Welcome winds of change
Race 5, the final autumn race of the Land Rover Winter Series went off with a bang for the 102-boat fleet, in a solid 12-18 knot north westerly breeze on Sydney Harbour.
Photography by David Brogan, www.sailpix.com.au
31 May 2017
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It was a longed-for change for some to the light and shifty airs that have dominated the past few weeks of racing at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.
Holy Cow! was back at the marina and celebrating their victory before many had even finished racing yesterday. The conditions for John and Kim Clinton’s Beneteau 50 were ideal, enough so that they were able to claim the win by more than four minutes in Division J1.
“We aren’t suited to the more regular winter series conditions on the harbour,” Kim commented, referring to the lighter south westerly winds seen recently. “Being one of the more casual and social boats in the fleet, it’s great for us to the take the win!
“In fact, being a big, fat cruising boat, and to be first across the line in the whole series is amazing! We actually had the BBQ going and eating back at the dock when most boats were still coming in,” she laughed.
“It was a perfect day to be on board the Holy Cow! with not too much tacking involved on the course. We had an absolute ball today, and will continue to enjoy the beautiful afternoon in the CYCA Club house.”
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Geoff Lavis’ UBS Wild Thing sailed to victory in Division A1 after making the least amount of costly mistakes in the fleet. The competition in the division was tight for the top spot, with many tight battles fought throughout the race.
“It was a good dual between us and The Goat, we both had a few ‘oopsies’ around the track,” explained Geoff Lavis.
“They let us inside them at one stage, which meant we then had control. Then we were run down by SWD and our lead was under real threat.”
Though it was a ‘soldier’s course’, or follow the leader, for parts of the race, there were small opportunities to make advances on the fleet, which UBS Wild Thing did very well.
“It was a beautiful day out there compared to the last few weeks in terms of the more consistent breeze. We thoroughly enjoyed another day racing in the series.” Lavis said.
Other Divisional winners on the day: Division A2 – Occasional Coarse Language 2 (Warwick Sherman and Ed Psaltis); Division B – Wax Lyrical (Les Goodridge); Division C – Sumatra (Basil Diethelm); Division D – Soundtrack (John Amos); Division E – Peach Teats-Velocity (Brian Carrick); Division F – Zora (Pacific Sailing School); Division G – Searug Hoo Ha (Peter Howes); Division J2 – Katinka (Paul and Ellen O’Connell); Sydney 38 – Calibre (Richard Williams)
The Land Rover Winter Series continues next Sunday, starting from 11:25am on Sydney Harbour.
Prizes were awarded to the yachts placed first, second and third in each division and include exclusive CYCA Land Rover Winter Series merchandise.
All results available online.
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