Quest takes honours in Savills grand prix racing

by Peter Campbell on 26 Nov 2007 Bob Steel’s latest yacht named Quest is a real winner, the Transpac 52 outsailing a small but elite grand prix ocean racing fleet in the IRC Racing Division 1 at the Savills’ 30th annual Short Ocean Racing Championship, sailed off Sydney Heads over the weekend.

In doing so, Steel beat two of the favoured contenders for IRC honours in next month’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race – Geoff Ross’ Yendys and Graeme Wood’s Wot Yot.

However, Steel has elected not to enter this Quest in the 630 nautical mile ocean race, which he won in 2001 with his previous Quest.

Although beaten into second place, Geoff Ross, owner/skipper of the state-of-the-art Reichel/Pugh 55 Yendys, was happy with the performance of the boat and its crew.

'We had three good races today, two seconds and a third in a light breeze that was not to our liking,' said crew member Danny McConville after the final day of racing where the fleet sailed in a light 10 knot ESE breeze and flat seas on the Manly Circle, north of Sydney Heads.

'We also had some new crew aboard, so it was a good work-out in sail handling and checking other details in preparation for our major goals – to win the Rolex Trophy for the second year in a row and improve our performance by winning the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Quest’s Savills series was a model of consistency – 2-1-2-3-2-3 to finish on 12 points while Yendys finished with 16 points from a scorecard of 4-3-2-2-3-2.

Third place overall went to Steven David’s Reichel/Pugh 60 Wild Joe which won two of today’s races to finish on 17 points, while Wot Yot’s overall performance was below expectations, based on her recent good sailing results.

Nevertheless, the close racing against near sistership Quest must have been excellent crew training. In race two today, the two Transpac 52s rounded the leeward mark just half a boat length apart.

It didn’t stay that way, Quest went left and picked up a good wind shift while Wot Yot tacked away to get clear air and came out many many boat lengths astern at the finish.

Both Quest and Wot Yot are based at the Cruising Yacht Club while Wild Joe represents the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club.

In IRC Racing division 2, the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s Le Billet, Bill Ebsary’s well-performed Beneteau 44.7 had a win and two seconds on corrected time today to clinch victory from Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s FKP Mean Machine, Chris and Ian Rabbidge’s modified Mumm 36 and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Splash Gordon, Stephen Ellis’ modified Farr 40.

All three were race winners over the weekend in a closely fought series, with Le Billet finishing the regatta on 13 points, FKP Mean Machine on 18.5 and Splash Gordon, generally the fastest boat in the division, on 19 points.

Of the IRC fleet, most boats are racing to Hobart or Coffs and are using key competition of the Savills SORC as a key part of their preparation for the long ocean races of the summer.

Final results of the Sydney 32 division tonight were subject to a protest hearing.

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



At tonight’s prizegiving Quest’s owner/skipper received a Seiko watch for winning IRC Racing division 1. Unlike when he last won a watch, a Rolex for winning the 2001 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, he did not throw his old one into the waters of Middle Harbour as he did into the Derwent River at Hobart.