Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week - One Perfect Day

by Al Constable on 5 Sep 2009
Perfect sailing conditions for the first race of the 2009 Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week. Brilliant sunshine greeted the 49 boat fleet as they headed to the start line in 10-15 knots of building sea breeze.

Regatta Director Denis Thompson held the fleet ashore in the Nelly Bay marina until the sea breeze came in; the first fleet started at 12.05pm.

Zoe, the local Townsville Murray 41 skippered by Wayne Millar, led the IRC fleet around the 17.5 nautical mile course.
Zoe was fast away midline, behind her Graham Donnell’s Elliott 11 Quattro was just ahead of Belinda Cooper's Sydney 32 Groove and Mike Steel’s Dufour 34 Boudicea.

The PHS fleet started at the same time as the IRC fleet. The skipper of Never A Dull Moment, Colin Wilson was resting ashore with a chest infection, but with the two ‘highly seasoned old salts’ Geoff Lavis, former CYCA Commodore, and sail maker Ian Broad leading the team they started well, and so began their race long battle with Zoe.

Charlie Wallis’ Murray 42 Reignition, the Whitsunday Sailing Club racer sailing in the PHS Division, was well placed as she hoisted her spinnaker for the run towards Townsville.

As the fleet rounded the Townsville mark, the wind lifted towards 15-16 knots with whitecaps all over Cleveland Bay.

Zoe gybed at the mark and held her shy kite as she powered towards the Kissing Point Mark, followed by Never a Dull Moment, Reignition (Charles Wallis) and Quattro (Graham Donnell). They all stayed high as they two-sail reached off the Townsville waterfront.

The wind continued to build as the smaller boats streamed down the course.

In the IRC fleet Zoe took the gun from Quattro and Groove. On corrected time Zoe won the division, Quattro was second and Groove finished third.

Dockside Wayne Millar, the Zoe skipper commented ' We were sailing in a different division to Never A Dull Moment and she is a bigger boat, but she was an excellent bench mark. Pacing ourselves against them kept us sharp and kept the boys hiking.'

Graham Donnell Elliott 11 Quattro, previously Veloce sailed from Melbourne, for this regatta.

'Donnell said ‘the light wind down-wind killed us, we did have a good start upwind but we need 15-20 knots to show our best.'

In PHS the line honours winner was Never A Dull Moment, from Charles Wallis' Reignition, with Amaya 11, the Farr 11.6 of David Boxall, third. On handicap Apollo VI, Paul Stuart’s Lexcen One-Tonner from the Townsville Cruising Yacht Club took the win, from Reignition and Kachina, Phil McGuire’s McGuire 11.3.

Dockside Geoff Lavis smiled. ‘Colin is on antibiotics, he’s not exactly on his death bed as he was well enough to call us from his hotel room over-looking the course, to tell us what we did wrong. Today, it was very much a makeshift crew. Ian (Broad) was on the main and calling the shots.

‘We missed having local knowledge and we went the wrong way a few times.’

Ian Broad concluded ‘we had everything today, we started in eight knots and finished in 12 but we had 15-16 in the middle. None of us have sailed here before, so we are pleased.’

Today provided perfect conditions for the Sports Boat fleet. Leon Thomas’ Thompson 7 Guilty Pleasures, which performed exceptionally well at Magnetic Island last year, certainly enjoyed the run out on Cleveland Bay, taking both the line honours and handicap wins.

Stoked, skippered by Patrick Stokes was second on line honours and Michael Unwin’s Fuzzy Logic finished third. Stoked and Fuzzy Logic also completed the minor placings on handicap. Unfortunately Dennis Cleman’s Diva was forced to retire from the race (and the series) with structural damage.

This year the Race Committee introduced a Multihull division and today Barbarella, the Schonning Signature Cat of Mal Tynan took line honours, from The Boat (G Etherton) and Slinky Cat (Shaun Watson). On handicap it was a win to The Boat, who finished ahead of Barbarella and Slinky Cat.

Storm 2, Don Algie’s imposing Warwick 66 took line honours in Cruising with Spinnaker Division 1. Zora 1, Kevin Horne’s Salona 45 J&J Design/AD Boats Ltd was second, with Seaduction, Brian Pattinson’s Beneteau 44.7 from the Royal Brighton Yacht Club, third. On handicap Zora was first, from Instant Karma, Paul Wise’s Bavaria 38, with On Location, Bob Robertson’s Bavaria Cruiser, third.

