Sydney 40 World Cup Overall

The Race 1 sponsored Sydney 40 World Cup 2000 came to its conclusion on Sunday 2nd April in Calanova, Palma, Mallorca with the 8th and 9th races.

These races were sponsored by Frederiksen and Hyde Sails respectively and were held in a shifty north easterly breeze, coming off the land, of 15 to 16 knots that lightened down to 9 to 10kts. This was quite different from the more usual south to south-westerly sea breeze that usually built up to 18 to 20kts.

The two boats level on points for the Race 1 Sydney 40 World Cup starting the day had a close fight early on in the 8th race. Miguel Puigserver's European entry Cacadu, helmed by Spaniard Pichu Torcida, then got away from Roger Hickman's Australian entry, Sydney Yachts, to record a 2nd which was followed up by a win in the final race to take the World Cup. Cacadu had an excellent series, culminating with winning 3 out of the last 4 races.

In the close racing of the final day, similar to what took place throughout the championship, Sydney Yachts finished 5th in both races. This dropped the Australians to third overall, one point behind Tomoya Hotta's Japanese entry Top Secret, helmed by another Australian, Bruce Anson. Top Secret sailed well to record a 1st and then a 3rd in the last two races to recover from their disqualification in the 4th race and 6th place in the long 7th race.

The British yacht Race 1, skippered by Philip Crebbin, continued its steady improvement with a team that had not had the chance to practice together and in a boat that had not been sailed before the event and finished the regatta with 2nd place in the last race. This came after a titanic struggle with the Japanese, the Australians and the Spanish entry Port Castello, helmed by Gustavo Vilarino. Places changed continually around the course, and this final result gave Race 1 4th place overall by 3 points ahead of the Dutch entry Exposure, skippered by Nick Lamm. Port Castello was then 6th overall.

The regatta had many highlights including a wonderful setting, perfect conditions for 9 races, very good organisation by the Spanish hosts in Calanova and extremely close and exciting racing that all the competitors enjoyed. This was shown very clearly by the incident at the end of the 4th race when 3 boats touched as they crossed the finishing line together, going fast with masthead spinnakers up in 15 knots of wind. 2 of the 3 boats were then disqualified by the International Jury, only Race 1 being exonerated.

Final Results (9 races, no discard):

Pos Name          Country   Skipper           Helmsman        Pts
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1st Cacadu        Europe    Miguel Puigserver Pichu Torcida    20
2st Top Secret    Japan     Tomoya Hotta      Bruce Anson      26 
3rd Sydney Yachts Australia Roger Hickman     Roger Hickman    27
4th Race 1        Britain   Philip Crebbin    Philip Crebbin   34
5th Exposure      Holland   Nick Lamm         Nick Lamm        37
6th Port Castello Spain     Guillermo Dauffi  Gustavo Vilarino 50

Racing details will be posted on to Race 1's comprehensive website at www.race1.co.uk