Blue skies for Stormy Petrel

by Peter Campbell, CYCA on 15 Mar 2004 Stormy Petrel, the classic former One Ton Cup champion, clinched overall victory in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Short Ocean Point Score (SOPS) on Saturday with her seventh successive win in IRC Division 3 of the 2003-2004 summer series.

Stormy Petrel also provisionally won PHS Division 3 after going into the final race equal on points with TwoCan (S.Teudt & D. Lewis) and finishing first in that race.

Now owned by Kevin O’Shea, Stormy Petrel was designed by the Sparkman & Stephens, the famous US naval architects, to the international One Ton rule and Syd Fischer sailed her to victory in the 1971 Cup series in New Zealand.

Stormy Petrel has had a number of different owners since then, with O’Shea buying her a couple of seasons ago and, with the help of John Maclurcan and a dedicated crew, he has sailed her consistently well over the past season.

'We had a blinder today,' said O’Shea as he and his crew celebrated back the CYCA.

The final SOPS and Shorthaul races of the CYCA summer of 2003-2004 saw the fleet sail in a 10-15 south-easterly breeze with lumpy seas offshore.

While the C YCA has yet to confirm final pointscores for the SOPS, most overall division winners appear quite clear, with most pointscore leaders ending up with a win on the last day.

In IRC Division C, Stormy Petrel is provisional winner from Naughty Call (Gregg Watson) and Ruthless (Peter and Ruth Hill). In IRC Division, White Satin (William and Nevine Neill) won the final race, but top SOPS points for the race and the season went to About Time, Julian Farren-Price’s Cookson 39, About Time. Nips N Tux, Howard de Torres’ IMX40, finishing runner-up.

True North, Howard and Susan Piggott’s Beneteau 40.7, did not have to start in yesterday’s final race to win IRC Division 2 after notching up six wins over the summer.

In the dwindling IMS division, Nips N Tux had virtually no opposition to win Division 1 while the ever-consistent Rumblefish (John Brown) won her seventh race of the season to provisionally clinch IMS Division 2.

The PHS handicap category was more closely contested with About Time winning the final race to provisionally confirm top place in Division 1. True North had victory in PHS Division 2 sewn up without racing.

The final Shorthaul race produced some upset results, with Wings Three, (Billingham/Dillon/McGee) winning the PHS Division on corrected time from Outside Chance (B & C Elsbury) and View Finder (Jon Goodman) with overall pointscore leader Bagdad Café (Dennis Doyle and Lynne Smith) placing only ninth.

The CYCA Sailing Office will announce the final pointscores in this division and other divisions of the SOPS and Shorthaul later on Monday.