Saturday 6th December saw the last race of the Grant Thornton Short Ocean Pointscore and Ocean pointscore series. The race committee had a difficult decision to make. Although it was blowing 10-12 knots from the west in the harbour there was no wind reported offshore. A southerly was predicted at noon and so the start was delayed for its arrival. After a 40 minute wait the committee and competitors were getting frustrated in the 36 degree heat with hot westerly winds.
The committee sensibly decided to get us racing but in the harbour.
It ended up a very tricky day with winds going from West to Northwest and then Southeast when the Southerly did arrive (at 15-25 knots) around 2pm.
The arrival of the southerly had a big impact on the fleet. The faster boats up the front spent less time working up the harbour towards Clark Island and got a good break on the fleet. In the Ocean pointscore race this saw an impressive 5 minute lead by Matthew Short’s Shortwave on IRC from Annette and Robin Hawthorn’s Imagination and third to the Sydney 38 Next owned by Richard Holstein and Stewart Kellie in the Ocean Pointscore Race.
In PHS the casual entry (and Rolex Sydney Hobart entry) Copernicus owned by Greg Zyner won from Next and Imagination.
In the Grant Thornton Short Ocean Pointscore race the large boats again dominated in IRC division 1 with Leslie Green’s Ginger winning by a mere 5 seconds from Shortwave with Imagination third. In IRC Division 3 Howard & Susan Piggott’s Brilliant had a solid win over John Maclurcan in Morag Bheag with Kevin O’Shea third in Stormy Petrel.
In PHS Division 1 Imagination triumphed over Ginger with David Forbes Merlin third. For PHS Division 3 it was Brilliant from Morag Bheag and Time Out owned by Blair/Gardyne.
This wrapped up the spring pointscore for Grant Thornton Short Ocean fleet. Results were very close.
In the Grant Thornton 2008-2009 Spring Ocean Provisional Pointscore Julian Farren-Price’s About Time managed to just hold on by 1 point from a late charging Shortwave with Imagination just 2 points further away for third place in IRC Division 1. In IRC Division 3 the winner was more decisive with Brilliant nearly getting a perfect scorecard with 1,1,1,2,1 and deservedly winning with Morag Bheag second and Stormy Petrel third. However Morag Bheag got her revenge in PHS with a win from Brilliant and Time Out pipping Stormy Petrel at the post for a third place by 1 point.
PHS Division 1 was very close. While Imagination had a fantastic season with a decisive 8 point win from About Time in second, there were just 1.25 points between the next 4 boats. In the end About Time snuck ahead of both Rod Wills Great Expectations and Shortwave by 1 point. These boats tied on 17 points but with Shortwave having a 1st place and Great Expectations best a 2nd, third overall went to Shortwave on a count back.
Overall it was a very enjoyable season. The weather proved tricky on a number of occasions and twice the fleet ended up in the harbour instead of offshore. Having said that we never got a hammering offshore which is often the case during this time of year. The last race was notable for the hot westerly wind.
The owner and crew of About Time very much enjoyed the season. There is a nice fleet with good camaraderie and competition. We are looking forward to Coffs and getting back to the pointscore racing next season.
In the meantime we would like to wish, owners and crew, the sailing office, CYCA staff and race officials a very Merry Christmas and Happy New year. – Julian Farren Price, owner About Time
For the team on Occasional Coarse Language the decision as to the appropriate sails for the conditions was a tough one. A choice ranged from full main and light number one to get out of the harbour, to heavy one, drifter, assymetric kite and symmetric kite. We changed our idea about where OCL should be on the start line several times, then thankfully the two blasts and sight of the AP put us out of our misery!
In the end, the only possible choice was to run an in harbour race – great decision by the team on PRO John Hurley and the race management team, given the very interesting wind conditions, which ended up with a prevailing westerly and the late coming of the south easterly.
In the prestart, the sky was heavy with cloud, and an oppressive heat made even the opening of a beer can hard, sweaty work. Wild Oats XI was out sneaking around the harbour in stealth mode, the grey of her hull and sails almost invisible against the backdrop of the grey water and grey skies. Only the bright red of the gigantic logo “7” stood out as she hissed past us, with the channel 7 helicopter shooting promotional footage, the red crew shirts and the thump of the helicopter blades drawing her to our attention!
The race finally got underway and as the start gun fired, Vanguard, About Time, Shortwave and OCL crossed the line leading the fleet. Shortly, the fleet began to split around Sow & Pigs as we headed for the first pass of Manly East & West. The Western channel boats looked dead going through middle harbour, but halfway across Dobroyd those of us who had taken the eastern channel felt better about the choice! In reality, we pretty much ended up at the mark together, holes in the breeze everywhere and pot luck as to whether or not you fell into one and got out!
Most boats were able to get some sort of a kite flying on the leg from Manly back to Shark Island; on OCL it was an asymmetric to Neilsen Park then a peel to a symmetric, nonetheless, About Time somehow managed to squeak past us on the leg and pull out a few boat lengths lead. At the front, Ginger, Vanguard and Shortwave were vying for the lead, but Imagination had a blinder, pulling out and staying out in front around Shark Island and back up the harbour for Cannae Point and the wind remained a fluky westerly. It appeared to make no difference which side of the harbour you chose, there were simply holes everywhere!
As we rounded Cannae and prepared to set a spinnaker, we decided to take a higher route and wait a little – that wait saved us from a very ugly spinnaker drop because as we prepared to set the kite, we watched the fleet up ahead take a hard left hand turn into a huge knock as the southerly, long awaited, finally made its appearance. It messed around a little, but didn’t take long to settle into a pretty steady 15 knot south easter, enabling all to finish the race in the relative calm of knowing what to expect! Around Clark Island, back up to Manly then finally to the finish in Watsons bay.
Not a few disgruntled helmsmen on the water at the finish of this day of very hard to read breeze. On OCL, we had a blown traveller, which had made the day more than averagely difficult to negotiate, but none the less a challenging day for all, and a good one to be on the water, instead of stifling on land. Sarah Goddard Jones, onboard OCL
To check out the final results of the day click on the links below:
