It was warm but brittle on Sydney Harbour for Race 5 of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Land Rover Winter Series on Sunday, but finally enough breeze on the race track to allow the fleet to sail the full course, so competitors came ashore happy after a couple of weeks of incredibly light winds and shortened courses.
The race marked the series pointscore halfway point, and Les Goodridge was happy to make good handiwork of Division B with his Wax Lyrical, sailing her to a massive five minute win over Philip King’s Salona 44, Last Tango.
“The weather was probably perfect for my boat (an X-50 design). The wind was just enough to get us going. Wax Lyrical doesn’t sail well in very light or very heavy winds, as she is too heavy for one and we don’t have the right sails for the other,” Goodridge said.
“We went to places where there was breeze while we watched others fall into holes. It made a big difference to our result.
“The sun was out, we had enough breeze all day to get around the full course and that’s what the Land Rover Winter Series is all about,” stated Goodridge, who was drawn to receive the Land Rover Evoque experience, but asked for it to be re-drawn, “Because I already own a Land Rover Evoque, so I thought someone else should get the chance to experience it,” he ended.
In the re-draw, Division G winner, Fiction (Michael Blaxell), found it was a case of second time lucky, and will drive the vehicle for one week at the end of the series. In the next draw, the lift stand launch and two free lay days donated by the Noakes Group went to Windflyt, the pretty Townson 11 Metre owned by Doug Sturrock.
“I’m looking forward to seeing Sean (Sean Langman, Noakes’ managing director) with my boat,” Sturrock said laughing.
On winning Division F, Sturrock commented: “It was a sweet victory for Windflyt because we had to fight off Double Trouble (Steve Wyatt’s always well-sailed Bavaria 35 Match).
“We screwed up at the bottom mark with our headsail, but we had an America’s Cup style finish, taking them to the layline and giving them no room to breathe. It was quite exciting,” Sturrock finished.
“It turned into a beautiful day for everyone. Although it was sunny early on, it was quite cold,” Principal Race Officer Robyn Morton said.
“We started the Sydney 38’s in an 8 knot sou’ westerly and the rest of the day was pretty much west/sou/west at 10 knots. It allowed us to get the boats around twice and all finished by 3pm. I’m reasonably happy that we had sufficient breeze and that everyone got to sail the full course.
“We had a couple of boats retire, each with an injured crew member, but I was later told both people are OK,” she ended.
At the halfway point, with five pointscore races remaining to decide the winners, a few new names rose to the top of the podium on Sunday. However, some division leaders will be hard pressed to beat, while others will come down to the wire, with very little between the top five.
Other divisional winners on Sunday were: Division A1 – UBS Wild Thing (Geoff Lavis); Division A2 – Quest (Bob Steel); Division C – Reve (Kevin Whelan); Division D – Twilight Zone (Peter Fallon); Division E – Clewless? (Lachlan and Guy Irwin; Division E – Clewless? (Lachlan and Guy Irwin); Division J1 – Trim (Shaaron Walsh); Division J2 – Hubcap2 (Herman Heiligers); Division K – Privateer (Bill Mirow); Sydney 38 – Next (Richard Holstein).
Racing in the Land Rover Winter Series continues on Sunday from 11.25am.
Full results: http://www.cyca.com.au/sysfile/downloads/2016_winter/index.htm
Di Pearson, CYCA media
