Crews suffer another light air winter race

by Lisa Ratcliff, CYCA on 29 Jun 2004 True to form, yet another sparkling BMW Sydney Winter Series began in cold moderate westerly that fizzled away as the temperature rose to be replaced by a light nor easterly sea breeze, which resulted in shortened courses for some divisions.

While some skippers called it a day during the extended lull before the nor'easter kicked in, others persevered with the last yacht to finish scraping in just five minutes before the time limit for today's Race 9 of the BMW Sydney Winter Series.

With just two pointscore races left, skippers are scrambling for the remaining valuable points and in today's light conditions, most of the top three placegetters were outside the top three in the pointscore that was calculated prior to today's race.

In Division A, Ivan Wheen's Sputnik proved too strong for Bob Steel's former Rolex Sydney Hobart Race Overall winner Quest and the third placed Austmark, skippered by Gunther Schmidt-Lindner.

In Division B, Jonathan Green's Crusader comfortably finished ahead of Tim Flahvin's Callista and David Mason's Prime Time.

James and Jenny Neill's racy Super 30 The Cone of Silence silenced the opposition in Division C with a top place, earning valuable points to add to their current third place in the pointscore and relegating Stuart Bancroft and Charlie Duffil's London Calling to second in today's results. CYCA Director Rod Skellet's Young 31 Krakatoa finished third in this division.

The light conditions suited the well-sailed Akela (Akela syndicate), which recorded a win in Division D ahead of the Tribal Syndicate's Spearhead and George Waldthausen's Superfine.

In Division E, Neil Hamilton's Kelly 2 beat the current pointscore leader Big Blue (Ann & Bob Penty) by just over a minute with Grant Pollock's L'Eau Commotion finishing strongly in third place and looking to improve on his fourth place in the pointscore when it is recalculated.

Chris Bowling's Nautica Footwear was today's Division F winner, beating Phil Bower and David Eastwood's Wild Child to the finish line by just over half a minute and out sailing the third placed Half Hour (Paul Hendrey).

Just 20 seconds separated the two lead boats in Division G but it was Justin Pelly's Quambi that finally took the gun from Peter Fallon and Jason Bennett's Gold Dust with Bernie Van T'Hof also proving a real threat with just nine seconds between his boat Carnaval and a second place.

The Division F poinstcore is proving a real battleground and today's second place for Kevin O'Shea's Stormy Petrel, the current pointscore leader, has further cemented his chances for the top trophy at the end of the series.

Denis Doyle and Lynne Smith's Sextent finished ahead of Stormy Petrel in today's race and Renee Williamson-Noble's Fergus finished third in Division F.

The Sydney 38 Swish (S. Proud & W. Hutchinson) took out this closely fought one-design division ahead of Karl Stechmann and Peter Mason's Blue Chip and Michael Delaney's Don't Blink.

Keeping an eye on the fleet today was Neville Crichton who has recently returned from a clean sweep of line honours victories in the Giraglia Rolex Cup in France with his maxi Alfa Romeo, a possible starter in this year's Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.