With winter taking hold of the weather, Ladies Day Race 2 of the Audi Centre Sydney Winter Series saw a grey and windy day with a 15-20 knot southerly greeting the ladies and their crews on the Sydney Harbour race course.
With the second round of Ladies day racing complete, there are only four more races for the Audi Centre Sydney Winter Series with the closing race of the season being Race 3 of the Ladies Day Series.
One boat which was unable to attend the first Ladies Day but is making a solid start was Matt Donald and Chris Townsend’s TP52 Gweilo, which took first place in PHS Div1 with Elizabeth Newton at the helm. The boat is new to Sydney Harbour but will be right at home with the growing fleet of TP52s, with many competing in the Blue Water Pointscore Series and Club races. “The two owners are both new to sailing and are enjoying every day they get out on the water. The boat is being sailed up to three days a week with the plan in place to sail the Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, the Brisbane to Keppel Yacht Race, then back to Sydney to complete the rest of the Blue Water Pointscore, finishing up with the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.” Said Sam Newton who is sailing on Gweilo.
Reflecting on the days racing Sam said, “We had a southerly of around 15-20 knots which was quite comfortable with Elizabeth on the helm, she is a bit of a natural which makes it easy. We also had Rayshelle Martin helping out on tactics down the back so we had a good team. The day went well and got the result that we needed which meant that both the crew and the owners were happy.”
Looking forward to the rest of the year and the start of the CYCA’s offshore sailing calendar Sam said, “Much of this is new to the owners, neither themselves or the boat have had time to do any hard offshore miles yet. We are working hard on getting the boat prepared for the upcoming offshore races and looking forward to doing the best that we can.”
With four races left in the Audi Centre Sydney Winter Series and many of the top boats close on points, the top spots for each division in the series is still open to many.
Other boats which top first place in their respective division included; Pacific Sailing School’s Zora – PHS Div2, Kevin Whelan’s Reve – PHS Div3 and Penny Jones’ Belle Epoque – PHS Div4. The full results can be found on the CYCA website results page and pictures from the day can be found at the CYCA Facebook page.
