Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta winners announced

by Di Pearson on 8 Mar 2009
It is all over for another year – another successful Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta - and with a record 308 entries, Martin Hill, commodore of Middle Harbour Yacht Club which conducts the event, is over the moon because of the record numbers, the quality of the fleet and the racing this weekend.

Quest remains best in IRC Division 1

After leading the series yesterday, Bob Steel and his Quest crew nearly came a cropper when they dropped down the leaderboard in Race 5 with a sixth place finish, letting their nearest rival Wot Now (Graeme Wood) which was two points behind them, into the top spot.

But the man of steel fought back, finishing Race 6 in third place while Wood, just like he did at Skandia Geelong Week, had to watch his chances slip by again with a seventh place in the final race relegating him to the bridesmaid position.

Steel, from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia in Sydney, recently notched up his second overall win in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and his success continues. Quest finds the heavier conditions more to its liking, so revelled in today’s racing which averaged 15-19 knots with squirts up to 20 knots in the showers.

Although they were unable to complete Saturday’s Race 1 after breaking their vang, Stephen Ainsworth and his new Reichel/Pugh 63 Loki crew fought back valiantly to claim third place overall, finishing equal second in Race 5 and winning the final Race 6. One wonders what might have been had they finished Race 1.

Denis Thompson, the Race Officer on the IRC offshore course, said at times the breeze dropped out to 5-6 knots and then shot up to 18-19 knots again.

'It varied when it started to rain on and off. There were 20 degree wind shifts and the pressure was up and down; it was a difficult day for all,' Thompson said.

Alegria does it again in IRC Division 2

Queensland competitor Rod Jones has backed up his Division 2 win at Skandia Geelong Week with a win at the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta today, beating yesterday’s leader, Le Billet (Bill Ebsary) by five points and Audi IRC Australian Championship rival Peter Sorensen, at the helm of Ruth Magic, Peter Hill’s Beneteau 45 from the host club, by a further point.

Ironically, Jones won the inaugural Audi IRC Australian Championship in 2007 and Sorensen won it last year. Both are adamant they will win the event again this year and there is an even odds chance that this could happen. We will see, as the battle will continue with the Audi Sydney Gold Coast Race and closing event, Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in August.

'We found the first couple of races a bit of a struggle, but it got better and better from there. We had just great racing – in a great fleet of boats. It was difficult, we got wind speeds from 5.9 knots up to 18 – it was up and down all day. Everyone onboard worked extremely hard – there’s a great group of people on the boat,' Jones said.

A Brilliant win in IRC Division 3

It has happened in a couple of divisions at the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta, including Division 3. CYCA member Howard Piggott, the winner of a stunning Audi A4 Avant at the inaugural event in 2006 following a divisional win with Cloud IX, has won Division 3 this year with his updated Beneteau, Brilliant.

Piggott had to first win the Audi Final Challenge, a drive challenge in the Audi S5 4.2 V8 Sports Coupe, with Audi Motor Sport ambassador Brad Jones putting the drivers through their practice paces – and that’s exactly what he and the other divisional winners will have to do tomorrow at Oran Park Raceway at Narellan.

The heat was on today as the wind strength increased throughout the day and on the three IRC divisions racecourse just outside of Sydney Heads, the seas were definitely lumpier and bumpier than yesterday’s. In fact conditions were the polar opposite. Yesterday offered warm sunshine and light airs; today there was showering overcast skies and heavier winds.

The oldest competitor at the Regatta is ‘gentleman’ John Walker, an 86 year-old who is just as competitive today as he was 25 years ago when he first started sailing. Yes, Walker was a young 61 when he took up sailing with his Doug Peterson designed three-quarter tonner, Impeccable. The two have contested 25 Rolex Sydney Hobart races together.

'This is a great regatta; I did it last year and I’ll do it again next year,' said Walker, a Middle Harbour YC member who sailed in PHS Division 2 this year. 'It was better conditions for my heavy yacht today. We got a fluctuating 15-19 knots with gusts up to 20 knots – better than yesterday, which was a bit soft for us.'

