Clockwork surprises Sydney 38's in Geelong Festival of Sail regatta

by Andrew Brown on 31 Jan 2002 The new Victorian & South Australian Sydney 38 fleet sailed together for the first time in the Royal Geelong Yacht Clubs Festival of Sail regatta.

David Buckland's Full Bore came across from Port Lincoln. Stevie Danne and his Into the Mystic syndicate had their boat down from Hamilton Island fleet.

Once again the high quality of the crew work on National Sydney 38 Champion Lou Abrahams Another Challenge paid dividends.

With precision work at the corners giving a small lead, which then provides clear air in race after race. Abrahams won both the Sydney 38 series and the overall IRC trophy in the prestigious Scotchman Hill series.

The newest Sydney 38 in the fleet, Eric Van der Griend's, new Clock Work Orange had an excellent out of the box performance, almost squeezing John Savage's 38 Degrees South out of second place. In fact had the series been scored without a drop then these two boats would have tied for second.

Van der Griend has sailed Etchells out of Brighton for the last three seasons.
He has named his new boat Clockwork Orange, because he has a chain of seven Watches of Switzerland outlets www.watchswiss.com

After winning the Williamstown to Corio Bay race, he commented 'We've had the boat since October, sailing in some combined club events and the Cock of the Bay, but this is our first big series.

In the long race, we rounded Faulkner Beacon, about half a mile behind 38 Degrees South, but we just kept working and working, concentrating on maintaining good boat speed, we kept gaining, and then gybed early to get clear air.

We have really enjoyed racing against the other 38's, we are learning a great deal and it's a lot of fun, with such experienced competitors helping.

We are going north for the Sydney to Southport race, then will sail up to Airlie Beach in company with Another Challenge for the Hogs Breath National titles and Hamilton Island Race week'.

Results for the Sydney 38 One Design fleet

Another Challenge SM2 Lou Abrahams SYC 7 1 1 1 1 3


38 Degrees South SM3800 John Savage SYC 10 2 3 2 2 1


Clockwork Orange SM3838 Eric Van Der Griend SYC 11 3 2 3 1 2


Full Bore L38 David Buckland PLYC 17 4 4 4 3 2


Into the Mystic H128 Stephen Danne RBYC 23 5 5 5 4 4

For full results and pointscores www.rgyc.com.au

For more information on Sydney 38 One Design www.sydneyyachts.com