'Cawse' for celebration as Vanguard scores Botany Bay Race double

by Di Pearson on 7 Nov 2009 Botany Bay Race report.

Gentlemens’ sailing,' was how Dick Cawse described conditions after sailing his Lyons/Cawse 60 Vanguard to a line and overall honours double victory in today’s 30 nautical mile Botany Bay Race, sailed from Sydney Harbour to Botany Bay (south of Sydney) and return.

The Botany Bay Race was the second race of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Ocean Pointscore Series (OPS).

Cawse and his crew, which today included high-profile Australian Olympic coach Mike Fletcher, sailed the course in double-quick time, in fact Cawse believes they have broken the record for the race, which they completed in 3 hours 7min 11sec.

'We’ve done the double,' an excited Cawse said on coming ashore at the CYCA this afternoon. 'It was a very pleasant two-sail reach there and back, with a short spinnaker run to the bell buoy (turning mark), and another short spinnaker run up the Harbour to the finish.

'We averaged around 10.5 knots for the race; it varied from 11 to 13 from east-nor-east. I wish it was like this more often; it was very pleasant.'

Vanguard finished the race at 13:07:11hrs and was followed over the finish line 15 minutes later by Matthew Short’s TP52 Shortwave, with a gap of a further 17 minutes to UBS Wild Thing, the Inglis/Murray 50 owned and skippered by Geoff Lavis. All three yachts represent the host club.

This is Cawse’s second win from as many races, giving him and his crew a head start in the OPS which consists of seven races. 'It’s always good to have two wins up the sleeve,' the Sydney yachtsman said.

'It was good having Fletch aboard. I’ve been telling him how good my crew are and today he saw for himself and agreed,' said Cawse, who last month tried dinghy sailing for the first time ever, competing with Fletcher at the Sydney World Masters Games in the Tasar class.

Shortwave’s finish time was enough to give her second place overall from Julian Farren-Price’s Cookson 12, About Time and Paul Clitheroe’s Beneteau 45, Balance (CYCA), in IRC. These results lift Shortwave up from third to second in the OPS, knocking Balance down to third, while About Time remains fourth placed in what is shaping up to be a close contest.

In PHS, David Forbes’ Kaiko 51, Merlin, moves up from seventh place into the lead in the OPS with a win today and Vanguard’s fifth was enough to move her into second from Warwick Sherman’s Cookson 12, Occasional Coarse Language (CYCA) in third place.

Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson said the fleet got away on time at 10.00am on Sydney Harbour this morning, 'in a nice 10 knot easterly. Vanguard got off the line pretty quickly and she was first around the Botany Bay turning buoy at 11.30am, making pretty quick time.'

Twenty-eight yachts contested today’s fast race to Botany Bay, organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. The next OPS race will be part of the Middle Harbour Yacht Club's Short Ocean Racing Championship on November 28.

For full race results and provisional series pointscore please log on to http://www.cyca.com.au/editorial.asp?key=894