Countback decides Sydney 38OD winner -Savills SORC

by Peter Campbell on 25 Nov 2007
Middle Harbour Yacht Club officials this afternoon had to use a countback to decide the winner of the closely contested Sydney 38 One Design division in the Savills 30th annual Short Ocean Racing Championship, sailed off Sydney Heads.

Two CYCA-based boats, Geoff Bonus’ Calibre and Alan Brierty’s Limit, each finished with 20 points after each had notched up a win and two seconds in the six race series.

Calibre, however, had two third placings as against a third and a fourth for Limit and this was the ultimate decider.

Limit, owned by West Australian yachtsman Alan Brierty and helmed in the regatta by Sydney yachtsman Roger Hickman came from fourth in overall standings going into today’s final three races which saw some remarkably close contests.

Sailing conditions were excellent, with a 10-12 knot south-easterly breeze on a warm sunny day – in contrast to the generally overcast and drizzly conditions of yesterday.

The close boat for boat racing in the Sydney 38 and the Farr 40 classes epitomised the concept of one-design offshore racing.

In race one of the Sydney 38s, Limit won by just 17 seconds from Calibre, in third place was Uplift (Darryl Hodgkinson), a further 15 seconds astern.

The winning margin for The Tavern (Ian Guanaria) in race today was also 17 seconds, second place going to Limit, with just seven seconds to Calibre and one second to fourth placed Rush, skippered by Cameron Miles and crew members of Loki, the Australian yacht which was wrecked last month during the Middle Sea Race in the Mediterranean.

In the final race today, Rolex Sydney Hobart Race entrant Zen (Gordon and Kim Kethelbey) won from Rush, Easy Tiger and Limit, with just over a minute between the first four boats across the line.

Complete results: www.mhyc.com.au/savills