Festival of Sails - Day 5
by Danielle McKay & Lisa Ratcliff 27 Jan 2014 09:56 GMT
21-27 January 2014
Whoa Black Betty
Just days ago West Australian boat Black Betty was largely unknown outside her home state. Today the 42-footer is deemed a major player on the grand prix circuit after the crew from across the country took out the elite racing series at the Festival of Sails.
Black Betty clinched the Optimum Time Racing Series Division 1 IRC win and Victorian IRC Championship in her maiden racing appearance outside of home waters.
Adding to the glory for owners Gary McNally and Brian McMasters is their defeat of two of Australia's newest yachts competing in debut regattas under the helm of two of the best skippers on the east coast; Tony Kirby's Ker 46 Patrice and Matt Allen's Carkeek 60 Ichi Ban.
Black Betty finished top of the table with 16.5 points, followed by Patrice on 19 points and Ichi Ban with 20 points.
Just half a point separated Black Betty and Patrice heading in to the final romp of the eight-race series.
The pressure on the skippers and their crews heated up literally as they were forced to wait an hour and a half between today's two races in scorching heat when the race officials hoisted the postponement flag while the predominately northerly breeze flicked a crazy 180 degrees.
Racing finally got underway at about one o'clock, sneaking in just before the cut-off time came into play.
But those shifty winds would still cause havoc. "You were really at the mercy of the gods," Kirby lamented.
McNally and McMasters' crew held firm to finish third in that final race, three vital points ahead of Kirby.
It's a major shot across the bow to the country's IRC competitors and one heck of a way to announce the black-hulled GP42's arrival on the national scene.
The team is planning to carry on their success at events including the Audi IRC Australian Championship in April and Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in August.
"I guess we wouldn't have travelled thousands of miles to compete if we weren't confident," McNally said, as the team trucked the yacht 3,500 kilometres across the Nullarbor Plain from Perth to Geelong for the Festival of Sails.
"We worked hard to optimise her for the racing here and it paid off. We built larger sails and tweaked her for windward leeward racing. That meant we got rid of our code zero for the rating, which hurt us in the passage race, but it paid dividends in the long run.
"We're usually at the pointy end of the fleet at home and now this is proof that we can race and win against the best anywhere."
Kirby and Allen remained upbeat despite not claiming a win.
"I'm confident I've got a winning racer here," Kirby said.
Allen has long upheld the belief that it takes months, if not a year to get the best out of a new boat.
Division 2 Racing Series
The Optimum Time Racing Series Division 2 and Victorian IRC and AMS Championships result was dominated by a familiar boat disguised with a new identity.
South Australian Andrew Corletto bought Darryl Hodgkinson's all-conquering Beneteau First 45 Victoire last year and has been racing under the new title Shining Sea with similar success.
Today the boat and crew were crowned divisional winners and Victorian IRC and AMS Champions.
Fresh from finishing third in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race division 3, Corletto sailed to an emphatic win at Geelong, more than 10 points clear of Bruce McCracken's Ikon and Philip Dash's Justadash which finished second and third respectively, both with 22 points.
Corletto has only had the yacht under his charge for seven months, but with several crewmembers from his Sydney 38, which won the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia's Yacht of the Year, they were always going to be competitive.
"I bought this boat because of her sailing pedigree, but that does bring a certain amount of pressure and expectation with it," Corletto said.
"Fortunately we raced really well, and the boat just knows what to do. I notice how quick she takes off upwind; she just sails right into the slot and has great speed."
Corletto also had the expert help of two Olympians, Chris Tillett and Greg Young. "You can't underestimate their experience and expertise."
Division 3 Racing Series
Well-known Victorian sailor David Ellis dictated the Optimum Time Racing Series Division 3 results, claiming wins in six of eight races to finish first on eight points with his Archambault A31 Penfold Audi Sport.
It's Ellis' third win at the Festival of Sails, having won twice with his former boat Surprise.
