Lincoln Week regatta - A dash to the line

by Bob Ross on 22 Feb 2012 Lexus Lincoln Week regatta and today was the ten nautical mile Bay Race.

Adelaide’s Secret Men’s Business 3.5 (SMB3.5) from the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia in a last-gasp dash for the line passed her hot rival from Melbourne, Scarlet Runner, to finish first.

Geoff Boettcher's SMB3.5 defeated Rob Date's Scarlet Runner on IRC corrected time handicap.

It is however, the two well-sailed Beneteau First 45 racer/cruisers, Victoire (Darryl Hodgkinson) from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, and Alan Woodward's Reverie from Royal Brighton Yacht Club, Melbourne, that continue to dominate the scoreboard on IRC handicap in the regatta’s premier racing division.

Victoire won on IRC by 21sec from Reverie with the well-sailed Sydney 47, Fresh (Kym Clarke) from the Port Lincoln Yacht Club, in third.

On progressive points, Victoire leads with five points from Reverie (seven points) with the Sydney 38 Shining Sea (Andrew Corletto) third on 23 points. Scarlet Runner is fourth on 25 and Secret Men’s Business 3.5 fifth on 25.5.

The two line honours rivals fared badly in the lighter winds on handicap against the smaller boats. Secret Men’s placed equal 11th with Lincoln Mentor, Matthew Stephens’ Sydney 32 from Port Lincoln Yacht Club. Scarlet Runner was 15th

The race finished in Spalding Cove, to be followed by Megga’s barbecue, the annual social gathering named in memory the late Geoffrey ('Megga') Bascombe, the legendary Port Lincoln delivery skipper who founded the beach barbecue.

The 10nm course was sailed in light east-southeasterly breeze that faded from 8-10 knots at the start to a patchy 5-7 knots, with big direction shifts on the short final beat into Spalding Cove.

Secret Men’s Business 3.5, after trailing Scarlet Runner by 38 seconds at the Bickers Island mark which is one nautical mile from the finish, exploited the significant wind shifts in Spalding Cove to pass and finish first by 29 seconds.

Secret Men’s from a slightly better start led Scarlet Runner on the first leg, upwind to Southern Entrance Beacon, by 36sec. Scarlet Runner, always slightly faster downwind, gained the lead on the spinnaker run and two-sail reaching legs inside Boston Bay and the tight eased-sheet reach to Bickers Islands buoy before that last dramatic short beat to the finish.

Other divisional scoreboard leaders following today’s race:

PHS: Bullistic (Paul Martin), CYCSA.
Sydney 38: Shining Sea (Andrew Corletto), CYCSA.
Multihull: Yabb (David Renouf), Prince Alfred YC.
Cruising: Sextant (Jonathan Newbury), Port Lincoln YC.

Full results here