Girls knock the blokes off in the PHS Sports Boats

Erin Mander and her 50 percent female crew showed the blokes how to do it in the tough go-fast PHS Sports Boats class this afternoon, taking out the six-race series.

Sailing her Lidgard 9m called Lady Bug, Mander, from Hunters Hill, defeated nearest rival Kevin Karaloff and his Elliott 7 Chameleon crew by nine and a half points and Peter Gale and his 11 metre one-design boat Ozad in the six race series which was sailed in the vicinity of Vaucluse on Sydney Harbour,

'It was great. I’m amazed to beat this sort of competition,' said Mander who only purchased Lady Bug one year ago after sailing on Raging Bull with Mark Griffith (he finished third in IRC Division 3 this year). Steve McConaghy (11 Metre One-Design double world’s winner) got me into sailing these sorts of boats,' an excited Mander said.

She also paid tribute to her tactician, Carl White, and mainsheet hand Ian Fenner, a friend who is visiting from the UK. 'He was just great,' said Mander who added: 'we cleaned and anti-fouled the boat last week and it made it .5 of a knot quicker – fast enough to win.' She also confessed: 'We missed a mark in the second last race, but we realised and went back around it and made the ground up.'

Just after 4pm, the rain Gods got serious and breezes started to die in the Harbour, but still held some grunt offshore, according to the Principal Race Officer, John Hurley.

The twenty division winners from 15 classes will undertake the Audi Final Challenge at Oran Park Raceway tomorrow afternoon. The winner will remain a secret until Audi’s managing director, Joerg Hofmann, makes the announcement and hands over the keys to a brand new Audi Q5 compact SUV at the Middle Harbour Yacht Club prize giving tomorrow evening starting from 7pm.

Provisional Results:

IRC Division 1 top five after six races
1 QUEST Jamie MacPhail CYCA 18 3 6 2 5 1 1
2 WOT NOW Graeme Wood CYCA 20 7 1 3 4 3 2
3 LOKI Cameron Miles CYCA 20.50 1 2.50 1 2 2 12S
4 WILD OATS X Robert Oatley RPAYC 24 4.50 2.50 5 1 8 3
5 YENDYS Geoff Ross CYCA 29 2 8 7 3 4 5

IRC Division 2 top five after six races
1 ALEGRIA Rod Jones MYC/RQYS 15 1 2 3 4 2 3
2 LE BILLET Bill Ebsary RPAYC 20 4 4 5 5 1 1
3 RUTH MAGIC R & P Hill MHYC 21 2 1 2 7 7 2
4 CARBON CREDIT Geoff Pearson MHYC 26 7 3 1 3 4 8
5 PERPETUAL MOCEAN Bruce Hogan RPAYC 31 3 7 7 2 6 6

IRC Division 3 top five after six races
1 BRILLIANT Howard Piggott CYCA 17 2 5 2 5 2 1
2 RAGING BULL Mark Griffith RPAYC 27 1 6 7 2 6 5
3 CRUSHER Brent Lawson MHYC 28 7 7 6 4 1 3
4 LOCAL HERO Peter Mosely MHYC 29 6 1 8 7 5 2
5 EQUINOX Anthony Dunn CYCA 30 3 3 4 11 3 6

PHS Sports Boats after six races
1 LADY BUG Erin Mander HHSC Lidgard 9m 24.50 1 4 3.50 6 8 2
2 CHAMELEON Kevin Karaloff RANSA Elliott 7 34 8 15 6 3 1 1
3 OZAD FORCE 8 Peter Gale RPAYC 11m one design 42 12 7P 10 4 4 5
4 NO COMMENT Heath Walters RPAYC Melges 24 44 13 2 8 1 9 11
5 ZIP Bruce Hollis RPEYC Thompson 7 48 11 1 7 15 6 8

For all information, including full results:
http://www.audisydneyharbourregatta.com