Yendys provisional
winner –
Quest likely to win Blue Water Pointscore |
| By CYCA
Event Media. |
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| Photos by Peter
Andrews. |
| 20:30 AEDT, March 20,
2010. |
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It’s been
a slow Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race and following
Wild Oats XI’s line honours win shortly after midday
today, only Loki, Lahana, Yendys, Quest, Pretty Fly III, Ragamuffin
and The Stick - in that order on line – had finished
the race as at 8.30pm.
Geoff Ross’s Yendys (NSW) is the provisional overall
race winner under IRC while Bob Steel’s Quest (NSW)
is second overall and provisionally positioned to win the
Blue Water Pointscore (BWPS). Only Ed Psaltis/Bob Thomas’ AFR
Midnight Rambler can spoil the party, but needs to finish
the race by 10.29pm this evening to steal the crown in the
Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s prestigious series. |
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The Chris Nicholson skippered Reichel Pugh 55 Yendys.
Photo © Peter Andrews, Outimage.
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| With Yendys’ owner/skipper
Geoff Ross away on business, Chris Nicholson skippered the
Reichel/Pugh 55 to its win. “Geoff was on the phone to
us this afternoon and he’s really happy we that we’ve
provisionally won,” Nicholson, said late this afternoon.
A world-class ocean racer, Olympian and three-time world
champion in the 49er skiff, Nicholson, from Lake Macquarie,
paid tribute to the Yendys crew this afternoon: “Geoff
Ross is a fantastic owner and he’s put together a great
crew.
Nicholson praised navigator Will Oxley saying: “Ask
him 100 questions and he’ll have all the answers ready – he’s
world class.”
Nicholson said of their race: “It boiled down to the
ramifications of the strong current inshore versus the sea
breeze – they both had risks and we managed the risks
well.” The Yendys crew saw a peak of 17 knots early
in the race, which was momentary and they sailed in 16-17
knots just before midday – all of it on the nose.
“It was a really tactical race and we were passing
boats that got on the wrong side of the current and I reckon
they’ll be out on the course for another day,” Nicholson
said.
Currently, Yendys leads the race overall under IRC from
Quest, Loki, Ragamuffin. Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 Loki
has beaten Ragamuffin overall by a mere four seconds – four
seconds that would have meant a tied BWPS first place for
Ragamuffin with Quest. However, Steel would have won on countback
due to his provisional second overall in today’s race.
Coming into the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race,
Ragamuffin led the BWPS on 15 points, with Quest on 16, AFR
Midnight Rambler on 17, Yendys on 18 and Loki on 19. It could
not be closer and made for a great climax.
It’s not the first time Steel has found himself in
the position of sitting it out and waiting to know if he
has won. “It happened in the 1995 Hobart race, and
we ended up second. It happened again in the 2002 Hobart
and we won, so we’ll wait again and see,” the
pragmatic Steel said at the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club
this evening. |
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Bob Steel’s TP52 Quest.
Photo © Peter Andrews, Outimage.
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“I’ll
be delighted if we’ve won – I’d be very happy,” commented
Steel, who said the Quest crew had literally match raced Ragamuffin
from start to finish, the two TP52’s from the CYCA trading
places throughout the race.
“Syd was leading last night, but when I came on deck
this morning, we were in front of them. As we came up to
the turning mark for the Hunter River, he overtook us on
the inside and looked quick downwind, but we caught him up – it
wasn’t over till we crossed the line.”
Steel, who with his long-time sailing master Mike Green
jointly won the CYCA’s Ocean Racer of the Year award
in December, said he and Green “are a fine partnership.
We go back a long way.”
The original fleet of 25 has had to battle light headwinds
and a strong current for most of the race, making it a thinking
race for tacticians and navigators alike.
Looking squarely at an overall win until the closing hours
of their race, Ainsworth bemoaned, “The weather beat
us again. The best I can say is that it was sunny and warm,” he
laughed.
“The breeze faded this morning – until then
we were well in front – but it crapped out at Port
Stephens. Each time we found ourselves in no breeze inshore,
we had to go out again. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
Ainsworth, from Sydney, told how they passed the 30 metre
Lahana. “We sent a crew up the mast and he spotted
Lahana parked inshore, so we knew not to go there. That’s
our only consolation – we passed her,” he said,
disappointed that what looked like an overall win has eluded
them at the 11th hour.
Single-handed round the world sailor David Adams navigated
Lahana to third on line. “After our slow start we quickly
picked up offshore, then we tore a headsail in lousy 8 knots!
We were looking fantastic until someone put a hole in the
course.
“To add insult to injury, we had to watch Loki sail
through us,” said Adams who told how the breeze “went
incredibly light and the best we got was 12 knots around
midday.”
Breeze increased to approximately 15 knots from the north-east
off Nobby’s Head at approximately 4.30pm this afternoon,
which will have the effect of bringing the remainder of the
fleet home a little faster than was originally thought.
The rest of the fleet remains at sea, with the next yachts
not realistically expected until after 11.00pm this evening
in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia organised Audi Sydney
Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race.
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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