After taking line honours in the 2025 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race late last night (Saturday), Koa, owned by Andy Kearnan and co-skippered by he and Mark Griffith, was today declared overall winner of the 226 nautical mile east coast classic.
Koa, a TP52, finished the tactically challenging 226 nautical mile race in the time of 1 day, 10hrs 21mins 46secs. She was followed over the line just over two hours later by Geoff Hill’s Santa Cruz 72, Antipodes from Hong Kong. Slingshot, the multihull skippered by Dara Johnston was next, then came Richard Harris’ Cookson 50, Sticky.
Kearnan attested: “It was a crazy race.”
“First, heading out from Pittwater ultimately at 130 True Wind Direction, whilst the course was 30ish, in order that we could get into the best wind to set us up for the rest of the race. That was a huge commitment. It was 30 nautical miles or so before we tacked north!
“Second, in 40 or so years of offshore sailing, I have never seen so many horrible storm cells. Thankfully, we managed to navigate most of them, sailing away from the course to avoid the worst of it.
“But there were moments there where we were running hard downwind with only a mainsail up trying to keep the boat upright and our sails together in order to be able to finish the race. It was honestly pretty crazy. I’m glad we’re safely in Coffs – and in good shape with line honours and a handicap win in the bag,” the Sydney yachtsman said.
Two yachts from the host club filled out the other podium places – two Hudson owners who are not related. Just after midnight, Richard Hudson’s modified Farr 45, Pretty Woman, moved into second place overall and stayed there. She also won ORC overall, from XS Moment and Anarchy.
Early this morning (Sunday), Ray Hudson’s XS Moment moved up to take third place. The XP44 took line honours in last year’s fickle race when she also finished third overall. This year, she also won PHS, from Pretty Woman and Anarchy.
Choosing the coastal route when the forecast advised otherwise, Richard Hudson explained: “Experience made me sail close to the coast. I’m a great believer in sailing the shortest distance (he covered 250 nautical miles. Only two-handers, Toucan and Verite did better, respectively sailing 245 and 348nms).
“I look around me and see what’s happening,” the veteran offshore racer said. “We got in a similar place to XS Moment and I told the guys we had to sail well enough to keep time on them. We did that and got all the transitions right.”
Hudson said while they had a few slowdowns, “We didn’t stop. I reckon we did more sail changes than I can count. It was hard and the team worked really hard.”
Included in his crew were inaugural Two-Handed division Sydney Hobart winners, Jules Hall and Jan ‘Clogs Scholten, along with his daughter, Anneliese Scholten. Carl Crafoord and his son Ben were also aboard.
“All the other crew bar two have won the Sydney Hobart or won the Corinthian division of the Hobart. We had a good team,” Hudson said. “The oldest is 75, the youngest 18 and the boat is 29 years.”
Pretty Woman had a dream run in the last 12 hours of the race. “It was all downwind. We saw 18 knots and had a great ride in to the finish. We’re very happy with the outcome.”
Early in the race, Koa was challenged by Richard Harris’ Cookson 50, Sticky, which led the overall standings. The two were neck and neck, with Koa sailing wide on the course. Sticky took a dig in and Koa led from that point on in the 39th edition of the race.
Antipodes then tried to stay in touch with Koa on the water, but couldn’t hang on, so ultimately placed ninth overall. Anarchy (Grant Pocklington), Khaleesi (Sandy Farquharson) and Mercury (Mark Tinworth/Mark Waterhouse), which had long been in the picture, turned up the heat on Antipodes as did the lead pair of two-handers, which came home with breeze.
The J/99, Verite (Paul Beath/Teresa Michell), led the Two-Handed division from early on. Edward Curry-Hyde/Lincoln Dews on Toucan, a Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300, were just in front of them on the water, but trailed them overall.
That was until this morning when Toucan overtook to claim the overall prize and win IRC Division 2 (from Verite), made up of fully crewed and two-handed boats.
Edward Curry-Hyde: “We’re very tired. It was a tough race. Verite kept coming back at us, we’d get away and they would catch us again. It was a hard fought battle the whole way.
“It was gruelling because it was so variable and the rain squalls kept coming through the night. It took a lot of determination to keep going. Trying to decide where to go was hard too. Models said to go offshore, but they went beyond where the current was. There was 3 knots against you and for a small boat, that’s hard.”
Curry-Hyde said they intended to head offshore, “but then we got good conditions and thought coming up the coast would be good. We knew it would drop us into a hole, which it did, but then we were picking up strong winds. It was fantastic.
“It was Lincoln’s and my first major race together. I really enjoyed it. We are both very involved in everything. And it’s nice to have someone fit and young to encourage you to get up and do so many sail changes when you don’t want to,” Curry-Hyde finished with a laugh.
In the multihulls Darren Drew’s Arber 38 Cat Southeaster, Wind Cheetah, took top place overall under OMR from Stephen Barton’s Whitehaven design, J’Ouvert.
On docking in Coffs Harbour, Drew stated: “It was the most beautiful, frustrating, painful, challenging and amazing all rolled into one ocean race I have ever done! Lots of rain. And the current…
“Thankfully, I had great crew with good cheer who kept pulling on sheets. We fell into a hole for an hour and 10 minutes, flopping around, crashing and bashing. It was frustrating watching the competition that we’d made gains on sail away from us. We finally started picking our way through the fleet and it was fun chasing down some of the keelboats.
“We had a few wins along the way too. Good race, well organised and good camaraderie among the crews,” concluded Drew who can put it all behind him as he is heading off for a four month cruise.
Crews were welcomed into Coffs Harbour and Coffs Harbour Yacht Club where two presentations were held this afternoon to accommodate those boats yet to finish.
At the time of writing five boats were still racing. Last on line is Western Morning, the lovely classic S&S 34 sailed by owner Mark Ayto and Anto Sweetapple.
Six yachts retired, all citing time pressures: Avalanche, Inner Circle, Popeye, Stampede, Summer Salt, Trouble & Strife and Wots Next.
Follow competing yachts on the race tracker at: https://cf.yb.tl/pittwater2025
For all information, including entry list please go to: www.pittwatertocoffs.com.au
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