Top US skipper to contest Telstra Cup regatta

Last week , leading American yachtsman Phillipe Kahn won the right to represent the United States in the Farr 40 One Design class as part of the three-boat US team at the 2001 Admiral's Cup in England.

This week, he is in Sydney to contest the Australian Farr 40 OD championship to be conducted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia as part of the Telstra Cup starting tomorrow.

His opposition will include the Australian skipper and crew he is likely to encounter at Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, next August.

Kahn and his crew will race his new Australian-based boat, Pegasus, against 15 Australian skippers and crews in this "owner-driver" class, including current World champion John Calvert-Jones from Melbourne, helming Southern Star 2, and defending Australian champion Marcus Blackmore, from Sydney, steering Emotional Hooligan.

The National championship is the start of a selection process to choose the Farr 40 OD crew to join a Sydney 40 and a Corel 45 in making up the Australian team for the Admiral's Cup. The trials will also include the Strathfield Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Race.

Skippers who have put up their hands for selection include Melbourne's David Gotze sailing Brighton Star, former ocean racing brothers Neill Whiston (Fruit Machine) and Simon Whiston (Smile) along with Robert Skinner in Weapon and Dick Voorderhake in Syntegra Rapscallion.

Surprisingly, neither Calvert-Jones or Blackmore have nominated for Admiral's Cup selection although Calvert-Jones plans to defend his World title in England next year.

The Telstra Cup starts tomorrow and runs through to Sunday, December 17, with a break on Friday, December 15 for the Canon Big Boat Challenge on Sydney Harbour.

The first two days of the Telstra Cup will see two races sailed each day for each class, with one course inshore and one offshore – heats one and two of the Farr 40 OD Australian championship being sailed on the Harbour tomorrow, with the IMS, IRC, Sydney 38 and Super 30 divisions being sailed offshore.

The regatta has drawn more than 50 grand prix racing yachts, headed by Telstra Sydney to Hobart Race line honours favourite Shockwave.

Owner Neville Crichton, a highly experienced international yachtsman, plans to steer the 80-footer himself but will be joined by New Zealand America's Cup skipper Dean Barker for the Sydney to Hobart Race.

The IMS handicap division will see the clash of most of the yachts expected to be strong contenders for an Overall win in the Telstra Sydney to Hobart, including last year’s winner Yendys (Geoff Ross), and two other past winners, Ragamuffin, with skipper Syd Fischer preparing for his 32nd Hobart Race, and Ausmaid, owned by South Australian Kevan Pearce with Roger Hickman as sailing master.

British yachtsman Chris Bull will be skippering the powerful 46-footer, Quest, which he has chartered for the Telstra Cup and the Telstra Sydney to Hobaret.

Among the smaller IMS yachts expected to go well is Bruce Taylor’s Chutzpah from Melbourne.

Interest will centre on the performance of the recently imported, US-built Farr 52, Loco, owned by Sydney yachtsman David Coe who won the Telstra Cup two years ago with his previous Loco, the Sydney 40 now racing as Davnet.