Beneteau Regatta on Pittwater - Metal Mesh Cup 2009

by Shane Crookshanks on 8 May 2009
The ninth annual Metal Mesh Cup was contested during the Beneteau Regatta Pittwater on May 2nd at the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, Newport. Thirty five Beneteau yachts, their owners and over 200 crew enjoyed another day of fun racing, good food, fine wine and lots of prizes.

After the morning champagne race briefing and welcome by our favourite guest MC, Ian ‘Turps’ Turpie, the yachts and their crews left the dock to clear skies and plenty of sunshine. The non spinnaker division got off to a clean start this year with a good southerly breeze. After some serious jostling for good line position, the spinnaker division was away, sprinting up the course chasing the other division.

In the end there can be only one. Congratulations to all participating crews, and the winners are:

Non Spinnaker Division – Joss – Oceanis 423 with Terry McDowell at the helm
Spinnaker Division – First Light a First 36.7 jointly helmed by Robert Jude & Mark Rutherford
Greyhound Division – Ishtar – First 47.7 owned by Edward Earl

Amid overflowing dessert platters and some helium balloon inhaling, everyone partied on to ‘Turps’ accompanied by our favourite regatta band, Wonderbrass. Special mention must be made about the well kept secret that Beneteau owners are also excellent dancers!

The team at Vicsail Pittwater would like to thank all our owner’s, their families, crews and guests for sharing another great day with us. We’ll look forward to welcoming you all back next year.

A big thankyou to all of our sponsors:

Metal Mesh, Wild Oats Wine, Club Marine, Boat Mate, RPAYC, Doyle Sailmakers, Lewmar, North Sails, On Deck Rigging, Quantum Sails, Optus Business Direct, YachtandBoat.com.au, Hood Sails, Vicsail, Beneteau, Boat Stripes, Neville Whittey, Covervsion, Dimension Polyant, Sunzapper, Finlease, Boat Smart and Raymarine.