64 boats contest the second Alfred’s Festival of Sail

by Damian Devine on 8 Nov 2011 The two day Alfred’s Festival of Sail hosted by The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club held over the week-end was sailed in perfect conditions on Pittwater and offshore with 64 boats competing across various fleets and divisions.

The format for the two day event, now in its second year, featured two inshore and offshore races and six one design sprint races for Sydney 38s and the Melges 24 and 32 fleets, who held their East Coast Championships to coincide with the festival.

The Alfred’s has designed the event to attract not only local racing and cruising people from around Pittwater but also visitors from further abroad attracted by a reason to spend a week-end on Pittwater, utilise the Club's modern marina and clubhouse facilities and have some fun in a casual atmosphere both on water and ashore afterwards. This event aligns itself with the club’s broader strategy of opening racing to non RPAYC members.

Day one on Saturday saw stunning summery conditions with perfect blue skies and a 15-20knt Nor’ Easter that built throughout the day providing ideal sailing conditions.

The inshore fleet saw three divisions racing around the cans in Pittwater. The winners in division two saw David Langley’s ‘Tempus’ blitz the field with a convincing win in front of Anthony Doyle’s 11m ‘Pacesetter’ with Mark Waterhouse ‘Loggerhead’ in third. Division three saw Jim Bullough’s Catalina42 ‘Stressfree’ lead the way with an 18 sec corrected time win from ‘Isolde’ Isolde syndicate and Brian Gray’s ‘Lanakila’ whilst in division four Keith Baker’s ‘Jack’s Back’ won the day from Julien Noakes ‘Starlight’.

The offshore fleet racing under the short ocean point score banner had a respectable 19 boats racing a 26 nautical mile course from Broken Bay to Terrigal and return with the Hudson/Murphy/Lockley syndicate on their Farr45 ‘Pretty Woman’ stretching her legs to take a convincing line honours win whilst on corrected time it was the Alder/Bailey team aboard the Cookson 12 ‘OCL One’ claiming the podium from Shaw Russett’s ‘Tailwind’ and David Boekemann’s ‘Bombolo’.

One Design saw Sydney 38 and the two Melges fleets complete three sprint races on day one. In a tightly contested Sydney 38s, it was Gavin Ward/Chris Dawson’s ‘Eye Candy’ with two victories taking the day one spoils from Mark Griffiths ‘Old School’ who managed three seconds whilst Anna & Martin Cross’ ‘Risk’ were in third following a protest in race three. Jessica Watson’s ‘Another Challenge’ and her youthful crew, now based at the RPAYC in preparations for her Sydney Hobart campaign were also competing in the Alfred’s Festival of Sail in her Sydney 38, finishing fourth.

With the RPAYC now home to a growing number of Melges one design racers, a total of nine Melges 24s and two Melges 32 contested the East Coast Championships. Boat of the day in the Melges 24 division with three wins was Warwick Rooklyn’s ‘Bandit’ who really put the throttle down in the last race taking a convincing win showing superior downwind speed. RPAYC’s Kevin Nixon’s ‘Accru’ was second one point ahead of Murray Walters ‘No Comment’ in third.

The Melges 32 was a two horse race with Stephen Girdis’ ‘Funnel Web’ taking two wins to lead Kim Williams ‘Rock n Roll’ going into day two.

Day Two was held in lighter, shifty conditions before an afternoon thunderstorm cooled things down after the temperature nudged 30 degrees.

The offshore fleet sailed an 18 nautical mile Cape Two points race with John McConaghy’s ‘Second Time Around’ taking the gun with the Rutherford/Ryan ‘First Light’ taking handicap honours from Bob Bennett’s ‘So Farr’ and Garry Holder’s ‘The Real Thing’.

With two races down the offshore series crown went to the Alder/Bailey ‘OCL One’ on a count back from Jason Antill’s ‘Even Finer’ with RPAYC Commodore Rob Curtis and his syndicate on ‘Secret Men’s Business’ finishing in third.

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In IRC offshore division, it was Antill’s ‘Even Finer’ taking the series from ‘OCL One’ and ‘Secret Men’s Business’.

Whilst the numbers were down slightly on Sunday, the inshore fleet saw the series results going to ‘Skagerak’ Roy Tutty in division two, Jim Bullough’s ‘StressFree’ in division three and Paul Rosevear’s ‘Sagacious’ taking out division four.

In One Design, the Sydney 38’s finished with ‘Old School’ on top with three bullets on day two to take boat of the day and the series honours from ‘Risk’ who were the bridesmaids on day two with ‘Eye Candy’ third.

Following six races in the Melges East Coast Championships, the Melges 24 fleet had ‘Bandit’ claiming a one point win over Kevin Nixon’s ‘Accru’. The Bandit team consisting of Dave O’Connor, Doug McGain, Jay Griffin and Julian Plante took an impressive four bullets over the series on their way to victory.

Crew member David O’Connor commented post race, 'a great two day’s racing with the conditions, couldn’t really be any better! We had some great rides downwind and happy with how we sailed,' said a jubilant O’Connor.

‘Accru’ were boat of the day on day two with a first, second and third to finish second whilst Anthony Passmore’s ‘Planit’ after taking third place in the final race also finished the series in third. The Melges 32 division was won by ‘Funnel Web’ over ‘Rock n Roll’.

A prize giving and live entertainment back at the Alfred’s after racing provided a great social atmosphere after racing both days and it is intended that the Alfred’s Festival of Sail will become a regular annual event on the RPAYC sailing calendar.

For complete results visit http://www.rpayc.com.au/results/2011/events/index.htm

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Wild Oats wines, Slam sportswear in conjunction with the Club’s chandlery, The Bosun’s Locker kindly sponsored the event with prizes for the winners of the various divisions.