12 boats contested the last race of the series, with corrected time showing that the team from the Flying Fish sailing school out of Middle Harbour Yacht Club, the Beneteau 40.7 First Fish skippered Neil Driscoll getting their first win of the series in a time of 1hr 29mins 6secs. In second place was Steve Hobbs Harmony 42, Kick Back, the PHS winner of the altered passage race and in third position was Graham Friend's Radford, Sea Quest.
So with the historic 27th series now over and the prize giving now complete and everyone enjoying another great event at The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, tonight's official proceedings saw the following trophies awarded broken down into the long ocean race (normally the Pittwater to Coffs Race) and overall series (consisting of five races.)
60 yachts contested the inaugural 210nm Alternate Pittwater to Pittwater race. With 35 boats competing in IRC, it was Steven David's Wild Joe who took the prestigious line honours/ IRC handicap double and awarded with the Coffs Harbour Line Honours Bell Trophy.
It's a title and a record he hopes he doesn't have to defend and is looking forward to being back in Coffs harbour next year. In IRC overall it was Le BIllet second on handicap with First Priority in third. All three boats represented the three IRC Divisions in the race and obviously topped the ladder in their respective Divisions.
Divisional trophies for the three IRC divisions for the alternate race were awarded as follows; Division 1 to Steven David's Wild Joe first, in front of the two Farr 40 ODs in Short Shipped and Brannie Three in second and third respectively. Division 2 it's another title and back to back victories for Bill Ebsary's Le Billet, in front of The Business in second and Dark & Stormy Witch in third and finally in Division 3 the top three places are First Priority from Willyama and Onya sharing the podium.
The PHS Division had 25 yachts contesting Race 4 with Steven Hobbs' Harmony 42, Kick Back taking the honours from Graham Friend's Sea Quest in second with the Sydney 38 Love Byte in third.
The PHS fleet was split into two Divisions for the long race, with the Divisional trophies presented to; Division 1 Love Byte, the Coffs Harbour Sydney 41, B52 with Sea Hawk in third spot with Division 2 being awarded to Kick Back, Sea Quest and the other Coffs Harbour entrant Overdrive in first, second and third. Overdrive is owned and skippered by husband and wife team Andrew and Meegan Johnson in their Northshore 380.
Turning to the overall series, the prizes went as follows:
In the IRC Division, contested amongst a fleet of ten it was another resounding victory for Bill Ebsary (RPAYC) and his crew on Le Billet who had made it a perfect five from five for the series and in doing so defended the crown he held so proudly this year. With one drop allowed in the series Le Billet finished on four points. A count back separated second and third place in IRC after both Dark & Stormy Witch and The Business finished on an equal ten points. The count back went in favour of Grant Halliday's Sydney 38 The Business (RPAYC) when she just pipped the King/Staples Dark & Stormy Witch by three minutes in the final race of the series. Their positions leading into the final race were in reverse with only one point separating the two. It can't get much closer than that.
'I'm absolutely delighted with the win and to back up and do what we did last year and I pay tribute to the 12 crew who are just a great bunch of guys who have sailed together for a long time and without them this simply couldn't happen. The camaraderie is what racing's all about, and sure winning's nice but the camaraderie's more important to me than winning races. Those guys are really fantastic. We're thrilled with the prospects of going back to Coffs for a third attempt. The only disappointment is that we won't get a bunch of bananas or a box of beer when we arrive at the wharf,' commented Bill after picking up his back to back IRC Pittwater & Coffs Harbour Offshore Series trophy.
Commenting on the alternate race to the annual Coffs race and the battle with Wild Joe for handicap honours, Bill offered, 'The 'space shuttle' (referring to Wild Joe) got us in the end, as far as our boat is concerned we couldn't have sailed any faster and he deserved his win and did a great job in the 'Coffs' race, and congratulations to them for a well earned victory because we were on their tails let me tell you. He was a stand out in the conditions and certainly suited the type of boat he was in, they were just perfect for Wild Joe. But hats off to them. But for the rest of the fleet it was a really tight race and there was no room for laxity and we didn't have to ourselves by any means.'
On the decision not to send the fleet North, Bill had this to say, 'In hindsight, the Club (RPAYC) made the right decision, a very prudent one and correctly made with foresight particularly with the way conditions have unfolded up in Coffs.
'The Club needs to be commended on the way they dealt with it, given the urgency of the situation in bringing together a fully agreeable set of conditions for the whole fleet to sail in. I haven't heard one negative comment from anybody in this event. Great leadership taken by the club and that's good for sailing.'
In the PHS Division, 15 yachts competed in the 2007-08 series and it was a clear win for Tony Pickering from the CYCA aboard his 2001 launched Sydney 38OD Love Byte who finished on 12 points.
