No Limit for new Sydney 38

by Al Constable on 28 Jun 2006 A first up win, only the day after taking delivery for his new Sydney 38 One Design Limit for West Australian civil engineer Alan Brierty, shows there is No Limit to the amount of fun a new boat can deliver in the largest One Design offshore keelboat class in the southern hemisphere.

With a champaign breakfast christening and harbour cruise on Saturday morning a week ago, the new Sydney 38 One design sailed its first lap of the harbour in a very relaxed fashion, their only preparation before joining in the hotly contested BMW Sydney Winter series.

Limit and Alan obviously felt right at home because the following day, the boat flew around the course in the fastest elapsed time of all eleven Sydney 38’s, by several minutes.

Beaming at the presentation as he received his winning jacket, Alan who had picked up his membership card to the CYCA only a few days previously, said 'It doesn't get any better than this!'

Alan is Perth based and is leaving the boat here so that he can enjoy the one design racing before heading up to Hamilton Island. Limit will then continue racing in Sydney, with Alan coming over for the one design events.

Prior to purchasing the Sydney 38, Brierty had raced IOR boats up until ten years ago and last year chartered the Sydney 38, Contentious Issue, for the 2005 Sydney to Southport race.

Winners are grinners and Contentious Issue provided a win for Western Australia.
Alan was certainly grinning when his boat beat Geoff Bonus’ Calibre into second pace, with Victorian Bruce Taylor sailing Chutzpah into third.

Alan this week commented that as a long distance owner, service was very important. ‘Everyone has made it easy to just go out and sail. Sydney Yachts delivered a very well prepared yacht, North Sails tuned the rig and importantly Genevieve White’s business Marine Safety Works, worked to ensure the boat had all safety gear pre-fitted and full category 2 compliance.

‘The overall teamwork made Sunday's race possible, after the boat only being handed over the day before.’

The next race for the established Sydney 38 fleet will be the Sydney Mooloolaba race commencing on July 29th 2006, and this race is sure to test the 'limit' of this new boat.