Estate Master claims 2010 Rolex Farr 40
Pre-Worlds victory. |
| By the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds Media Team. |
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Photos by Daniel Forster
and Kurt Arrigo for Rolex.
Additional photos and edited By Peter Andrews. |
| Sunday, April 18, 2010. |
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| The sailing conditions off the Casa
de Campo resort in La Romana, Dominican Republic lived up to expectations as the Farr 40 fleet finished up a five-race series for the Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds. Ten boats and teams from the United States, Italy, Australia, and Germany, are in the Caribbean to tune up for the Rolex Farr 40 World Championship which will run from April 21 to 24, 2010. |
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Lisa and Martin Hill's Estate Master, winner of the Rolex
Farr 40 Pre-Worlds 2009 at Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic.
Photo © Rolex / Daniel Forster.
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After five races for the Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds, it was Lisa and Martin Hill’s Estate Master (AUS) that finished on top; with Doug Douglass’ Goombay Smash (USA) second and defending Rolex Farr 40 World Champion, Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad (USA) in third place.
Though the fleet is smaller than in recent Farr 40 Worlds, the racing was just as tight and competitive. In the five races, eight teams posted scores in the top three, from the shifty conditions over the weekend that gave all teams a shot at coming out on top. |
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Doug Douglass’ Goombay Smash (USA) second overall at
the Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds 2009 at Casa de Campo, Dominican
Republic.
Photo © Rolex / Daniel Forster.
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On Saturday, Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio and his race committee ran three races, over two nautical mile leg windward / leeward courses that gave the fleet of ten boats a taste of the local conditions.
The 2008 Rolex North American Champion Doug Douglass and his Goombay Smash team won the first race of the regatta and went on to finish the first day of racing at the top of the leader board. Lisa and Martin Hill’s Estate Master took second in race one and held off the Nerone (ITA), steered by Alberto Signorini to finish second. Defending Rolex Farr 40 World Champion Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad took the gun in race two ahead of Enfant Terrible (ITA), crossing in second and fellow Italian team Alessandro Barnaba’s Fiamma (ITA) sliding into third. |
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Jim Richardson's Barking Mad, third overall at the Rolex Farr
40 Pre-Worlds 2009 at Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic.
Photo © Rolex / Daniel Forster.
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| On Sunday, two more windward / leeward races were run and going into the fifth and last race, Estate Master was tied with Goombay Smash for first place overall. Both boats had a plan to start at the pin end, but it was Estate Master that pulled it off. Added to that at the top of the first windward beat, Goombay Smash incurred a penalty for a port-starboard incident and had to do a 7200 turn, which effectively ended their chances of catching Estate Master. Owner / helmsman Martin Hill plan to start at the pin end had paid off. |
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Lisa and Martin Hill's Estate Master in action back
in 2007, during
the Rolex Trophy One Design Series, offshore Sydney Australia.
Photo © Peter Andrews, Outimage.
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"We noticed there’s a trend at the bottom of the course. There’s a right breeze and you get to the top mark and it goes left, so ideally you try to start on starboard as far as you can towards the pin, and then tack onto port and go for the top mark. That was our plan and we got down there and no one was around us, so happy days! I don’t know what was wrong, so we tacked and led the entire race. We’re not stupid enough to know that this is a practice race for the Worlds. Still I take any win, and it was lovely. The wind, the sunshine and just being in the Caribbean, it’s just fantastic here."
Hill, clearly enthused about his teams Pre-Worlds win, cautioned.
"The only thing is there’s always a type of voodoo about winning the Pre-Worlds, it’s bad luck. But I said, ‘I’m not into superstitions, I’ve got to take any international regatta that I can’." |
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Doug Douglass’ Goombay Smash (USA) second overall at
the Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds 2009 at Casa de Campo, Dominican
Republic.
Photo © Rolex / Daniel Forster.
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Hill’s wife Lisa, sails on the boat in the pit position. Apparently a quick learner, she’s only been sailing six years, four of them on their Farr 40. After raising three kids in Sydney, she was looking around for something to do to fill her time.
"So I thought, well Martin’s not going to stop sailing and so I sort of turned up one day and said ‘I’m here boys, and they sort of looked horrified’," said Hill. "And I thought, ‘I’ve brought up three kids I think I can do this. Just be patient’," she added.