Only one point separated second-fifth place making it too close for comfort. In the end, second place was awarded to those bomber boys from Coffs Harbour aboard the Sydney 41, B52 on 19 points, after a big improvement finishing seventh overall in last year's series.
B52 elected not to sail in the last race held today making it her drop for the series. In third spot, only 1/2 a point behind and half point in front of the next two boats was another RPAYC competitor, Ray Hudson's 'Next Moment', an X-442 on 19.5 points. Robert Alder's Jayhawk and Garry Holder's The Real Thing both tough RPAYC competitors were in fourth and fifth on 20 points. Jayhawk led the series after the third race of the series.
The delightful Tony Pickering had this to say about this crew, 'I'm very proud of the crew been who've been together for about six to eight months now and had a go at Gold Coast race earlier in the year and then we set our sights on winning the pointscore in this Coffs series.
'We've put a lot of effort into it, I'm just so proud of the crew, proud of the effort, they've put into it and am quite happy with the result. Just like to thank the Real Thing crew who were our pen partners and helped us out on the dock over the last few days and we've had some great boat on boat racing with them.
'We had fun today with them just hunting them and cross tacking across their stern, there was nothing in it for us today as the series was in the bag with B52 deciding not to race today, we just had to make sure we didn't get a DSQ.'
The prestigious Navigator's Trophy (for Navigator's, at least), awarded to the boat that gets the closest to its ETA from the last radio check in point to the finish boat, set at Bangally Head, off Avalon this year. The trophy awarded to one of the smallest boats in the fleet, Cleopatra a Mumm 30 from the Victorian Sandringham Yacht Club who managed to get within 33 seconds of their ETA to their actual finish time.
Angus Gordon, Commodore of The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club summed up his thoughts on the altered 27th Pittwater and Coffs Harbour Offshore series this way, 'We're very sorry we're not going to Coffs this year because we always look forward to and we alway appreciate the sister club relationship between us and the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club. We really for the club and the people of Coffs Harbour because we know the impact of this.
'Unfortunately this year, we had a situation on our hands where the weather was too severe that would have put competitor's and their vessels at risk and we were all in agreement with that and so it was one of those situations where we had to make a sensible decision and believe it was the right decision.'
Further Angus added, 'I believe it's been a great series and that hasn't detracted from the traditional Coffs Harbour series, in fact I believe it supports it and shows the versatility and the preparedness to work together and we look forward to next year to be able to go to Coffs.'
Commodore of the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club, Darren Digney who would normally oversee these proceedings in Coffs Harbour tonight said, 'It's just great to see the commitment from all the crews, even though it wasn't what everyone wanted but yet they still turned up and supported the event and you can't ask for any more than that and we now look forward to next year when it just gets bigger and better for us in Coffs Harbour when we will welcome you all once again with open arms.
'Everyone in Coffs Harbour is disappointed from the volunteers who hand out the box of beer and bananas right through to the Mayor's Office, it's affected a lot of people but the right decision was made with foresight and safety is the key issue. Everyone will just need to eat and drink twice as much next year.'
Ted Anderson, Principal Race office for the series 'we salvaged what could have been a non-race to what turned out to be an enjoyable race for all and everybody was happy. Overall, a great series but sorry we are missing out on the Coffs Harbour hospitality that we always enjoy every year and we look forward to being back in Coffs next year for the 28th Pittwater & Coffs Harbour Offshore Series.'
The final comment was reserved for Chris Stone, Race Director who did a sterling job with the event under enormous pressure and 'was extremely pleased with the overall outcome of the 2007-08 series. Given the circumstances, it's been a great series, we've completed all our races and had minimal drop outs considering the responsible decision to alter the course to Coffs Harbour. Even with the change for the passage race, we were still five boats up on last year when 55 boats contested the event. Everyone has enjoyed themselves and whilst we are obviously disappointed for Coffs Harbour, we'll be back bigger and better next year,' he said.
Vice Commodore Racing, Russell Murphy Commodores thanked all the volunteers, Ted Anderson and his amazing Race Committee, the people of Coffs Harbour, the Umpires Committee and finally Line 7 for their sponsorship and merchandise.
We'll see you in Coffs in 2009!
by Damian Devine
9:46 PM Sat 5 Jan 2008 GMT
Click here for printer friendly version
Click here to send us feedback or comments about this story.
If you want to send this story to a friend, please use link below
http://www.sail-world.com/USA/Le-Billet-Defends-Her-IRC-Crown/40587
Click for further information on
2008 Pittwater to Coffs Race
Related News Stories:
MORE STORIES ...
|
Based on your current download speed Sail-World has delivered large images (660 pixels long side.) If you would like to see only small images (300 pixels long side)
click here . For medium sized images (500 pixels long side)
click here .
| |
