First win
Swish takes the win in Act 4 of the Australian MC38 season, hosted by the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club.
Written by Lisa Ratcliff
Photography by Tilly Lock Media
28 July 2020
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Close to two years of shooting for an MC38 one-design class top result finally yielded Steve Proud’s Swish team the main prize on dreary Pittwater in the shortened five-race Act 4 winter pointscore.
“We’ve had a couple of thirds before but this is our first regatta win. We’ve been chipping away for nearly two years and it’s finally starting to come together,” a grinning Proud said back at the conducting club, the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (RPAYC).
“We’ve got a really good bunch of sailors. Sometimes you just have to settle down, play your own game, and not let the nerves or anything else going on around you get to you. It never lets up in that fleet. When opportunities come to you, take advantage of them; that’s how we played it today,” Proud added.
The Middle Harbour Yacht Club (MHYC) skipper named his team one by one, with a special mention going to long-time tactician Billy Sykes.
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“Billy has been with me from the start. He’s put a great team together. We’ve got some excellent sailors – nobody’s putting tickets on themselves, we just get out there and do the job,” said Proud.
A second by two points for John Bacon’s Dark Star – looking resplendent following a recent makeover in Newcastle – is a great result for the local team.
Bacon acknowledged, “We’re really happy and I’m really pleased for Steven, Billy and the Swish team – they have worked so hard.”
Most Valuable Player of the series goes to Dark Star’s mainsheet Darren ‘Twirler’ Jones, who heads home to South Australia for his second quarantine stint in as many months, following an MC38 weekend regatta. “He’s done 28 days in quarantine for the Dark Stars,” Bacon pointed out.
“Things were supposed to be open this time,” rued Jones. “It’s no problem, I just get the dirt bike out and ride around the property. I went back home after the last series for three weeks, had one week out of quarantine then back up to Sydney. Now I’m back home for two more in isolation. I’m feeling a little institutionalised!”
Third in Act 4 went to Lazy Dog, Shaun Lane and Quentin Stewart’s MHYC team who opened day two with a bullet off Mackerel Beach on Pittwater’s western shoreline, then slid back in the rankings when the track was shifted to an area known as ‘big pond’, the expanse north of Scotland Island.
A south-moving and deepening low-pressure system brought heavy rain and a changeable breeze to the fleet on Sunday 26 July, mostly south swinging to an easterly flow, 8–10 knots.
On the verge of a fourth and final race, an attempt to make up part of Saturday’s two race shortfall, the heavens opened. The downpour reduced visibility and played havoc with the wind, with RPAYC race officer Steve Merrington deciding another start was optimistic, and the cold and saturated had probably had enough.
Next on the calendar is Act 5 over the weekend of 26–27 September hosted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS) on Sydney Harbour.
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