In the Cruising with Spinnaker Division 2 Seduction, Richard Nicols Lidgard fresh from racing at Airlie Beach took line honours, from Doug Ryan’s Farr 1104 Magic, with local Ian Hamilton and his Barbie Girl crew onboard Akarana (Farr 1104) third. On handicap Magic won day one, from Akarana and Seduction.

Local sailor and Sunferries Magnetic Island Race Week supporter Richard Cerny on Aussie Rules (Beneteau Oceanis 500) took line honours in the Cruising Non Spinnaker Division, from Planet Peugeot, Alison Smith’s Bavaria 50 from the UK. Third was Volare, the Farr 40 Phase 4 of Grant Thompson.

Bruce Shank's Spindrift, a Camper & Nickelson Sloop 1934, took the 27 minute handicap win from Volare and Aussie Rules. Spindrift is plainly a wolf in sheep's clothing. On the way back to the dock she blew up her gear box, so will not be on the startline today, but should be back for the Round Island race on Monday.

Passage Race 1 - IRC Division
Rank	Boat	Division	SailNo	Skipper	TCF	Start	Finish	Elapsed	Corrected	Nett
1	Zoe	IRC	98	W Millar	1.168	12:05	14:58:35	2:53:35	3:22:45	1
2	Quattro	IRC	602	Graham Donnell	1.071	12:05	15:14:58	3:09:58	3:23:27	2
3	Groove	IRC	6441	Belinda Cooper	1.018	12:05	15:26:18	3:21:18	3:24:55	3
4	Boudicea	IRC	771	Mike Steel	0.989	12:05	15:37:09	3:32:09	3:29:49	4
Passage Race 1 - PHS Division
Rank	Boat	Division	SailNo	Skipper	TCF	Start	Finish	Elapsed	Corrected	Nett
1	Apollo VI	PHS	C6	Paul Stuart	0.753	12:05	15:42:57	3:37:57	2:44:07	1
2	Reignition	PHS	202	Charles Wallis	0.96	12:05	15:03:44	2:58:44	2:51:35	2
3	Kachina	PHS	402	P McGuire	0.787	12:05	15:46:36	3:41:36	2:54:24	3
4	Never a dull moment	PHS	6111	Colin Wilson	1.02	12:05	14:59:01	2:54:01	2:57:30	4
5	Amaya II	PHS	D247	Peter David Boxall	0.902	12:05	15:26:03	3:21:03	3:01:21	5
6	Fortified	PHS	MH35	Graham Van Brederode	0.91	12:05	15:29:40	3:24:40	3:06:15	6
Passage Race 1 - Multi Hull Division
Rank	Boat	Division	SailNo	Skipper	TCF	Start	Finish	Elapsed	Corrected	Nett
1	The Boat	Multi Hull	TV389	G Etherton	0.941	12:10	15:16:26	3:06:26	2:55:26	1
2	Barbarella	Multi Hull	1	Mal Tynan	0.925	12:10	15:31:02	3:21:02	3:05:57	2
3	Slinky Cat	Multi Hull	Bow 3	Shaun Watson	0.934	12:10	16:47:11	4:37:11	4:18:53	3
Passage Race 1 - Sports Boat Division
Rank	Boat	Division	SailNo	Skipper	TCF	Start	Finish	Elapsed	Corrected	Nett
1	Guilty Pleasures	Sports Boat	5887	L Thomas	0.878	12:10	15:21:12	3:11:12	2:47:52	1
2	Stoked	Sports Boat	7008	Patrick Stokes	0.878	12:10	15:33:24	3:23:24	2:58:35	2
3	Fuzzy Logic	Sports Boat	69	Michael Unwin	0.86	12:10	15:53:05	3:43:05	3:11:51	3
4	DIVA	Sports Boat	5234	Dennis Coleman	0.83	12:10		DNF		5
Passage Race 1 - Cruising Spin 1 Division
Rank	Boat	Division	SailNo	Skipper	TCF	Start	Finish	Elapsed	Corrected	Nett
1	Zora I	Cruising Spin 1	8975	Kevin Horne	0.86	12:15	15:22:47	3:07:47	2:41:30	1
