Great Xpectations lives up to its name

by Peter Campbell on 10 Sep 2007 The first offshore race of Sydney’s spring/summer sailing season, Sydney Amateur Sailing Club’s Lion Island Race sailed on Saturday, certainly augers well for the season with a fleet of 33 boats enjoying excellent conditions.

With the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Short Ocean Points and Ocean Pointscore series not starting until Saturday week, 22 September, the Lion Island race attracted 37 entries from the SASC, CYCA, Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, Middle Harbour Yacht Club and Manly Yacht Club.

The fleet enjoyed a fast spinnaker run northwards to round a buoy off Barrenjoey, but had a slower beat back down the coast, with line honours going to CYCA member Stephen Thomas’ Cookson 12 Blackadder with a good time of 4 hours 46 minutes 08 seconds.

On PHS corrected time, first place went to the second boat to finish, Rod Willis’ X43 Great Xpectations, also from the CYCA. Great Xpectations won Division 1 from the MHYC club entry Merlin (John Lehmann) and another CYCA boat Love Byte, skippered by Alison Pickering.

Manly Yacht Club’s Out There, a Cavalier 375 skippered by Greg James, won Division 2 on handicap from the CYCA’s Out of Sight , a Masrm 950 skippered by Matt Wilkinson. Third and best-placed Amateurs boat was Peter McCorquodale’s Adams 10 cruiser Torquil.

The Amateur’s Lion Island Race was also the first pointscore race for the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron’s Offshore division.

First place on PHS went to Zephyr, James Connell and Alex Brandon’s Farr 1020, from the veteran former ocean racer Inch by Winch, a Peterson 44 now owned by Alex Wenham and Tim Cox’s J35 Soundtrack, skippered by Tim Cox.

On IRC handicaps, Zephyr won from Soundtrack and King Billy.

The SASC’s Lion Island Race was also the first ocean race of the season for the small but growing fleet of offshore racing boats with Manly Yacht Club, with eight boats in the fleet. Greg James’ Out There continued the tradition set by Jim Nixon’s Carinya IV by winning Division 2.

Manly Yacht Club Greg Zyner, skipper of Morna, said today that weather conditions for this year's race were 'much less horrible' than at the same time last year, when the race was actually held on the Harbour.

The race started at with the wind picking up to a steady 10-12knots from ESE. There was one early retirement with TwoCan having forestay problems.

Describing the race, Greg Zyner said: 'The leg to the mark north of Barrenjoey and east of Lion Island was very pleasant indeed with SE/ESE wind 10-15knots and slight and somewhat lumpy seas, with the sky showing a lot of large blue patches.

'A number of kites appeared well before Long Reef, one of them being Carinya IV, despite it being quite shy at times; this was the case at least somewhat further offshore, where about a third of the fleet decided to go in search of stronger breeze.

'Once passed Whale Beach most everyone popped their kites up, on the square run towards the mark. The prevailing conditions allowed just about all of the yachts to get to the half way point well before 1pm. The breeze remained quite consistent and the SOG on Morna stayed in the 7-9knot range.

'The second half of the race was a completely different story. The average wind speed did remain in the 10-15 knots from ESE/SE, however, early afternoon, the fleet was met by a number of unpleasant squalls coming from
the SE with the wind increasing to 25 knots at times and backing as much as 15 degrees, especially 2-3 miles offshore.

'As the dark cumulonimbus clouds passed overhead so would the wind, dropping to 6-8knots at times, and somewhat less closer to shore, with Carinya IV and EOS reported being becalmed at times.

'The crew on Morna ended up reefing and unreefing the main at least 5-6 times and making 3-4 headsail changes on the way back getting thoroughly drenched by salt as well as fresh water; the conditions were definitely much less agreeable compared to the first part of the day.

'Overall the race was quite challenging and at times frustrating, due to the variable conditions. On the bright side the yachts held up quite well to the
conditions. It was the turn for some of the crew, however, to take most of the punishment; various levels of sea sickness among some were reported,' Zyner added.

Of the Manly Yacht Club boats, Bruce Davis’ Pensive finished an impressive 6th, crossing the line some 4min ahead of Dances with Waves which finished 13th in Division 1. As mentioned earlier, Out There won Division 2 with Morna coming 9th and Carinya 11th.

The second race of Manly Yacht Club’s offshore series will be held on Saturday, 29 September.