Cock of the Bay – Scarlet Runner to Run for Record

by John Curnow on 17 Dec 2009
‘Scarlet Runner' has decided to come out and see The Doyen, Lou Abrahams, in his very first Entire Group Cock of the Bay race on Boxing Day on Melbourne's Port Phillip.

As such, the Composites Constructions CC52 would seem to put paid to the desires of the Ocean Racing Club of Victoria's Race Administrator, Dennis Livingston, for Lou to get a win. Sorry. I would imagine Lou will still very much feature on the overall scoreboard, however, so don't stress on that one.

The ‘Runner' is going to be driven on the day Dave Eickmeyer of Quantum Sails, as the boss is going to be aboard ‘Etihad Stadium' for the showdown in the Rolex Sydney Hobart. During a quick chat today with the boss, Rob Date, I asked if ‘Scarlet Runner' was coming out in 'Cruiser' mode or what? 'Make no bones about it John, we're going for the record, just as long as huey can supply the right breeze for us. We have nearly our full race crew onboard and the plan is to really put ourselves out there. We cannot come into Blairgowrie due to the depth (SR draws 3.6m), but we would love to be there for the presentations. Have a drink for us please', was what Rob commented. Sure, no problem there.
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The record was set back in 2003 by the old Volvo60, ‘Indec Merit'. It's only an average of 6.5knots for the 34nm course, which they covered in 05:13:10, so it is very much a doable feat.

‘Scarlet Runner' and the Simonis-Voogd designed IY60 Cruiser/Racer, ‘Belle' will be easily identifiable with their big sticks, so keep an eye out for them. They will be joined at the front of the fleet by ‘Extasea', ‘XLR8', ‘Veloce' and Tony Fowler's Rodgers46, ‘Ocean Skins' (and watch out for them on a reach or run, I tell you).

Elsewhere you would want to be looking at The Doyen and his crew on ‘Challenge', Kevin and the gang on ‘No Fearr', Greg and the team on ‘Audacious', ‘Alien', Rob and the boys of ‘INSX' and if there's a wee bit of breeze, ‘The Secretary'. There's just on 100 entered thus far, including my perennial 'go to' boat, ‘Crackerjack' from Royal Brighton Yacht Club, so there will be plenty of others to look at as we close in on the day and the weather pattern becomes clearer – all in all – come back soon for more.

Also, many thanks to Chris Furey and Rob Davis from ‘Nutcracker' for answering the call made earlier and being a part of this. Everyone will have boom stickers soon, so please ensure you have them on - that way we can get lots of snaps and make the sponsors so, so, so happy. Thank you.

Having ‘Scarlet Runner' there is just yet another reason to come out of the pen on Boxing Day and be a part of the great inshore race and if you cannot race, there's now plenty of reasons just to be there as part of the spectator fleet.
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2009 Entire Group Cock of the Bay online entry available HERE - http://www.topyachtsoftware.com/db/aus/series_select.php?EventID=33