Ingate fights back in 2009 Prince Philip Cup as yacht sinks

by Peter Campbell on 8 Jan 2009 Veteran Sydney yachtsman Gordon Ingate, who will turn 83 in March, today fought back in his defence of the prestigious Prince Philip Cup for the International Dragon class, winning a hard-fought Heat Five of the regatta on Sydney Harbour.

Ingate, a 50 Year member of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and former Olympian, America's Cup and Admiral's Cup helmsman, has narrowed the pointscore lead of Tasmanian Nick Rogers to 10.6 points with two races to sail.

With one unofficially dropped, the margin is just 1.6 points – or just one place in the fleet.

In a dramatic incident, the Sydney Dragon Liquidity, skippered by Richard Franklin, sank after a collision with another competitor, the Victorian boat Waliki skippered by Andrew Merrett.

The crew of three attempted to bale out the damaged Liquidity, but the choppy waters filled the cockpit and the yacht sank. The crew of three was quickly rescued by patrol boats from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

Nick Rogers, helming Karabos IX and seeking his ninth win as a helmsman in the Prince Philip Cup, placed third in a closely fought race today, only 42 seconds astern of Whim.

Second place went to Matt Whitnall, who has switched from the International Etchells class to the Dragons. Helming Taranui, the young Sydney yachtsman finished only 31 seconds astern of Whim and has moved to fifth place in the pointscore.

'We need another good race tomorrow and stay in front of Gordon,' Rogers said after the race. 'If not it's going to be a match race on Saturday.'

Today's race was sailed in a southerly breeze of 15 to 18 knots that freshened to 20 knots as it backed to SSE, with gusts of 25 knots as the fleet neared the finish of the 12 nautical mile course.

Whim and the experienced Ingate sailed a near perfect race, and although Whim lost the lead to Taranui on the last downwind leg, Whitnall failed to cover on the final beat to windward and the finish and the veteran yachtsman regained the lead and win his second heat of the Cup.

Rogers had difficulty in picking the notorious shifts near the weather mark in Rose Bay in a sou'easter, and dropped from third to 10th . 'We then had to fight all the way to place third,' Rogers added.

Results are provisional pending protest hearings this evening. The protest committee has been kept busy during the week, among its decisions being to grant the Tasmanian yacht Kirribilli II redress for being dismasted in heat one and reducing the penalty for the Russian yacht Murka 3 over the incident from a DSQ to a DNF.

One unusual protest has been that lodged by the Dragon class yacht Sidewinder against a surf ski, obviously not competing in the race. The surf ski was seriously damaged by the Dragon in the collision, and Sidewinder was refused a claim for redress, with the protest committee finding the yacht at fault.

After five heats, the provisional pointscore places Karabos IV on 22.40 points, Whim on 33 points followed by the Sydney yacht Abracadabra (David Seaton) on 56.7, the Russian boat Murka 3 on 58, followed by Taranui on 65 and the Victorian boat Amazing Grace (Tony Moody & Charles Stanton) on 68.7 points.

With scoring under the old Olympic pointscore, Karabos IX's lead over Whim is the equivalent of four placings in the fleet. Thus, if Whim wins again tomorrow, Karabos IX must finish at least in fourth place to holds its lead – and the margin then would be just 1.1 point!

Under the scoring system used by International Dragon Association first place scores 0 points, second 3 points, third 5.7, fourth 8, fifth 10, sixth 11.7, seventh 13 points, eighth 14 points and so on.

Officially, the one discard race has not been applied, but if one of the five races sailed so far is dropped Karabos IX's net pointscore is 14.14, Whim's 16 points – or just one place in the fleet.

Top ten boats after five heats, no discard:
1. Karabos IX (Nick Rogers, Tas) 2-3-4-1-3, 22.4
2.Whim (Gordon Ingate, NSW) 1-4-11-4-1, 33.0
3. Abracadabra (David Seaton, NSW) 8-13-3-5-4, 56.7
4. Murka 3 (Mikhail Muratov, RUS) DNF-1-8-2-5, 58
5. Taranui (Matt Whitnall, NSW) 4-14-2-DNF-2, 65.0
6. Amazing Grace (Tony Moody & Charles Stanton, Vic) 18-9-5-3-8, 68.7
7. Toogara (Robert Alpe, NSW) 7-15-6-8-7, 72.7
8. Sidewinder (Carl Ryves, NSW) 3-16-17-6-6, 74.10
9. Murka 9 (Olga White, RUS) 9-2-1-DNF-OCS, 80.0
10. Kirrbilli II (Andrew Crisp, Tas) AVG-7-16-10-12, 86