Big weekend
This weekend saw the 16th Sydney Harbour Regatta go ahead, bringing 187 entries from across the state to Port Jackson.
08 March 2021
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This weekend saw the 2021 Sydney Harbour Regatta, New South Wales’ first major multi-club and multi-class regatta following COVID-19 restrictions, go ahead. The event seeing 187 entries with 1293 crew members from across the state duke it out over 84 races in seven course areas.
Among the winners included DSC-based Flying Tiger, Ophir, skippered by Bruce Taverner, winning the Super 30 division from Foreign Affair and Adrian Walters’ Shaw 11, Little Nico taking the Super 40 division.
Little Nico previously placed first in 2016 and second in 2017 and 2019.
“Most of us have sailed together for a few years,” said Walters following the race.
“This year we tried out some new sails and overall, we are very happy with the result.
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Walters later added: “It’s nice to see real people again after COVID. All the regattas going forward are going to have good participation. Everyone’s keen to get out after a long break.”
The Open IRC division winner was Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s Khaleesi who overcame the two Pittwater crews that usually duel for top spot. Rob Aldis’ DK46 managed four corrected time firsts from six starts, out-sailing Gerry Hatton’s M.A.T 1245 Bushranger and Keiran Mulcahy’s King 40 Soozal – both from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club.
On ORC results, Bushranger beat Khaleesi by half a point.
“I’ve been associated with Middle Harbour Yacht Club for a long time, and I’m so pleased for the club to see all this camaraderie and confidence. This regatta has a sense of normalcy about it,” said Aldis.
“Owning the DK is a good learning experience for me, I came to the sport fairly late.”
The Sydney 38 state trophy this year went to David Hudson and Peter Byford’s Pittwater-based Conspiracy which won its points from six windward/leeward races offshore – the first three in cool south-easterlies then warm north-easterlies off Manly Beach. Peter Sorensen’s Advanced Philosophy came in close with a second overall.
The international J/70 NSW championship winner, Reg Lord and his Juno crew kept challengers at bay with five wins from six starts while international Yngling NSW champion, Hamish Jarrett went one better, achieving the picket fence of six bullets.
Both performance spinnaker and non-spinnaker fleets wrapped up their four-race series with two passage races around harbour islands and other marks. A third for Russell Waddy’s Sydney 38 cruiser Allsail, Another Challenge in the final Division 1 race was enough to leapfrog Steve Hatch’s M, a Sydney 36 cruiser/racer attached to Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.
Ray Parrott and his Drummoyne Sailing Club (DSC) X332, X-Ray successfully defended their 2020 Performance Spinnaker Division 2 win while in Performance Non-Spinnaker, Middle Harbour Yacht Club boat, Pearl 2, owned by Michael Twomey, added another host club division victory.
The complete results for all divisions are available to be seen here.
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