Back 2 Black bags race

Tough start, strong finish

Back 2 Black was initially unable to match the pace of its rivals and briefly fell to the back of the fleet.

“We had a tough day the first day,” Langman said. “We didn’t seem to be able to get out of our own way, sitting last for a while.”

As the conditions shifted, the lightweight GP42 found its stride, holding its time against yachts approximately 10 feet longer and the leading double-handed entries.

“These boats are pretty light, they change gears well and, downwind, they hold their time,” Langman said.

He credited navigator Belinda Tayler, the father-and-son Braidwood team — including Eamon Braidwood on his first overnight race — crewmate Josh Alexander and the shore team.

Langman dedicated the victory to his late father, who called Southport home, before leading three cheers for Back 2 Black.

Disko Trooper sweeps divisions

Jules Hall and Alex Knight delivered one of the race’s strongest performances aboard Disko Trooper, finishing second overall under IRC and winning IRC Division 3.

The pair also claimed Corinthian IRC, Corinthian PHS, Double-Handed IRC and Double-Handed PHS.

Their result was almost undone five hours from the finish when a wave caught the boat during a manoeuvre. The mainsheet became tangled around the tiller, forcing the boat into a round-up as the spinnaker wrapped around the forestay several times.

The first thing that goes through your mind is, we’re so close to the finishing line, we’ve done really well, and we’re about to chuck the whole thing in the bin,” Hall said.

The crew’s focus immediately shifted from chasing Back 2 Black to protecting second place.

“No shouting, no finger-pointing, just deal with it,” Hall said.

“You can’t go offshore and be highly competitive, pushing the limits, and not have something go wrong. You just have to get on with it.”

Aside from the late setback, Hall and Knight described the race as “absolute champagne sailing”, with a bright moon, whales and dolphins accompanying the fleet north.

Ambition completes podium

Chris and Lockie Dare’s Ambition finished third overall, capping a season spent learning and refining their new boat.

“It’s great to race against Sean and his team,” Chris Dare said.

“It was super-tight racing. They managed to get away off the coast and, at one point, it was just hard to peg them back from then.”

Dare said the yacht was well suited to the reaching and running conditions encountered during much of the race.

“The boats are quite well suited to hanging on to the 52s in reaching and running conditions below 15 knots, which we saw a lot of,” he said.

“At times, we felt we were equally as quick as them.”

Smuggler takes Line Honours

Earlier, Smuggler secured Line Honours on Monday morning after recovering from an early tactical setback.

Skipper Tim Davis and tactician Steve McConaghy had planned to sail outside the fleet after leaving Sydney Heads, repeating a strategy that had delivered success on the same course the previous year.

This time, the decision initially worked against them.

“The fleet came out the Heads probably 100 metres outside us, and that’s all they needed to get a huge jump on us,” Davis said.

“Before we knew it, we’d basically dropped seven miles behind our main competitors, so we had a lot of work to do on the first night.”

Smuggler steadily erased the deficit before building a lead of between 15 and 20 nautical miles over its TP52 rivals.

However, Davis said sailing at the front of the fleet created its own challenges.

“Being the lead boat — and this is the first time we were in that position — you don’t have anyone else to follow as a good indicator, so we found a lot of the holes on the course,” he said.

For McConaghy, the result ended a pursuit spanning almost four decades.

I’ve been trying for nearly 40 years to win this on Line Honours, and finally got there,” he said. “We did a lot of sail changes, and they all went smoothly. If you can get through a tricky race like this and do that smoothly, that’s where the gains are made.”

Davis and McConaghy also credited the team’s settled core crew and first-time Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race competitor Adam Minoprio, who secured a Line Honours victory on debut.

The result delivered a memorable edition of the offshore classic, with Smuggler ending McConaghy’s long wait for Line Honours, Back 2 Black securing the overall trophy and Disko Trooper dominating the double-handed and Corinthian categories.

The Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore continues with the 88-nautical-mile Flinders Islet Race on Saturday 26 September.

The fleet will race south to Flinders Islet, approximately one nautical mile east of Port Kembla Harbour, before returning to Sydney Harbour.

The six-race series culminates in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, starting on Boxing Day.

Full Standings, HERE

cyca.com.au