| Victoire slips into
top three, three remain at sea |
| By CYCA
Event Media. |
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| Photos by Peter
Andrews. |
| 07:30 AEDT, March 21,
2010. |
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Nobody - except
probably themselves saw it coming – but Victoire, Darryl
Hodgkinson’s Beneteau First 45, has sneaked onto the
IRC podium of the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race
overnight, after crossing the Hunter River finish line at 11.48pm.
With only three yachts left at sea in the Cruising Yacht
Club of Australia organised race, Geoff Ross’ RP 55
Yendys is the provisional winner, from Victoire, which had
the bonus of Sean Kirkjian in the afterguard, bumping Bob
Steel’s TP52 Quest down to third overall. All three
are from the host club.
However Steel can be happy that he is the provisional winner
of the CYCA’s prestigious 2009/2010 Blue Water Point
Score (BWPS), taking the title by one point from Yendys and
Syd Fischer’s TP52 Ragamuffin. |
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Darryl Hodgkinson’s Beneteau First 45 Victoire.
Photo © Peter Andrews, Outimage.
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After leading
the BWPS by one place coming into this 213 nautical mile race,
Fischer has been relegated to third place on countback.
Fischer, the legendary yachtsman who turned 83 this month,
was disappointed when he arrived at the Newcastle Cruising
Yacht Club last night. After match racing Quest all the way
to the finish and losing in the final stages, he then discovered
they had missed beating Loki by four seconds to finish fifth
overall.
Kelp found wrapped around Ragamuffin’s keel could
have made the difference, or maybe it was the failure of
his crew to follow Quest inshore on the first night while
leading their foe, after Fischer went off watch. Who knows?
However, both Fischer and Bob Steel said Chris Nicholson
had sailed Yendys to an excellent win of slow and tactical
race to Newcastle. “Chris and the crew sailed a brilliant
race and deserved to win. They got away from Syd and us and
we weren’t going to catch them,” said Steel who
was backed up by Fischer: “They sailed a bloody good
race,” he said.
Disappointment for AFR Midnight Rambler’s owner Ed
Psaltis, who finished the race sixth overall behind Ragamuffin
by 21 minutes, costing him a podium finish in the BWPS in
which he was third placed coming into this race.
However, the modified Farr 40 from the CYCA has provisionally
won the Tasman Performance Series by a long shot, ironically
Psaltis using the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race
as his race drop. He finished the Series on 23 points. |
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Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas’ modified Farr 40 AFR Midnight
Rambler.
Photo © Peter Andrews, Outimage.
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Relaxing over
a beer or two at the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club late last
night, Psaltis said: “It was a long, slow race. We missed
our rivalry with Tow Truck (which her owners have sold, so
it did not finish the series). I think had they been here we
might have been better off.”
Steven Proud and his Sydney 38 Swish crew (CYCA) have finished
the Tasman Performance Series in second place with 31 points,
with Robin and Annette Hawthorn’s Beneteau 47.7, Imagination
(CYCA) third on 41 points.
Twenty five yachts started the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle
Yacht Race, of which five have retired: EZ Street, Patrice
Six, One for the Road, Nips-N-Tux and Mr Beaks Ribs.
Three boats remain at sea this morning in what has been
a slow and tactical uphill battle the whole way. As at 7.30am,SES
Inch By Winch had 8.7 nautical miles to go and was sailing
at 5 knots, due in after 8.00am, Menace with 16nm to go sailing
at 3 knots (after 10.00am) and Allegro, which had a long
55 miles to go and was sailing in 5 knots with an ETA of
mid afternoon.
Winners will be awarded their trophies at the Audi Winter
Series cocktail party on Thursday April 8th, 2010
Follow the fleet via the official race website http://sydneynewcastle.cyca.com.au or on Twitter http://twitter.com/asonyr. |
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| Outimage and
CYCA © 2010 |
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