Middle Harbour Yacht Club member Peter McNamara will clearly remember today’s opening race for the Sydney 38 One Design class in the prestigious Rolex Trophy – a race he should have won but lost at the finish line.
McNamara had sailed an excellent race in AMI Jade to always be up with the leaders and had a seemingly winning lead coming down under spinnaker to the finish, but sailed on the wrong side of the buoy marking the pin end of the line.
Realising their error too late, the crew had to hoist and headsail, then drop their spinnaker before tacking back to round the buoy and cross the finish line – in 11th place instead of first. Nor did they achieve a lucky number in race two, AMI Jade finished 13th.
Like the Farr 40s, the Sydney 38s first race was also delayed for more than two hours because of the fickle wind and strong current with the first attempt at a race abandoned. Then a toey fleet forced four general recalls before race two got under way, leaving the Race Committee with insufficient time to run a third race.
After two races, the CYCA boat Cydon, skippered by Leon Christianakis, leads the Sydney 38 OD pointscore on three points from a first and a second, with the RSYS boat Estate Master (Martin and Lisa Hill) one point back following a third and a first. Team Lexus (Rupert Henry) is next on eight points from a second and a sixth, sharing this position with veteran Lou Abrahams who sailed his new Challenge to a fifth and a third.
When the first race finally got under way in a light east-nor’easter, Calibre (Geoff Bonus) headed the fleet round the first windward mark from Team Lexus (Rupert Henry) and Ami Jade, followed by Cydon (Leon Christianakis) and Easy Tiger (Chris Way).
With AMI Jade sailing past the finish line, her downwind speed accentuated by the current, Cydon got the gun from Team Lexus and Estate Master (Martin & Lisa Hill).
The Hills team of husband and wife Martin and Lisa Hill had one of their best races so far with Estate Master which they have entered in the 60th anniversary Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht in winning the second race for the Sydney 38s.
They got a good start after four general recalls to beat race one winner Cydon by 37 seconds, with veteran Lou Abrahams sailing well with his newly launched new Sydney 38, Challenge to take third place. Close astern of him came fellow Victorian Bruce Taylor in Chutzpah.