Ellis fished seven points clear of Jason Close's Beneteau First 35 White Noise in second place, with Martin Vaughan's Sydney 36cr Wild Side completing the top three, with 26.5 points.
"You have to take the good with the bad, and one of the things about racing here is that you're never out of it until you cross the finish line. You just have to stay optimistic, keep your eyes out of the boat and find the breeze," Ellis said.
"We're lucky to have some fantastic young guys here from Hobart who've come to sail with us after a 470 campaign in Europe. Alec Bailey and Doug Shepard were a great addition to our team."
Malice steels to defeat the unbeaten
A 'get out of jail free card' has been credited for saving the Festival of Sails multihull champion Malice from a race defeat that would have proven terminal to any regatta winning hopes.
Mal Richardson's Nacra 36 Malice from Port Douglas won the Fuso Trucks Multihull Series by just two points over rival Morticia, a Sea Cart 30 skippered by Chris Williams from Sydney's Northern Beaches.
The same margin separated the pair going into the last hit-out of the seven race series at twilight on Sunday, and tensions were high.
Richardson said he thought all was lost when Malice parked-up in a lull just metres from the finish line as Morticia led the fleet on a wind-fuelled charge to the finish.
"There was some sweat on the forehead, I don't think I've any nerves left," Richardson said. "Thankfully we managed to steel ourselves and we won."
It was far from a perfect performance for the Malice crew, who began the series by starting incorrectly not just once, but twice in the regatta's spectacular Melbourne to Geelong passage race on Friday.
The crew regrouped to finish second, but again found themselves in strife with race marks on Saturday, 25th January.
At this point the team's tale of success could have been one of woe.
Richardson rounded the first mark of the 18 nautical mile race on Saturday the wrong way and was disqualified. The crew contested the result with race officials and had a two minute penalty awarded.
"Although it really could have gone either way, in a way it was our get out of jail free card."
It was a tough result for the Morticia crew to swallow, and one they tried to wash down with a few beers at the end of the series that marked their first ever loss since the racy black trimaran was launched a year ago.
"That's yachting, you have to roll with the punches," Williams said. "But we don't go yachting to come second."
For now it's back to the drawing board for the Morticia crew with the multihull nationals to be contested in Adelaide in three weeks, their third road trip having contested the Club Marine Pittwater to Coffs event earlier this month then Festival of Sails.
Scissors and sewing machines will be taken to every sail in the crew's artillery in a bid to reduce the boat's rating while trying to ensure not too much speed is lost.
"We've got a lot of number crunching and work ahead of us," Williams said. "We knew we'd have heavy winds here so we sailed with five crew instead of four and changed the rig to suit. Adelaide will be heavy too, but something's got to give, we don't like this losing caper."
Shaun Fishley's Corsair F 31 Frassld rounded out the podium finishes on 18 points, just one point clear of Michael Du Vallon's Pescott Whitehaven 10.7 Patronus in fourth place.
Cruising success at the Festival of Sails
The second round of Festival of Sails trophies were presented this morning on the lawn of the Royal Geelong Yacht Club, the longstanding regatta recognised for being an enduring and loved event at a blessed location, Corio Bay, which is a rare north-facing and protected inner harbour.
All of the Cruising and Cruiser/Racer divisions wrapped up their racing with last night's twilight race off the front of the RGYC and today the sailing fraternity recognised the winners and the effort and sportsmanship of all participants in the 310 boat Festival fleet, a 10 per cent increase in entries on last year.
Cruising
The two huge cruising with spinnaker divisions attracted significant interest, 33 in division 1 and 30 in division 2.
Kim Beveridge's Sandringham Yacht Club Beneteau 38.5 Firefox was named winner of the Club Marine Spinnaker division 2.
"This is my 22nd year, missed last year which we were very disappointed about, otherwise we've been competing consecutively and we've had a ball each year," said Beveridge.
