Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Harbour Regatta champions and winners decided

by Di Pearson / MHYC media 2 Mar 2025 08:23 GMT 1-2 March 2025

Another late start as a light sea breeze fought the land breeze, making it hard on competitors and race officers alike earlier on at the Nautilus Marine Sydney Harbour Regatta, but eventually everyone settled in and new champions and winners were declared late in the day in a great weekend of sailing celebrating the event's 20th edition.

Race officers had to be mindful of what was right for competitors on their course areas in an unstable light air earlier on, while taking into account other nearby courses across the 13 classes and multiple divisions being raced at the Middle Harbour Yacht Club (MHYC) hosted event. However, patience paid and the breeze built nicely on the Harbour courses with some reporting up to 20 knots, a far cry from yesterday's light air.

Classic Yachts

Gordon Ingate, a living legend of sailing, looked likely to win the Classic Yachts division with Jasnar, but the Olympic, America's Cup and world championship winning sailor withdrew from Race 3 having sailed the wrong course. That left Annie Lawrence's Solveig in the box seat for the overall win.

In the past, Solveig took both line and overall honours in two separate Sydney Hobarts, with original owners and famous brothers, Trygve and Magnus Halvorsen. David Salter placed third with his Swanson designed Mr Christian.

Far East 28R One Design Australian Championship

Well-named Firecracker, Scott Lawson's defending champion, stormed home with five bullets from six windward/leeward races on Sydney Harbour this weekend to emphatically claim the Australian Championship.

There was mainly seconds in the finishes and Wildling 3 (Conrad Johnston and Steve Byrne) hung on to claim second overall. Julian Todd's Sweeney-Todd placed third.

"Yesterday we basically got the best starts we could, because you can control the race from the front if you do that," Lawson explained. Dolly Divola (former gun 18ft skiff sailor) was doing tactics," said Lawson, whose 16ft skiff sailing son, Harry, flew in for the event.

"Today was tough. We're a light crew, so we decided to try and stick around the lead boats and take advantage downwind. The Firecracker crew is very good at shifts and operating a skiff type boat.

"Sparrow was so good, but unfortunately broke the rudder on one of the last downwinds today. Ludde Ingvall (an eminent ocean racer) was aboard with Peter Higgins again and Peter has his two sons sailing with him."

Lawson added, "The main reason we succeeded today was because we were conservative in all our manoeuvres in the heavy breeze today and avoided making mistakes in the gybes, sets and drops. We are very happy - the guys did a great job, letting me concentrate on steering - I'm very lucky. Credit to them they made us look good."

Dragon NSW Championship

Liquidity cleaned up to win the Dragon NSW Championship after Richard Franklin and crew scored five wins from six races. Peter Crane's Threenabit took second and Chris Maclean's Ascalon placed third.

Super 30s

The Tasty syndicate's Hick 30, Very Tasty, led coming into the day with three straight wins yesterday, but a sixth place in today's opener left the crew, led by Al Chase, vulnerable with only a two-point advantage over two aggressors, Ophir and Roger That. It was David Ingram and Alex Salmon's Roger That that took full advantage, posting 2-1 results to eat and beat Very Tasty by two points. Bruce Tavener's Ophir was third.

"We had a great day. We did 18 knots downwind in the last race. We're the smallest boat in the fleet and we were overtaking bigger boats," Ingram surmised.

"When we started sailing the Super 30s two or three years ago, we were just making up the numbers, but we've been improving. We go well in the light air but struggle a bit in bigger breeze. We get thrown around a bit, so changing gears is what we did I guess."

J/70s

Six windward/leewards over two days and it was Steven Proud's Swish that topped the scoreboard with four bullets in his tally. Kim Ketelbey placed second overall in this tough fleet. She won the two races that Swish didn't. Miles McLennan's Jedi took the final podium spot.

"J/70s are the best thing I've done in sailing," said Proud who has sailed a variety of classes. "There's some excellent sailors in this class and it's growing rapidly with new owners coming in. It's the fastest one-design class in the country right now. It's tough competition and in 15-20 knots they are awesome, though a bit of a handful over 20 knots, but still manageable."

