Four Melbourne yacht clubs duel for Association Cup
by Peter Campbell 14 Apr 2018 01:27 PDT
15 April 2018
Royal Brighton Yacht Club team member BKT Jambu (Phil Bedlington) - The Association Cup 2018 © Australian Sailing
Four of Melbourne's major yacht clubs tomorrow (Sunday) are set to do battle in a team racing event unique to Port Phillip, the prestigious annual Association Cup.
Winning the Cup is of significant status between the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron, Royal Brighton Yacht Club and Sandringham Yacht Club.
Sandringham Yacht Club will be hosting the event on the bay, defending the Cup they won in 2016.
Unfortunately, last year's Association Cup challenge was blown out and this could well be the case tomorrow.
A gale warning has been issued for Port Phillip on Sunday with northwesterly winds 25 to 30 knots, reaching up to 35 knots in the south early in the morning.
However, the forecast is for winds to tend westerly before dawn, then decreasing to 15 to 25 knots in the afternoon, which could make racing feasible.
Racing for the Association Cup consists of two divisions, AMS and IRC, with teams of two or three boats forming a team in each division.
Each team's score from both divisions will be combined to determine the best performing club overall which will be crowned winners of the Association Cup for 2018.
Sandringham, as expected, has named a strong team with J111 Australian champion Joust (Rod Warren), Doesn't Matter (Murray Mackay) and Frenzy (Jon Evans) in the AMS division.
Another J111, Veloce (Phil Simpfendorfer) which was runner-up to Joust in the nationals, heads the IRC team, along with Wicked (Mike and Mark Welsh) which finished second overall in the season's Range Series, and Bandit (Ashley Trebilcock).
Veteran of 37 Sydney Hobart races, Bruce Taylor, heads the strong Royal Yacht Club of Victoria team with his Sydney 38, Chutzpah38.
Chutzpah38 will be joined in the AMS division by Top Gun (Max Peters) and Vertigo (Tim Olding).
The IRC division team from the RYCV comprises Executive Decision (Grant Botica) which won Division 2 of the Range Series, Moneypenny (Tony Spencer and Peter Langford) which placed third, and Tim Campbell's Private Equity which placed second in IRC Division 3 of the final race of Range Series.
Private Equity is a UK-designed and built Corby 25 which Campbell recently imported from Wales and is the smallest and lowest rating boat in the IRC division.
Royal Brighton Yacht Club's team comprises Reverie (Alan Woodward), Schuss (Denis McConnell) and Serious Yahoo (James Heywood) in the IRC division, and Matchless (Gary Davidson), BKT Jamhu (Phil Bedlington) and Wake (Terence Robertson) in the AMS division.
Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron's IRC team comprises How Bizarre (Scott Robinson), Salamander III (Monica Jones) and Arcadia (Peter Davison), while the boats racing under AMS will be Addiction (Richard McGarvie), Portofino (Stuart Tate) and Antagonist (James Lynch).