On Saturday 11 May, on a wet day on Sydney Harbour, a strong fleet of 25 yachts turned out for the traditional pursuit start of the 2024 Great Veterans Race (GVR).
Fifteen minutes before the first yacht was away at 1200hrs, the breeze was West of North at 10-12 knots and promised a tight lead from the Point Piper start to the Lady Bay mark. Life was good. Then most of it disappeared and for the next two hours we sailed in 5 knots and less from the NW. Some of the first boats away worked up to Shark Island and seemed able to keep moving through the lulls. Off Nielsen Park, Madame X with her distinctive yellow mast, was one of a couple of boats which looked to have sailed into more wind and were moving away from the later starters.
Along with Wraith of Odin and Nirvana, Caprice of Huon headed for the western side of the Harbour and found a little more pressure and outgoing tide. From there we were able to lay up to Camp Cove and converged on the top mark with a group including Defiance, Love & War, Fidelis and Jasnar. In the run down to Shark Island, it became clear that the race was shortened to a Clark Island finish. Perhaps counterintuitively, the yachts that chose to run down the Harbour against the tide appeared to fare better than those close to the eastern shore and by the time we reached the Shark Island mark, the fleet was bunching and we seemed headed to a handicapper’s dream finish; there were a number of smaller yachts still ahead and catchable, and big boats closing from behind. And then, just to make it more interesting, the breeze discovered its old self and the top of the fleet closed on Clark Island and the finish with 12 to 15 from the N.
Images by Darcie Collington | CYCA
The IOR-era Division winner was the 1981 Ed Dubois designed 11.3m Bimblegumbee sailed by James Mackenzie, closely followed by James Nixon’s Ben Lexcen designed Plum Crazy and Ben Gray in the immaculate Impeccable in third. Bimblegumbee becomes the first winner of the Bill Psaltis perpetual trophy for IOR-era yachts. For the Classics, Division 2 was won by Annie Lawrence’s Solveig, Sydney – Hobart line honours winner in 1953 and overall winner in 1954. In second place was 98 year-old Gordon Ingate in Jasnar with Tony Burgess’s Valhalla from North Harbour in third. In Division 1 nobody could catch Samuel Hunt’s well sailed 10.8m S&S Nike. The fast finishing Nigel Stoke in Fidelis was in second place 5 seconds ahead of the Iain Murray skippered Defiance. After two hours of racing, the first eight boats in Division 1 finished within 2 minutes 16 seconds, with 20 seconds separating Caprice of Huon, Love & War, Zara and Wraith of Odin in places 5 through 8.
Images by Darcie Collington | CYCA
Find the full results here
The next CYCA classic and IOR-era yacht event will be the Sydney Hobart Classic Yacht Regatta, 13-15 December 2024.
Written by David Champtaloup
