Light airs plague Sandringham regatta

by Kate Mitchell on 12 May 2004 In light and variable winds, Sandringham Yacht Club held its inaugural One Design and Class regatta last weekend.

Classes represented included Sydney 38, 11 metre, Farr 1020, S80, and JOG.

The Sydney 38s are used to class racing and as usual competition was strong. The field was evenly pitted in the short and intense races; in the last race, the John Savage skippered 38 Degrees South beat Lou Abrahams’ Another Challenge for first place.

Terry Hall’s Livewire continues to perform well and came a creditable third.

Chris Carlisle’s 11 metre, Blue Chip, had a fantastic tussle with the Ross Coate steered Team B&D Affirmative, both finishing the fifth heat Regatta on 12 points.

However, Blue Chip won their pointscore on a countback. Frenzy, sailed by Ewen Lipman, took the third placing in this class.

There was extremely close racing in the Farr 1020 class between Vapour Trail, sailed by Shayne Le Peyre and John Chatham’s Island Trader.

Onlookers watched the pair race neck and neck right up until the last 100 metres. Island Trader eventually held off her adversary, while Wavelength, sailed by Brendon Kruger, came home third in the series.

Luke Rhienr on his S80 Intrusion has had a really good year in Club racing and his good form continued over the weekend, with a first in his class. The minor placings went to Imaginer, sailed by Philip Martyn and Geoff Holmes on Skip Jack.

David Suda’s experience won him a first in the J24 class, but Simon Grain put in an excellent performance on Kicking Bottom, considering he has had the boat for only two weeks. Two Dogs, sailed by Peter Moulang, came third.

The JOG class was the only class to include handicap scoring over the regatta. Zutem, sailed by Stephen Hunter, finished first on handicap, followed by Bruce Eddington on Kato in second and Mossimo Bullet (Andrew Mollison) and Starfire (Don Cameron) were equal third.

The Club Captain’s Trophy for the best performing boat in the regatta went to Luke Reinhr on Intrusion. Out of five races Luke managed five wins!


All Sandringham information: www.syc.com.au