Sydney 47CR continues winning ways
by Tracey Johnstone on 1 Mar 2008
Graeme Wood’’s Wots Next Rolex / Carlo Borlenghi
http://www.carloborlenghi.net
The Australian designed and built Sydney 47CR has achieved many race and regatta successes in recent years. Graeme Woods Wots Next, Paul Clitheroe's Balance and John and Debbie Balderstone’s Jem have all made as serious splash on the sailing scene.
Now Neil Cornish and his brand new Sydney 47CR St Jude have exploded onto the Sydney offshore racing scene.
Launched in late December, Cornish and his team debuted St Jude in the 2008 CYCA Australia Day Regatta race to Botany Bay, finishing first on IRC and first on PHS.
“It was an amazing day to be having my first sail in such ideal conditions. It was champagne sailing. There we were on my new yacht, sailing along as fast as the wind and passing some of Australia’s most amazing beaches. With Aussie flags flying high on shore and from helicopters, it was such a proud moment,” Cornish said.
The St Jude team had only a short time to prepare for the Botany Bay race. Two weeks before the race they headed out of Sydney putting the boat through its paces using the same track to Botany Bay as they expected to use for the real race on Australia Day.
At the start line on Australia Day the crew were still wary of the potential high-spirits which can occur at the start of a yacht’s first race and the limited knowledge they had of the boat’s capabilities, Led by Sydney Yachts Martin Thompson and North Sails Alby Pratt, the crew took a conservative approach to the start.
Avoiding the big pile up on the start line in the easterly breeze, Thompson said the team on the new Sydney 47CR chose a safe start to leeward of the bunch.
“Given the boat is brand new and it was Noel’s first day out, we felt that that to go wrestling into the high end of the line would be risky not knowing the boat well. We decided to start well down the line with the benefit of good boat speed and to establish our apparent wind ahead of the pile up before working up to the higher boats line.
“We expected a couple of boats to jump ahead of us, but we settled in ahead of the main pack and had a good exit from the harbour in around fourth place,” Thompson said.
The St Jude crew found the light easterly and backwash from the headlands provided extremely challenging conditions. The difficult tactical choice was then whether to slide under the headlands with little wind and swell or head away from the mark offshore to hunt some further breeze.
At the entrance to Botany Bay spinnakers were hoisted for the two mile run to the mark. “It was lovely sailing back out with the benefit of the flat water. This was short lived however with the outgoing tide and slowly building easterly slopping up our exit from Botany Bay,” Thompson said.
Bearing away to Sydney Harbour some of the boats stayed with their jibs, some went to jib tops and others had a brave and rather brief go with a tight asymmetric.
St Jude used the advantage of a perfectly suited code zero to hoist. With Alby Pratt on the trim St Jude immediately settled down to a steady nine knots boat speed in the building breeze. The Sydney 47CR’s stiff hull and massive righting moment performed well when loaded up with sail area in the bow. The boat was ultimately able to extend its lead from the lighter boats passing 50 footers that had earlier in the race been taking time from St Jude.
Thompson said they found their performance advantage in this race using the Code Zero. “It was very suited to the conditions. We went with slightly bigger jibs on St Jude and in the light offshore conditions, having a bit more sail area is very valid for this type of boat.”
As they work towards the ultimate goal of competing in the 2008 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race, the next challenge for Cornish and his crew will be the CYCA’s Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Race which starts on Friday 7 March. The inaugural race marks the finish of the CYCA’s 2007/8 Blue Water Pointscore Series. But for Cornish, this race is the real start of his team’s offshore racing program.
St Jude will be competing in the 213 nautical mile race against high-quality offshore racing fleet. The race should see St Jude meet the challenge of the fleet exceptionally well.
They will go into the race with a plan based on now knowing more of what the boat is like including its strengths and weaknesses.
“We have configured the boat for offshore and coastal racing rather than windward/leeward racing. We have only asymmetricals, a code zero and a jib top. The crew for the Newcastle race are basically the same as the Botany Bay race as we are building a core bunch of guys to race the boat through to this year’s Hobart,” Thompson said.
The expectations of a good result in the Newcastle race are high. With the boat and crew delivering a winning result in its first hit-out, they should rightfully be looking to achieve a similar result for this race.
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