Race showcase
The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Cabbage Tree Island Race is set for this Friday 4 December.
Written by DJ Munro
02 December 2020
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When the 56 crews line up on the Sydney Harbour start line for the Cabbage Tree Island Race on Friday, almost all of them will be sizing up their competition for the 2020 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race on Boxing Day.
Given races 1 and 2 of the Audi Centre Sydney BWPS were abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teams will be especially keen to hit the water in hot blood once again.
Up front will be the two supermaxis, Peter Harburg’s RP100 Black Jack and Christian Beck’s Juan-K 100 InfoTrack. With a building 15–20-knot south-easterly wind on the long-range forecast, Black Jack will be seeking to repeat their 2019 Cabbage Tree Island Race line honours while InfoTrack will be eager to prove themselves against their lighter foe.
Another team hungry for a repeat performance will be Matt Donald and Chris Townsend’s TP52 Gweilo, which successfully clinched IRC, ORCi and PHS handicap victories in 2019.
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Gweilo has been the team to beat so far this season, taking home the Audi Centre Sydney BWPS Race 3, along with many of CYCA’s Ocean Pointscore races.
A swathe of fellow TP52 teams will join them in the leading pack, among them two-time Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race winner Matt Allen’s Botin 52 Ichi Ban.
They are currently hoping to become the first crew to claim the Tattersall Cup two years in a row since the Halvorsen brothers’ Freya in 1964 and 1965, and will be throwing everything at this race to reign supreme and stand in good stead come Boxing Day.
Making history once again will be the intrepid teams of the Two-Handed Division, present in the Cabbage Tree Island Race this year for the first time ever. Rupert Henry’s J/65 Burning Palms took home line honours, IRC and PHS victories in the Audi Centre Sydney BWPS Race 3 earlier in the year, but will face increased competition this time around.
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