Fischer closer to a ninth CYCA Blue Water win

by Lisa Ratcliff on 3 Feb 2008 Syd Fischer is one step closer to a ninth CYCA Blue Water win after beating the IRC fleet in Friday night’s 92 nautical mile race from Sydney Harbour to Flinders Islet off Wollongong and return.

Following the 8pm spinnaker start in a 12 knot southerly, Fischer’s Farr TP52 Ragamuffin pulled away from Alan Brierty’s menacing Limit and went on to take line honours at 9.27am on Saturday morning by 47 minutes.

Ragamuffin’s mastman Justin Dock recapped the race, “after a beat to Flinders Islet, the breeze dropped out at around 3am as we were rounding the island. We put up a chute and went out to sea until we gybed back in towards Cronulla. The southerly dropped out significantly in the early morning and we were gybing in light air right until we reached the Harbour”.

With his trusty Farr 50 put out to pasture by the new thoroughbred, Fischer’s lowest placing with the TP52 he’s only owned for four months has been a fourth, not counting the first race of the series, the July 2007 Audi Sydney Gold Coast, which he missed while awaiting the boat's arrival into Australia. His second overall in the Rolex Sydney Hobart was a turning point in the eighty-year old’s quest for a record ninth Blue Water Champion title, and he has consolidated this weekend with yet another top result.

“The first couple of blue water races we were caught unaware at just how good the boat is,” admitted Dock. “The boat’s container arrived with its full sail wardrobe just before the Cabbage Tree Island race and now we are sailing Ragamuffin more to its potential”.

A win in the Flinders Island race, the penultimate Blue Water Pointscore Race for 2007-08 has cemented Fischer’s placed at the top of the leaderboard with second and third to be calculated tomorrow once Graeme Wood’s Nelson/Marek designed TP52 Wot Yot has been granted average points.

Based on the fact they contested Skandia Geelong Week and are entered in the Audi IRC Championship, both Wot Yot and Stephen Ellis’ modified Farr 40 Splash Gordon will be awarded average points for missing the start of the Flinders Island Race due to time constraints.

Wood was contesting the grand prix division at last weekend’s Skandia Geelong Week when salt water was discovered in Wot Yot’s fuel tank. The crew thought they had fixed the problem and left Geelong with the intention of delivering the boat back to Sydney in time for the night race but instead, the boat had to be towed into Eden on Wednesday morning after the engine seized.

With a reconditioned motor, Wood will line up for the final of the seven-race series, the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race starting Friday 7 March at 6pm from Sydney Harbour.

“It will all come down to the Newcastle Race - that will be the decider,” said Wood, the 2005-06 CYCA Ocean Racing Rookie of the Year who is taking on Fischer, the three-time CYCA Ocean Racer of the Year and eight-time Blue Water Champion with 45 years of ocean racing under his belt.

The Limit crew were also at Geelong, picking up the Sydney 38 national championship crown for their efforts in the one design class. They only completed the delivery trip back from Victoria on Friday morning, giving them just enough time to switch to the larger Corby 49 also called Limit before retracing their path back to the coastal town of Wollongong they had passed by just 24 hours earlier.

“It was a fairly straightforward race,” Limit’s sailing master Roger Hickman said.

“Ragamuffin is a very competitive and well sailed boat and internationally the TP52s are doing well on the IRC circuit.

“The entire race we were watching what was in front of us, namely Ragamuffin which was regularly in our sights, as well as putting as much distance as we could between us and Mr Beaks Ribs who we consider a major threat.

“For the Newcastle Race we’ll just get out there and try to keep Syd and Graeme as honest as we can and if we end up with third overall, Al [Alan Brierty] will be honoured given it’s his first attempt”.

David Beak’s Beneteau First 44.7 Mr Beak’s Ribs finished third in the Blue Water Pointscore behind Limit in the Flinders Island race and first in the Tasman Performance Series (PHS).

Flinders Islet - Race 6 - 1st February 2008 Provisional Results BLUEWATER POINTSCORE (IRC)         Official Start : 1/02/2008 20:00                            

Yacht Sail No. Owner/Skipper TCC Start Time Finish Date  Finish Time Corrected Time Place Points

Ragamuffin AUS 70 Syd Fischer 1.330  2-Feb 9:27:40 13:27:40 17:54:12 1 1
Limit 43218 Alan Brierty 1.271  2-Feb 10:14:35 14:14:35 18:06:11 2 2
Mr Beaks Ribs 8447 David Beak 1.112  2-Feb 12:38:47 16:38:47 18:30:39 3 3
Endorfin 7555 Peter Mooney 1.172  2-Feb 13:20:22 17:20:22 20:19:19 4 4
Pretty Fly II 8924 Colin & Gladys Woods 1.116  2-Feb 14:24:50 18:24:50 20:33:00 5 5
Pla Loma IV (MHYC) MH 7 Rob Reynolds 1.194  2-Feb 13:14:58 17:14:58 20:35:45 6 0
Secret Mens Business #1 8300 SMB Syndicate 1.160  2-Feb 14:13:41 18:13:41 21:08:40 7 6
Local Hero (MHYC) 1236 Peter Mosely 1.083  2-Feb 15:53:39 19:53:39 21:32:43 8 0
eXpresso (MHYC) MH 84 Phil Darling 1.026  2-Feb 19:19:06 23:19:06 23:55:29 9 0
Impeccable  MH 106 John Walker 0.958  2-Feb RET       8
Quetzalcoatl (cas) 2001 Antony Sweetapple 1.167  2-Feb RET