Friday 18 October marked the start of the third race of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s 2024/25 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore – the 260 nautical mile Tollgate Islands Race. Twenty-six competitors ranging from 32 to 100-feet and over built over 100 years apart, left the starting line at 1900hrs.
Despite lighter-than-forecast N/NE winds of 10-12 knots, the larger yachts, led by Comanche, URM Group, Whisper and Smuggler, quickly gained ground. XS Moment, the first yacht under 50 feet, followed closely, with the rest of the fleet in pursuit.
Not long into the race, a storm cell loomed, bringing rain, thunder, lightning and as well, a change in wind direction and strength.
URM Group navigator Alice Parker, late reported that around 1940hrs, “… we were hit by a solid squall, with moments of 30-knot winds. Things calmed down on the back side of the storm clouds, and we’re now back in a light northerly gradient of 8-10 knots”.
While conditions settled into lighter breeze offshore, the fleet braced for a wet night ahead and awaited a predicted southerly shift.
The VPLP Verdier 100 Comanche, chartered by James Mayo and Matt Allen, proved strong in her start to her 2024-2025 Blue Water Pointscore campaign and led the fleet for the entirety of the race. Sailing at over 20 knots at times, she managed to clear a 14 nautical mile lead over Anthony and David Johnston’s 72-foot URM Group. During the first night, David Griffith’s JV62 Whisper and Seb Bohm’s TP52 Smuggler, skippered by Steve McConaghy, were both close astern.
The front runners soon distanced themselves from the next group of yachts, led by Calibre 12 and Georgia Express.
After 18 hours, 45 minutes and 48 seconds the first yacht home was Comanche, taking both Line Honours and the top spots under both IRC and PHS handicap. Over the line, she was followed by URM Group, Whisper and Smuggler.
Despite the 52-, 62- and 72-footers being “holed up” off Batemans Bay for a few hours on Saturday morning, the four larger boats ultimately secured 1st to 4th places on IRC as the rest of the fleet experienced lighter breeze on Sunday.
Comanche won PHS ahead of Chris O’Neill’s J/99 double-handed entry Blue Planet and Lisa Callaghan’s Sydney 38 Mondo.
The double-handed fleet was as competitive as ever. Blue Planet (DH), co-skippered by Chris O’Neill and Michael Tom Johnston, not only took the win in IRC Double Handed and PHS Double Handed but also IRC Corinthian.
Chris O’Neill shared: “I just try to sail as fast as I can and let the results come. Winning the IRC Corinthian division is something I’m really happy about. I’m just a weekend sailor, so competing against the pros isn’t easy. Doing well in the Corinthian division is very satisfying. While the double-handed results are great, the fleet is quite mixed. My preference is for the IRC Corinthian division because I get to compete against both double-handers and fully-crewed boats – but all Corinthian sailors.”
With a top speed of 23 knots and a thrilling ride back, Blue Planet (DH) showed impressive speed and handling under challenging conditions: “Coming back, the breeze picked up, so we kept a lot of sail up, which made for a thrilling ride. We managed to make up a lot of the time we lost earlier. We were regularly hitting 20 knots of boat speed while surfing down waves, and our top speed was 23 knots. We had a few wipeouts, but that’s all part of the fun.”
Ian Smith, owner and co-skipper of Jupiter, who claimed second place in IRC Double Handed, summarised their race afterwards:
“Ocean racing is a very humbling experience. One minute you’re winning, the next the fleet has passed you, it really keeps you on your toes. We had a great start, being the first double-hander off the line, and managed well up the harbour, but Blue Planet got ahead of us through the Heads.
“A big thunderstorm hit shortly after turning south, so we dropped our A2 and put a reef in, then went west, anticipating the westerly winds, which didn’t eventuate as expected. We caught up with Rum Rebellion, but the conditions around the island became very soft. Rum Rebellion, with their local knowledge, came out ahead of us, along with Borderline.
About 11 nautical miles off Cape St George, we hoisted our A5 spinnaker, but the halyard broke shortly after and we ended up prawning for 25 minutes. After recovering the sail, all we could do was pole out the jib. We couldn’t catch up to Blue Planet or surf down the waves as well as we’d hoped.”
Despite the mishap with their broken halyard the team managed to secure a solid result and is proud of the result they achieved.
The next race in the 2024/25 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore is the 82 nautical mile Bird Idsland Race,
RESULTS
IRC Overall
Comanche – Matt Allen & James Mayo
Whisper – David Griffith
Smuggler – Sebastian Bohm
URM Group – Anthony Johnston
Blue Planet (DH)- Chris O’Neill
IRC Division 1
Comanche – Matt Allen & James Mayo
Whisper – David Griffith
Smuggler – Sebastian Bohm
URM Group – Anthony Johnston
IRC Division 2
Blue Planet (DH)- Chris O’Neill
Jupiter (DH) – Ian Smith
Supernova – Alex Seja & Felicity Nelson
Mondo – Lisa Callaghan
Calibre 12 – Richard Williams
PHS Overall
Comanche – Matt Allen & James Mayo
Blue Planet (DH)- Chris O’Neill
Mondo – Lisa Callaghan
Jupiter (DH) – Ian Smith
Supernova – Alex Seja & Felicity Nelson
IRC Corinthian
Blue Planet (DH) – Chris O’Neill
Supernova – Alex Seja & Felicity Nelson
Calibre 12 – Richard Williams
Rum Rebellion (DH) – Shane Connelly
Toucan (DH) – Edward Curry-Hyde
Wild Rose IRC
Supernova – Alex Seja & Felicity Nelson
Toucan (DH) – Edward Curry-Hyde
Mondo – Lisa Callaghan
Calibre 12 – Richard Williams
Double Handed IRC
Blue Planet (DH) – Chris O’Neill
Jupiter (DH) – Ian Smith
Rum Rebellion (DH) – Shane Connelly
Toucan (DH) – Edward Curry-Hyde
Verity (DH) – Paul Beath
Borderline (DH) – Andy Offord
Double Handed PHS
Blue Planet (DH) – Chris O’Neill
Jupiter (DH) – Ian Smith
Rum Rebellion (DH) – Shane Connelly
Toucan (DH) – Edward Curry-Hyde
Rumchaser (DH) – Andrew Butler
Official website
https://bwps.cycaracing.com/
Social media