In the class around three years now, Proud said, "We got a third at the Nationals in Melbourne and won here. It's all about being consistent."

On the conditions, he said, "We got anywhere from 12-20 knots. It was shifty, swirly, patchy and everything else, especially up near Shark Island."

J/24s

David West's Ace won four of the six J/24 windward/leewards to take top place from serial winner, Innamincka (John Crawford) by two points. Third was Michael Rowe's Kaotic after the fleet sailed six races.

Performance Spinnaker

Three divisions fought hard for their share of the prizes. Division 1 went to John Amos' Chainsaw; Division 2 was won by Sebastian Hultin's Georgia Express and Division 3 by Martyn Colebrook's Slac-N-Off. There was very little in it across all three divisions, a point here and two points there.

"We used our No. 2 headsail when we should have been using a No. 4 today - we got 15 to 20 knots at one stage today after it being extremely light yesterday. We had varying conditions, which is always good," Amos said.

Performance Non-Spinnaker

Local sailor, John De Meur, won the division with his Elysium, beating St Elmo's Fire (Team SEF) and Kailani (Peter Charteris) to the punch after four races on the Harbour.

Open Class divisions

Ross Hennessy's Ker 40 MK3 Condor, fresh off its win at the Pittwater Regatta in February and winner of the Super 40 division at this regatta last year, has done it again, this time in Open Division 1. He beat another regular winner in Bob Cox's DK46, Nine Dragons while David Hamilton's Seeking Alpha, a Farr 40, was third.

In Division 2, John Bacon's recent purchase, Crazy Diamond, cleaned up. The Melges 32 beat Like Oxygen (Andrew York) and Foreign Affair (Matt Wilkinson) by 11 points, after the latter two finished on equal points.

The Official Presentation will be held tomorrow evening at MHYC, when the Grand Prizes will be drawn. The first place draw is for a Supercar Track Day for two at a race on the Supercars Calendar, with two General Admission tickets, along with a money-can't-buy pit tour and grid walk access, courtesy of the Steadfast Group.

In the second place draw is two nights' accommodation at Hamilton Island's Reef View Hotel, including breakfast daily transfers, shuttle service and more, courtesy of Nautilus Marine Insurance. Plus an initial consultation and six-month Kieser membership.

The third place draw is for a 'Manly Spirits 'Distillery Experience' for a yacht crew of up to 10 people.

This evening, a random draw will be held for two great prizes for crew members, thanks to the generous support of event sponsors Zhik and Kieser. Prize 1 is a pair of Zhik jackets. Prize 2 is a six month core membership, including a physiotherapy assessment and seven guided physiotherapy sessions with Kieser.

MHYC Special Events Chair, Ian Box, said: "The Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Harbour Regatta could not be held without the assistance of the following clubs and their volunteers:

Cruising Yacht Club Australia (CYCA); Manly Yacht Club (MYC); Royal Australian Navy Sailing Association (RANSA); Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (RPAYC); Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club (RPEYC); Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS); Sydney Amateur Sailing Club (SASC) and Sydney Flying Squadron (SFS).

Box continued, "Thanks also to our naming rights sponsor, Nautilus Marine Insurance and supporting sponsors, Zhik and Kieser."

On the event as a whole, Box, who raced his Toybox 2 in Open Division 1 said, "It was a particularly light regatta until the last race today. I commend the quality of the entrants in the Open divisions, it was a high quality fleet. I can only speak for those divisions where I was racing, but anyone who has performed well across the other classes deserves their trophies. It was a tough regatta and tough competition.

"The race officers set good courses both days that we were able to complete all races on both days. Well done to them - they had a hard job both days. There was good collaboration between all of them. I feel really proud; they couldn't have done a better job," Box ended.

So many other classes sailing at the regatta, impossible to cover all, but full results for all are available at: shr.mhyc.com.au.