CYCA Short Ocean Pointscore results for season

by Peter Campbell on 18 Mar 2001 Well known Sydney yachtsman Julian Farren-Price, sailing his new yacht, About Time, has taken out an impressive double in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's Short Ocean Pointscore, winning both the IRC Division 1 and PHS Division 1 in the summer season that ended today.

Farren-Price launched About Time, a Farr-designed, New Zealand-built Cookson 39, just before the start of the 2000-2001 summer season in Sydney, finishing the series with two successive wins in IRC Division 1.

About time took the IRC title from an exceptionally strong fleet of state-of-the-art 40-footers, finishing the series with 591 points, well clear of sistership Occasional Coarse Language (Warwick Sherman) on 567 points and the Beneteau 40.7, Blue Chip (Karl Stechman and Peter Mason) on 560 points.

Under PHS handicaps, About Time did not win a race, but sailed consistently well to finish with 563 points, beating IMS Division 1 overall winner True North (Howard and Susan Piggott) on 541 points and last-race winner Blue Chip on 539 points.

Consistent sailing with their Beneteau 40.7, True North, paid dividends for former Tasmanians Howard and Susan Piggott in winning IMS Division 1 of the Short Ocean Pointscore.

Howard clinched victory when he steered True North into second place behind Blue Chip in today's final SOPS race, sailed on Sydney Harbour because of heavy seas offshore and the forecast of a strong south-westerly change.

True North won two of the 13 races over the summer, placing in the top three on corrected time in all but four races, to finish the series with 588 points, seven clear of the Sydney 40, Davnet, owned by Jamie McPhail and Phil Eiszele, on 581 points.

Another Beneteau 40.7, Blue Chip, owned by Karl Stechman and Peter Mason, took third overall in the series, winning the final two races and finishing with 561 points.

The final race proved to be somewhat of an anti-climax as Davnet, which had been only two points behind True North on the pointscore going into today's race, retired soon after the start.

Howard and Susan Piggott bought True North after moving to Sydney a couple of years ago from Hobart, where Howard had been a prominent Dragon class sailor with the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

Apart from winning IMS Division 1 of the SOPS, True North also placed second overall in PHS Division 1.

During the past season True North has also won the City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Trophy for the 165th Australia Day Regatta race to Botany Bay and return and last weekend finished equal first in the Palm Beach Regatta with 1999 Admiral's Cup team yacht, Sledgehammer, a Sydney 40.

IMS Division 2 saw a narrow overall win for Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas in the Hick 35, AFR Midnight Rambler, the overall IMS winner of the 1998 Telstra Sydney to Hobart Race.

A third place in today's final race saw AFR Midnight Rambler finish with 594 points, just two points clear of Sommer Breeze, Commodore Hans Sommer's Cavalier 350 SL which won the last three races to finish on 592 points.

Third overall went to Pippin, Anne and David Taylor's Farr 37, on 584 points. However, they made up for that by winning IRC Division 2, finishing just three points clear of AFR Midnight Rambler, third place going to Jacobina (Phillip Mellor).

Pippin won the final race of IRC Division 2 to finish with 602 points, with AFR Midnight Rambler on 599 and Jacobina on 576.

PHS Division 2 went to Don Young's Northshore 38, Foreshore, finishing the series with 568 points to win from AFR Midnight Rambler on 561 and Don Brown's Rumblefish on 559 points.

In PHS Division 3, Dire Straights (Kevin Pudney) did not have to start in the final race to win the series with 607 points from Sandpiper (David Bates) on 599 and Katinka (Des O'Connell) on 591 points.

Dire Straits, a Catalina, won seven of the 12 races in which it sailed.

Further information:

Peter Campbell - 0419 385 028 or email - peter_campbell@bigpond.com