Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 Loki currently leads the Blue Water Pointscore series after two consecutive race wins. Image copyright Andrea Francolini.
by Di Pearson
Andrew Short and Sally Gordon will be uppermost in everyone’s minds when the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Flinders Islet race starts this Friday evening at 8.00pm; marking the first anniversary of the death of two of the Club’s finest sailors.
Before the fleet sets off on the 92 nautical mile race to the Islet off Port Kembla and back to Sydney Harbour, race officials will call for a moment of reflection as a mark of respect and in remembrance of Andrew and Sally, whose deaths impacted the entire yachting community. Thoughts will also be with the families of Andrew and Sally at this time.
The two valued Sydney sailors tragically lost their lives in the early hours of Saturday October 10 last year, when Andrew’s 24.4 metre yacht PriceWaterhouseCoopers hit rocks and ran aground at Flinders Islet during the annual race.
Since the tragic losses, the CYCA has held an internal inquiry and recommendations have been put into place as the Club strives to avert further tragedies occurring.
This year, 29 yachts will take part in the race which starts off Point Piper. Currently, Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 Loki leads the chase for the 2010/2011 Blue Water Pointscore having won the opening two races of the series, the Audi Sydney Gold Coast and Bird Island races, and Ainsworth is aiming to make it three from three.
However, just two points in arrears of Loki in the seven-race series is Bob Oatley’s Wild Oats X, a RP66 skippered by Iain Murray, which will not be attending this race. Syd Fischer’s TP52 Ragamuffin is nine points behind the leader in third place.
While Loki is sitting in the box seat right now, there are others capable of taking out the 50th running of the Ron Robertson Memorial Trophy which is presented to the IRC winner of the Flinders Islet Race. Roger Hickman’s Farr 43 Wild Rose (currently fourth in the BWPS) and Darryl Hodgkinson’s Beneteau First 45 Victoire are just two of many strong contenders.
Loki and Wild Oats X are also the top two for the Tasman Pointscore in the PHS category, while Ragamuffin leads Colin and Gladys Woods’ Pretty Fly III, a Cookson 50, for the Cape Byron Pointscore for the new ORCi category.
The race record of 8 hours 30 minutes 29 seconds, set in 2006 by CYCA Commodore Matt Allen’s Jones 70, Ichi Ban, could be in jeopardy if the Bureau of Meteorology’s mixed bag of predictions hold true. Early indications are for an east to south-easterly at up to 15 knots during the afternoon, fading to 10 knots later.
On Saturday, the fleet can expect south-easterly winds of 5-15 knots tending east to south-easterly at 10 knots during the morning then tending north to north-easterly during the afternoon on the south coast.
The final Blue Water Pointscore showdown prior to the non-discardable Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is the Cabbage Tree Island Race which commences on Friday November 19. The Series concludes with the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race, which starts on April 8.
CYCA
