The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron's historic Gascoigne Cup sailed into its
second century on Saturday, 24 October 2009 with victory going to prominent
Squadron member and yachting administrator Tim Cox in his J35 Soundtrack,
with son Edward on the helm,
Tim Cox, a retired senior RAN officer, is well known as the long-serving
chairman of the Race Committee for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's
Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race. He is also a member of the Sailing
Committee of the RSYS.
This was the 101st Gascoigne Cup conducted by the RSYS, although today's
race marked 124 years since it was first presented to the RSYS in 1886, as
it was not contested during the war years.
Many famous yachts have won this iconic short ocean race off Sydney Heads,
including Norn, Caprice of Huon, Apollo and Margaret Rintoul II. The first
winner in 1886 was Sir James Fairfax's Magic, one of the crack gaff-riggers
sailing with the Squadron in the 1880s.
The winner of the Gascoigne Cup is the yacht in the combined Divisions 1 and
3 with the lowest corrected time under Performance Handicaps, with
Soundtrack winning by a comfortable 2 minutes 39 seconds on corrected time
from two other Division 3 boats, the Nymph 33 Zephyer (James Connell & Alex
Brandron) from Balmain Sailing Club, and the RP36 Lisdillon (Desmond Fagan).
Only 21 seconds separated second and third.
The race started in a light but steady south-easterly breeze of 8-10 knots,
with RSYS race officer David Reid setting a short course of 14 nautical
miles in view of the expected continuation of light winds during the
afternoon.
Two boats broke the start but quickly returned and re-started, with the
fleet heading out through the Heads from the Watson Bay start line on a
course of 140 degrees.
Leslie Green's Swan 60 Ginger led the fleet around the windmark for the
first time, followed closely by Matthew Short'sTP52 Shortwave. Then came
Broomstick and Edake, with Jackpot, AFR Midnight Rambler and Balance in a
close bunch astern.
Ginger held her lead throughout the race to take line honours from
Shortwave, Michael Cranitch's Open 60 Broomstick and Jeff Carter's Farr 40
Edake. Soundtrack finished 17th in the fleet of 28 yachts.
Under IRC ratings for Divisions 1 and 3, provisional first place went to Ray
Entwistle's consistent J/122 Jackpot from Jeff Carter's Farr 40 Edake with
Ginger third and Soundtrack fourth.
The Gascoigne Cup was also the third race in the CYCA's Grant Thornton Short
Ocean Pointscore, with Jackpot winning IRC Division 1 from Edake and Ginger.
Jackpot's win will provisionally lift her to the top of the leader board in
the SOPS, displacing AFR Midnight Rambler, which placed on 7th today.
Soundtrack won IRC Division 3 from Zephyr and John Taylor's Allegro, which
also lifts the J35 to equal first in the SOPS pointscore with Crosshaven (S
Rahilly and J Pelly).
Under PHS results for the Grant Thornton SOPS, Edake won Division1 from
Jackpot from Ian MacDiarmid's Hell Razor while Division 3 saw another
victory for Soundtrack. Zephyr again took second place, third going to
Lisdillon.
– Peter Campbell.
