Ragamuffin, Loki complete hat-trick of wins offshore

by Peter Campbell on 30 Nov 2003 Veteran Syd Fischer’s Farr 50, Ragamuffin, and Stephen Ainsworth’s Swan 47, each notched up a third successive handicap win on day two of the JPMorgan Regatta off Sydney Heads.

Again sailing in ideal conditions, a freshening 10-12 north-easterly seabreeze, Ragamuffin so far has turned in her best performance since being optimised last month with a new sweptback spreader rig.

With the combination of young Michael Dunstan on the helm and the highly experienced Michael Green calling tactics and highly efficient sail handling by the crew, Ragamuffin again sailed a perfect race to win the IMS division of race three by more than three minutes on corrected time from Austmark (Gunther Schmidt-Linder) and the former Sydney Hobart winner Terra Firma (Nicholas Bartels) from Melbourne.

Mike Dunstan is steering Ragamuffin in place of regular driver Sean Kirkjian who this weekend is contesting the J24 State championship.

Mike Green is wearing his Doyle-Fraser Sailmakers cap as well as giving his input with experience of the similar sweptback spreader rig on Quest, which is not racing this weekend.

With Tony Kirby at the helm, Loki is sailing her first races since Hamilton Island Race, but the crew has obviously quickly got her into top gear, with three straight wins in the IRC division.

She won race three this morning from Grant Wharington’s super maxi Skandia, again clearing out from the fleet to finish nearly six minutes ahead of Sean Langman’s Grundig, with George Snow’s Brindabella one minute further astern.

The Sydney 38 and Farr 40 one design classes sailed offshore today with AMI Jade skippered by MHYC member Peter McNamara scored a comfortable win in the big Sydney 38 fleet after narrowly leading a huge pack around the first windward mark.

In the Farr 40s, Weapon (Robert Skinner) scored her second race of the regatta.