by Jennifer Crooks
On a day that was reminiscent of summer with balmy temperatures in the mid-20s, 112 yachts took to the start line for Race 1 of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Winter Series, which has been part of the club’s sailing calendar for over 65 years.
Despite the warm and sunny weather, Huey wasn’t so kind with a light west north-west breeze that fluctuated to the north-west, making Sydney Harbour look like a parking lot – which is more typical of a Winter Series race.
Cyrene 3 had a couple of lucky breaks today. Credit www.sailpix.com.au
Race Officer Robyn Morton sent the fleet spread across 13 divisions, on their respective course A after a 25 minute AP whilst waiting for the breeze to fill in.
For seasoned Winter Series campaigner Michael Selby and his X-412 Cyrene 3, being one of the last to start in his division may have just paid off as he came away with the Division C win. “The light airs at the start were a bit frustrating. As we were one of the last to start in our division, we managed to pick up a few wind shifts heading up to Manly and pulled back five of our competitors.
“We had a couple of lucky breaks – we managed to avoid the dead patches and just kept the boat going. Our spinnaker run was good.
“We had a great tussle with Into the Mystic (Arthur Psaltis and Jon Ross) on our way back from the top mark. We managed to sneak past them at Lady Bay and caught the filling breeze off Steele Point to come home strongly,” Selby added. Cadenza (Gunner Tuisk’s Farr 50) finished second with One for The Road (Kym Butler’s Archambault 40) third.
Jonathon Green’s Melges 32 Crusader took Division E honours. Credit www.sailpix.com.au
Jonathon Green’s Melges 32 Crusader took Division E honours from Tigger (Robert Briet’s Flying Tiger) and Krakatoa (Don Young’s Young Super 30).
“It was a great smooth race,” Green said this afternoon after being informed of his division win. “It was very light and fluky – the conditions at the beginning of the day didn’t look took promising but once the breeze filled in it was quite enjoyable.
“We had a very close duel with Krakatoa at the finish – there were a few tight manoeuvres but we just managed to beat them over the line,” Green added. This is the first Winter Series Green has campaigned the Melges 32 after purchasing it last year and was thrilled to win in the first race of the season.
Robert Hunt took to the helm of the Beneteau 40.7 L ’Attitude that he, Jon Short and Miles Bastick purchased in March, and came away with the Division J2 win from fellow Breakfast Club chef Niel Burling and his Hanse 40 Baltic Lady with CYCA Rear Commodore Arthur Lane’s Inkonkoni third.
“The new boat is just fantastic,” Hunt said. “It’s a great start to the Winter Series – the first win with the new boat – hopefully the first of many.”
Both Burling and Hunt are just two of the coordinators of the Breakfast Club – a long standing tradition of the Winter Series. The Breakfast Club, a band of passionate volunteers, provide crews with a traditional bbq breakfast before each day’s racing. All proceeds from Breakfast Club sales are used to purchase items for the club house to benefit members.
The tight duel between Crusader and Krakatoa. Credit www.sailpix.com.au
The weekly prize giving was held back at the CYCA, where everyone kicked back and enjoyed the sun on the deck. John Conroy who finished first in Division K, with his Cruising Adams 10, Star Ferry, was the lucky winner of the Noakes Group Lift & Stand package. Noakes Group will provide a lift and stand package each week of the CYCA Winter Series to one lucky competitor, drawn at random from all divisional placegetters.
The CYCA Winter Series pointscore continues next week across nine spinnaker, three non-spinnaker divisions and a Sydney 38OD division. The pointscore series consists of 10 races, with up to three drops allowed, if all ten races are completed. The race scheduled for Sunday 9 June will be a non-pointscore race.
Other winners today were: Duende (Damien Parkes) Division A1; Occasional Coarse Language (Warwick Sherman) Division A2; Nocturne (Gerard Kesby) Division B; Alpha Carine (Damian Barker) Division D; Perfect Match (Juliet Pegler) Division F; Chameleon (Kevin Karaloff) Division G; Noakes Red (Sean Langman) Division H; Star Ferry (John Conroy) Division K; M (Steve Hatch) Division J1; and Undercliff PS Wild One (Larki Missiris) Sydney 38.
For full CYCA Winter Series results log on to http://www.cyca.com.au/
CYCA
