RYCV scoop IRC pool in Club Marine Range Series

by Mike Sabey on 7 Apr 2008 Three small keelboats from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria sailed to a unique hat trick over the weekend when they scooped the IRC pool winning Divisions One, Two and Three in this summer’s prestigious Club Marine Range Series. And if fellow Royal’s club boat Living Doll had secured just one better placing in the seven race Division O series, the Club could have made a total whitewash of the summer long series that began last November.

The stand out boat of the regatta with the best point score after seven races with five wins and a second (5pts) was Royal’s Captain David Ellis who brilliantly steered his Borresen BB10 Surprise to completely dominate Division Two IRC. Second on 12 points was Max Peters RYCV based Top Gun.

Captain Ellis, whose day job is to pilot container ships down the Bay and is Club Captain at Royals, also competes in one design A Class catamaran events. He sailed a near faultless regatta despite being relatively new to keelboat regattas and said, 'My background is in one design yachts and I’ve applied the rule of getting a jump at the start, heading into clear air and picking the first shift early in the race to be up amongst the leaders at the first mark. 'For this season North Sail’s Ross Lloyd suggested we change Surprise to non over lapping headsails and this has made a big difference to our performance,' he added.

Grant Botica’s brilliantly sailed Adams 10 Executive Decision (pic left) from RYCV steered by 28 year old Josh White narrowly avoided a near disastrous port – starboard collision mid way through the last race, which was won by Lou Abraham’s Sydney 38 Challenge.

However, Executive Decision finished the series with four straight wins and second ahead of Phil Simpfendorfer’s Sandringham Yacht Club based Veloce, which was four places astern after slumping to 10th in the last deciding heat. An excited Grant Bottica said afterwards, 'This was the trophy we have always wanted to win, and now we have done it! My crew put in a lot of planning and training before the season started including changing to a masthead kite rig and it has paid big dividends,' he added.

Proving age needs is no barrier, RYCV’s veteran ocean racer David Burton steered his twenty year old Jarkan 925 design Coramandel IV to first place on the Division Three performance handicap podium, after finishing a somewhat ordinary 11th in the last race, behind Saturday’s winner Firefox from Mornington YC skippered by Kim Beveridge.

But Coramandel IV still managed to finish 5.5 places ahead of Warren Parker’s Royal Brighton Yacht Club based Double Malt that would have taken the trophy if the places had been reversed. A delighted Mr Burton who in recent years dominated his club’s twilight races said afterwards, 'It was really satisfying to win such a high standard series, competing against 47 entrants that produced some of the tightest boat to boat racing I have witnessed at this level.'

Heat seven turned into last race 'winner take all' shoot out in Division O for the hot shot grand Prix yachts, with Royal’s Cookson 50 Living Doll and Alan Whiteley’s beautifully presented TP 52 Cougar II from Sandringham Yacht Club (left) both locked together on 6 points.

But Cougar II steered brilliantly by Peter Williams found an early lift on the left side of the course in building South Easterly 5-12 knot breezes to open up a 20 second lead over Michael Smith’s Living Doll. By race end Cougar II’s lead over Living Doll had been stretched to 34 seconds, whilst Phillip Coombs Dekadence slipped under everyone’s guard to take first place.

Alan Whiteley said after beating Living Doll to win the Division O on 8 pts by just one placing and his crew celebrations had died down, 'We won the Series because we made fewer mistakes. There’s no doubt that sailing against Australia’s top 50 footers in the Sydney based Rolex Series earlier this summer and the Audi Regatta in March has sharpened our skill levels and raised our performance to a new level.'

Yachting Victoria’s CEO Ross Kilborn says, 'This major keelboat series which this year attracted more than 170 entries has grown to be the largest inter club regatta of it kind in Australia. 'And it is fitting that Australia’s leading marine insurer Club Marine should be its naming rights sponsor for the second year.'

Club Marine Insurance is a long term supporter and active participant in the great Australian marine lifestyle.
As the country’s largest provider of pleasure craft insurance, it’s also proud that it’s been protecting the insurance needs of Australian boaters for more than 40 years.

The Range Series was first staged in 1992 by the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria and was originally sponsored by the Urban Land Authority’s Range Development at Williamstown. Then in 1996 RYCV handed the Series’ organisation to the then Victorian Yachting Council (now Yachting Victoria) to continue developing and running of the event.

The Club Marine Range Series trophies will be presented to the winning owners and crews at The Victorian Champions and Awards Night on Friday 20 June 2008, at a venue to be advised.

More info: www.clubmarineseries.com.au