Savills SORC Regatta goes off with a bang

by Rob Kothe on 1 Dec 2004 The Australian bluewater summer sailing season started in earnest off Sydney Heads last weekend with the Savills Short Ocean Racing Championship, hosted by Sydney’s Middle Harbour Yacht Club.

There was a record fleet of 100 boats across handicap and one design fleets from NSW, Victoria, South Australia and New Zealand, racing off Manly in a four race series.

Leading international property consultants and real estate agents, Savills, the naming-rights sponsor of the championship, had hundreds of clients and staff enjoying the delights of summer sailing, starting with last Thursday night’s Twilight race at Middle Harbour.

Stewart Thwaites 98 footer Konica Minolta took line honours in all four races of the series, but only after a strong fright from Wild Joe.
The 26 boats took a while to get rolling. In the first race her performance was ordinary; she was sticky in the soft conditions and sailed into the softest patches on the course, coming 27th on
handicap.

In the second race, she attempted to use her water-ballast with limited success. After the first day, there was an extended crew meeting, which seemed to have the desired effect. On Sunday, the giant Kiwi boat was much closer to pace; her water ballast was used to good effect.

At the end of the regatta Thwaites was pleased. ‘We raced at the Savills Regatta specifically to start the process of getting the boat and crew up to speed early.
‘At last years Hobart, on Boxing Day morning, we had crew stepping on the boat for the first time and we had three issues on the boat, which all cost us more than the 14 minutes we needed to beat Skandia.

‘We enjoyed the regatta and are looking forward to Hobart. Our plan is to be back for Savills next year. With our bowsprit now coming into play, we will be putting our new larger Quantum D4 headsails on the boat for the Rolex series and that will lift our speed.’

Prime time television show producer David Mason won the ratings contest with his ocean racing yacht Prime Time, winning the Grand Prix IRC division over the weekend.

The Beneteau 44.7 has been mentioned as a strong contender for an IRC Overall win in the Rolex Sydney to Hobart race after her close second behind Skandia, at Hahn Premium Race Week at Hamilton Island.

With world champion yachtsman Neville Wittey on the helm of Prime Time, she sailed consistently well in the generally light conditions that prevailed over the weekend.

She was always up among the main group of boats chasing the super maxi Konica Minolta and the canting keel 60-footer Wild Joe; and most times sailing right to, or better than, her favourable IRC rating.

Her corrected time scorecard of 1-4-2-1 was by far the best result of the fleet, giving the Bruce Farr-designed, French-built production yacht a final low score of eight points, well clear of the nearest opposition.

This result, along with other recent achievements, puts Prime Time on equal odds for the Hobart with her sistership, First National Real Estate (Michael Spies), which has also had spectacular results since launching in October.

Wild Joe, formerly the 2003 Admiral's Cup champion Wild Oats, is now owned by Sydney yachtsman Stephen David. The Reichel/Pugh designed 60-footer has been given a major refit.

Wild Joe led her giant rival Konica Minolta to the first mark twice in the regatta, and with Michael Coxon from North Sails calling tactics, Wild Joe was regularly better positioned on the course.

With a reduced canting ability, there were question marks over her going into this series, but Wild Joe proved to be very fast. Her 1.8 metre bowsprit and the increased sail area of her new 3DL headsails powering her to an excellent second overall in the regatta.

With America's Cup skipper and international designer Iain Murray at the helm, Wild Joe notched up two wins on corrected time, but had a ninth in Race 1 and fourth in race four, which dropped her down to 15 points.

Third was another Pittwater boat, Hussy, Avalon sailor John Bacon's remarkably fast Sydney 39 CR, which finished on 16 points from placings of 4-3-6-3.

Bacon commented, ‘we are really pleased with the boat, she is certainly fast, but we were sailing in such champion company that I kept expecting someone to tap me on the shoulder and say John…there has been a mistake in the results calculations - but I’ve checked with the scorers and they say they are right.’

Final Results

1 Prime Time 1,4,3,1-9

2 Wild Joe 9,1,1,4-15

3 Hussy 4,3,6,3-16

4 Austmark 2,6,4,5-17

5 Konica Minolta 27,2,2,2-33


Cydon dominates Sydney 38 One Design

For a one-design class, the winning point’s margin was quite extraordinary in the record Sydney 38 fleet.

In fact, the 26 boats shared some of Australia's best sailors on board, including a couple of former World champions in the Etchells class and several Olympians. The series was dominated by Cydon, though. Skippered by Leon Christianakis, they notched up three wins and a second for a total of 5 points.

Christianakis has achieved outstanding success in the eight months he has owned the boat. With his Pittwater crew he has won the Pan Pacific championship at Airlie Beach, the Sydney 38 division at Hamilton Island Race Week and the Rex Regatta, as well as finishing second in the NSW title and third in the nationals.

On finishing the series, Christianakis commented, ‘we’ve been getting great starts and we have great boat speed, we seem to be consistently higher than our rivals.’

Nearest rival, Stephen Kulmar on Shining Sea, scored 20 points from a consistent 6-4-6-4 scorecard. Finishing third was national champion, Rush (Cameron Miles/Steve Robson).

The final race decided the winner of the Pittwater designed Sydney 32 Australian championship, Australia’s newest, rapidly expanding one-design class.

Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club member Martin Cross came from third in the overnight standings (a 2nd and a 3rd), to win the final two races to finish with seven points, one clear of Stan Montgomery’s Mainstay on eight points. The latter won the first race and followed this with consistent placings of 2-2-3.

Jester, another RPAYC boat, skippered by Dave Bull, looked to be in the running to successfully defend her national title with a 4-1 on Day 1, but a luckless ninth in Race 3 put paid to those aspirations. She placed second in the final race to finish third overall on 16 points. All three boats used North Sails inventory.

The final race for the Super 30 class and three boats finished with identical corrected times – Kato, Bruce Eddington’s Mumm 30 from Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne, Raging Bull, Mark Griffiths’ Young 9.4 from the RPAYC, and Farrout Edake, Jeff Carter’s Farr 9.4 also from the Alfred’s.

With Raging Bull out of the running for overall top place after her OCS, the shared win gave first place to Kato on six points from a consistent 1-3-1-1, well worth the long trek up the Hume Highway.

Farrout Edake took second place overall with eight points – with placings of 2-2-3-1.
In the Farr 40 Class, Mumm 30 world champion skipper, Richard Perini, is on track for a second World title, this time in the Farr 40 one design keelboats, following victory at this regatta.

Perini’s Evolution finished the Savills SORC on eight points, while Marcus Blackmore, one of the founders of the Farr 40 OD class in Australia, won two races to finish second with 11 points.

Third place overall went to Victorian David Gotze, supported by multi-talented champion sailor Steve McConaghy as his tactician.

Brighton Star’s scorecard of 2-6-3-2 gave the boat 13 points, while Lang Walker took fourth place with Kokomo, with 3-3-6-7 results for 19 points.

MHYC’s 82-year-old ocean racer, John Walker, skippered his 20-year-old Peterson 33, Impeccable, to a corrected time win in the final race of the PHS class, the series going to Strewth (Ben John