Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta - Weather in control

by Lisa Ratcliff on 7 Mar 2010 Day two of Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta produced some thrilling rockin ‘n rollin’ spinnaker rides with plenty of white water over the decks, a few torn spinnakers and some gear damage on a day that separated out the 300-strong fleet, and the men from the boys.

In the open air offshore, the IRC and PHS division 0 fleets enjoyed the best breezes of the day, heading out of Sydney Heads after their Watsons Bay start to a laid mark offshore for the 24 nautical mile race for the division one boats and 17 nautical mile course for the rest of the divisions.

The big boats screamed back into Sydney Harbour this afternoon on the back of the east nor’east gradient breeze that was gusting up to 25 knots, the steerers and the kite trimmers earning their stripes keeping their charges under control.

In the smaller boat IRC divisions and the other divisions sailing the Sydney Harbour courses things didn’t go quite as smoothly with plenty of wipe-outs and wayward flogging and ripped kites.

As the afternoon wore on the fleet dwindled, leaving those to tussle for the divisional placing up for grabs.

There were many familiar names at the top of the final divisional leaderboard including two-time Audi IRC Australian Championship winner Rod Jones leading the SB3 fleet with Club Marine Blue from Michael McLean’s Wagop.

Olympic coach and former J24 title winner Doug McGain successfully defended the J24 division with Code Violation, once again finishing ahead of Stephen Girdis’ Convicts Revenge which failed to avenge for last year’s loss to McGain.
In the Super 30 division, Guy Stening, world and Australian Farr 30 champion, who steered a Melges 32 for this weekend’s Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta, beat Vaughan Stibbard and Heath Walters’ Melges 32 The Business.

His biggest threat for the upcoming Farr 30 Nationals, Bruce Eddington’s K2 from Victoria’s Sandringham Yacht Club, used the two-day regatta as a shakedown for the national titles and like Stening, the three time Australian champion took a huge psychological advantage away with his Farr 30 divisional win today.

Andrew Bristow’s Flying Tiger, named Hello Tiger, successfully defended its Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta win from last year, this time sailing a near perfect series of five wins and one fourth, whereas last year’s victory was the result of a perfect six straight wins.

In the PHS division 1 results, Olympian Gary Geitz’s Farr 36 Vino, sailing for the host club Middle Harbour Yacht Club, top scored from Roger Prior’s’ Pegasus while in the PHS division 2 results, Robert Skol’s stunning red 30 square metre called Scarlett O’Hara was the best scoring boat.

In the 11-boat X Yachts boat division, former MHYC Commodore and regatta chairman Ian Box, finished with the perfect scorecard, four wins from four starts, which put him four points clear of Rolex Sydney Hobart regular Tony Kirby’s Patrice Six.

Principal Race Officer summed up the regatta as 'very successful'.

'The breezes were brilliant, to have nor’easters in Sydney at this time of the year was fantastic and made for exciting racing, particularly where courses were overlapping, which meant the strategists had their work cut out for them as far as where to put the boat in relation to everyone else.

'The fleet dwindled by this afternoon, particularly after a puff of 22 knots came up the Harbour at around 1.30pm,' Thompson added. However the gusty winds had already wreaked havoc on some of the fleet by then.

Organising club Middle Harbour Yacht Club successfully hosted more than 3000 crew spread across more than 300 boats for the fifth staging of Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta, one of Australia’s largest keel boat regattas.