2	Instant Karma	Cruising Spin 1	B38	Paul Wise	0.8	12:15	15:43:12	3:28:12	2:46:34	2
3	On Location	Cruising Spin 1	B502	Robert Robertson	0.835	12:15	15:41:50	3:26:50	2:52:42	3
4	Ingenue	Cruising Spin 1	B88	Rosie Colahan	0.803	12:15	15:52:16	3:37:16	2:54:28	4
5	Windsong	Cruising Spin 1	8582	Rob Starkey	0.8	12:15	15:56:08	3:41:08	2:56:54	5
6	Last Tango	Cruising Spin 1	R30	Colin White	0.83	12:15	15:48:33	3:33:33	2:57:15	6
7	Valdolese	Cruising Spin 1	ST461	Greg Sier	0.82	12:15	15:54:14	3:39:14	2:59:46	7
8	Seaduction	Cruising Spin 1	B4407	Brian Pattinson	0.953	12:15	15:25:43	3:10:43	3:01:45	8
9	Warrigal	Cruising Spin 1	YC598	J Finch	0.865	12:15	15:49:08	3:34:08	3:05:14	9
10	Delphian	Cruising Spin 1	SM1616	John Sloan	0.8	12:15	16:10:15	3:55:15	3:08:12	10
11	Storm 2	Cruising Spin 1	SA10	D Algie	1.12	12:15	15:16:27	3:01:27	3:23:13	11
12	Savanna	Cruising Spin 1	Bow 2	M Whitehead	0.85	12:15	16:30:05	4:15:05	3:36:49	12
13	Pure	Cruising Spin 1	6591	Steve Battley	1.05	12:15	16:21:35	4:06:35	4:18:55	13
Passage Race 1 - Cruising Spin 2 Division
Rank	Boat	Division	SailNo	Skipper	TCF	Start	Finish	Elapsed	Corrected	Nett
1	Magic	Cruising Spin 2	2086	Doug Ryan	0.787	12:20	15:17:06	2:57:06	2:19:23	1
2	Akarana	Cruising Spin 2	1104	Ian Hamilton	0.787	12:20	15:19:47	2:59:47	2:21:29	2
3	Seduction	Cruising Spin 2	M406	Richard Nichols	0.826	12:20	15:15:57	2:55:57	2:25:20	3
4	Farrago	Cruising Spin 2	497	P McCutcheon	0.795	12:20	15:24:32	3:04:32	2:26:42	4
5	Librian	Cruising Spin 2	1478	B Barnes	0.675	12:20	16:04:27	3:44:27	2:31:30	5
6	The Major	Cruising Spin 2	3429	M Gillum	0.725	12:20	15:49:02	3:29:02	2:31:33	6
7	Iseulta	Cruising Spin 2	B37	Tristram Denyer	0.795	12:20	15:35:54	3:15:54	2:35:44	7
8	Jeni Anne	Cruising Spin 2	Bow 1	John Phelan	0.74	12:20	16:01:47	3:41:47	2:44:07	8
9	Zen	Cruising Spin 2	Cav 35	Jack Maguire	0.78	12:20	15:50:34	3:30:34	2:44:15	9
Passage Race 1 - Cruising Non Spin Division
Rank	Boat	Division	SailNo	Skipper	TCF	Start	Finish	Elapsed	Corrected	Nett
1	Spindrift	Cruising Non Spin	85	Bruce Shanks	0.6	12:25	15:59:02	3:34:02	2:08:25	1
2	Volare	Cruising Non Spin	R41	Grant Thompson	0.785	12:25	15:44:55	3:19:55	2:36:56	2
3	Aussie Rules	Cruising Non Spin	A45	Richard Cerny	0.855	12:25	15:28:44	3:03:44	2:37:06	3
4	Starkers	Cruising Non Spin	279	Alan Stark	0.75	12:25	15:55:43	3:30:43	2:38:02	4
5	Vantage	Cruising Non Spin	139	R Kimlin	0.58	12:25	17:08:30	4:43:30	2:44:26	5
6	Planet Peugeot	Cruising Non Spin	GBR9197T	Alison Smith	0.89	12:25	15:33:14	3:08:14	2:47:32	6
7	Tucana	Cruising Non Spin	SA 171	Andrew Burford	0.85	12:25	15:46:00	3:21:00	2:50:51	7
8	My Way	Cruising Non Spin	886	Terry Price	0.74	12:25	16:38:45	4:13:45	3:07:47	8
9	Providence V	Cruising Non Spin	10	Grant Lewis	0.71			DNS		11
9	Black Rose	Cruising Non Spin	KP65	Rodney Hart	0.65			DNF		11

Full results at www.magneticislandraceweek.com.au