Given the distance they had to travel from Australia, Hill and his crew arrived in the Dominican Republic last Saturday, a full week before the Pre-Worlds began to get acclimatized to the time difference. They put the days to good use, sailing in the local conditions.
"We had a new mast and things to test out," said Martin Hill. "It gave us a lot of confidence in testing the breeze and also we’ve been recording for the last month the wind direction, so we’ve been watching the trend. It’s a little obsessive (he said with a laugh), but you need a certain amount of confidence. We had the patience to wait for the shifts, we knew that it would come." |
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Lisa and Martin Hill's Estate Master (AUS) just
ahead of Guido Belgiorno-Nettis' Transfusion (AUS),
during the 2007 Rolex Trophy One Design Series, offshore
Sydney Australia.
Photo © Peter Andrews, Outimage.
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Indicative of several teams whose scores trended up through the series, Alex Roepers’ Plenty (USA) had a second in the last race. Tactician Tony Rey said, "We pulled some magic out there. We had a reasonable start and hit the first two shifts and sort of put our elbows out from there and tried to put everyone behind us."
About the upcoming Worlds, Rey said, "It’s going to be shifty enough, especially if we sail close to land; they’ll be plenty of lead changes to follow. This week is about getting off the starting line and being able to go straight for the first eight minutes. If you can do that without tacking, you’re going to be in the top four at the top mark." |
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Alex Roepers' Plenty (USA) flies downwind, during the 2009
Farr 40 World Championships 2009 at Porto Cervo, Sardinia.
Photo © Rolex / Kurt Arrigo.
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Added to that is the fleet size which makes it even more critical to sail. "With ten boats you have to be very fast and you have to get a good start, it’s very hard to come back," added Rey.
The Rolex Farr 40 World Championship racing begins on Wednesday, April 21 through Saturday, April 24, and is organised by the Casa
de Campo Yacht Club and the Farr 40 Class Association. Racing will be led by Principal Race Officer Peter Reggio, with Henry Menin as Jury Chairman. The Race Committee intends to conduct as many races as practical on each scheduled day of racing, with up to a maximum of ten races for the series. |
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Alberto Rossi's Enfant Terrible and Alessandro Barnaba's
Fiamma, during the 2009 Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds at Casa
de Campo, Dominican Republic.
Photo © Rolex / Daniel Forster.
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A charity fundraising
golf tournament for the competitors, on the famed Pete Dye-designed "Teeth
of the Dog" golf
course, will be held tomorrow, Monday, April 19. Monies raised
from the tournament will be donated to benefit the Haitian disaster
relief effort, through Partners in Health, a Boston-based non-profit
organization that has been on the ground in Haiti for over 20 years.
Partners in Health operates world-renowned clinics and health care
programs with 120 doctors and nearly 500 nurses and nursing assistants
in eight sites across Haiti. For more information, go to www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti.
For more information about the 2010 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, including entry list and media accreditation, please visit www.farr40worlds.com. |
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Rolex Farr 40 Pre-Worlds - Final Results
(Position, Name, Owner, Country, R1-R2-R3-R4-R5, Total Points)
1. Estate Master, Lisa and Martin Hill (AUS), 2-4-4-1-1, 12
2. Goombay Smash, Doug Douglass (USA), 1-5-3-2-6, 17
3. Barking Mad, Jim Richardson (USA), 4-1-6-4-4, 19
4. Fiamma, Alessandro Barnaba (ITA), 9-3-1-7-5, 25
5. Nerone, Massimo Mezzarona / Alberto Signorini (ITA), 3-6-2-9-7, 27
6. Enfant Terrible, Alberto Rossi / Roberto Strappati (ITA), 6-2-7-5-10, 30
7. Flash Gordon 6, Helmut and Evan Jahn (USA), 10-9-9-3-3, 34
8. Struntje Light, Wolfgang Schaefer (GER), 5-7-5-8-9, 34
9. Plenty, Alex Roepers (USA), 7-10-8-10-2, 37
10. Transfusion, Guido Belgiorno-Nettis (AUS), 8-8-DNF-6-8, 41 |
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| Outimage and Rolex © 2010 |
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