"We won five years ago and we were lucky enough to come back and win it again, thanks to my crew and a great two last races. We'll definitely be back next year."
Second was John MacKay's Farr 36 Gentlemens' Relish and third was Gary Davison's Clipper III.
Racing in the same division was Cameron Dickson who was bemoaning changing his Thunderbird's name to Cracked after they were hit by a big boat in the prestart of yesterday's Australia Day race, the second last of the four part series. The heavy hit was a major shock to the crew on the smaller 26-footer.
Bought for a few hundred dollars but with thousands spent not only in money but also hours over two years, Cracked's restoration was complete and the boat looking a million bucks. Now it's got a major dent in the side that will need to be repaired, but worse was the collision cut short Dickson's Festival of Sails and the disappointment was felt by the crew.
Paul and Angela Woodman's two month-old boat Summer Wind, a Bavaria 44, has already proven its merit with a clear win in Club Marine Cruising with Spinnaker division 1. When the final points were tallied there was a comfortable nine point separation to David Stoopman's Samskara in second.
Paul has been coming to Geelong's Festival of Sails since he was 15. This weekend brings his tally to close to 40 having missed only three, and heralds his best result in many years.
"Conditions have been very good this weekend with a fresh and light wind mix and sailing on Corio Bay has been terrific, as always," said Paul. "It was a very interesting passage through the channel with the ships coming and going which provided a lot of excitement and variation."
On the changes over four decades he says, "It's still a lot of fun and there's always been a large number of boats. The spirit is very much alive at this classic Victorian yachting regatta."
On the team that raced Summerwind to the top spot at its first major regatta Angela elaborated, "We had three couples plus a couple of individuals who joined the crew."
Peter Bone's Baltic won the Coca-Cola Cruising Non-Spinnaker division.
Cruiser/Racer
The Cruiser/Racer division was a new initiative this year designed to separate out like boats, and the response was very encouraging.
Stuart Lyon, winner of Boags Draught Cruiser/Racer division 1 by three points, said "I think it's worked very well. We were going to sail in the Racing Series but we are only 36 feet and we find we are penalised on handicap in that division. To sail in this new division with similar boats was great. We love the flat water of Corio Bay, our boat's designed for it."
Going into last night's final twilight race Lyon and his crew knew they had to finish in the top six with their J111 from Royal Brighton Yacht Club. "We finished fourth after a restart, everyone was pushing it," he said.
"This is our seventh festival with two boats and our second with this boat. We've always had good fun down here." And on the shoreside program he was very complimentary, "That's a big part of the reason for coming to Geelong," he smiled.
Adam Robinson's Dark Energy placed second in C/R division 1 and Sportscar third.
My Sailing Cruiser/Racer division 2 honours went to Kevin Curtis' Sea Eagle by a mere half a point from Jurgen Pfeiffer's Take Five.
The Festival of Sails' Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson thought the new Cruiser/Race division worked really well. ''It was the program they wanted and the numbers were big.
"Normally we have a lot of entries in the cruising divisions and they'd only do the long race down from Melbourne then 50 or 60% would stay on for the rest of the series. This year it's more like 80%.
"It's always hard to know what mix to offer because trends change through the years. I think we have the mix right here and that is reflected in the entries. It's one of the few regattas around the world that is going up in entries."
"I was really happy with the race management team and the weather always helps, if it behaves itself things flow along."
S80s
Victorian Bas Huibers' yacht Merak claimed victory in the Geelong Taxi Network S80 Class Series, with a slim two point lead over Outlaw, raced by a syndicate of owners.
Thirty years after the first S80 hit the water, the fleet is still going strong and the competition is hotly contested with just three points separating Huibers in first place and Bill Feore's Skipjack in third.
Four yachts took the finish gun throughout the five race series including Merak, Outlaw, Skipjack and David Collins Flying Circus, which finished fourth.
Full results can be found here.