One of the youngest crews in the Farr 40 One Design fleet contesting the Rolex Trophy  outsailed the champions of the class in a brilliant display of light wind sailing off Sydney Heads today.

Chris Meehan skippered Belle Property to victory in race three, leading from start to finish in the 7-8 knot easterly breeze, and moving up to be within three points of overall leader Richard Perini, skippering Evolution at that stage of the three-day regatta.

Meehan, better known as a 470 sailor, has mostly other dinghy sailors in the crew including Sydney 2000 gold medallist Tom King as his tactician, along with another Olympian Mal Page and New Zealand Laser champion Nick Burfort.  On the bow is apprentice sailmaker Stacey Jackson.

This is Meehan’s first season in the Farr 40 OD class and today he and his young crew showed a clean transom to current Farr 40 OD World champion Jim Richardson from the USA, current Mumm 30 World champion Richard Perini from Sydney, former Farr 40 World champion John Calvert-Jones from Melbourne,  Germany’s Hasso Plattner,  Neville Crichton,  the Sydney-based New Zealander who also owns the super maxi Alfa Romeo, successful grand prix ocean racing yacht owner Matt Allen,  and former Australian champion Marcus Blackmore.

Each of these owner/skippers is an excellent yachtsman in his right who has been attracted to the Farr 40 OD class because of its highly competitive boat-for-boat class competition and because,  as an ‘owner/driver’ class, they must steer their own boat on the race track.

However, the competition is so fierce that many owners retain some of the world’s best professional sailors as tacticians and key crew.  For example, America’s Cup winning skipper Russell Coutts is tactician for Hasso Plattner, Alinghi sailing team head Grant Simmer is calling the shots for John Calvert-Jones, Kimo Worthington is with Jim Richardson,  while Michael Coxon is teamed up as usual with Neville Crichton.

Belle Property won race three from the Adelaide boat War Games (David Urry) and series leader Evolution (Richard Perini) with Germany’s Hasso Plattner placing fourth in Morning Glory.

Unfortunately,  the youthful crew of Belle Property were unable to maintain their status near the top of the leaderboard, finishing 8th in race four and a disappointing 14th in race five, sailed late this afternoon. From second in standings they slumped to equal fifth at the end of the second day of the regatta.

In race four Emotional Hooligan (Marcus Blackmore) scored a 14 second win from Evolution with Jim Richardson coming third in Barking Mad, ahead of Botany Bay sailor Steve O’Rourke in Panther.

In race five, the last of the day,  Evolution was one of four boats recalled for breaking the start and Perini could not recover, finishing 10th.  In contrast, Neville Crichton in Team Shockwave climbed back through the fleet to be sixth at the first windward mark and second in the race to all-the-way winner Southern Star, skippered by former Farr 40 World Champion John Calvert-Jones with Alinghi America’s Cup sailing head, Grant Simmer,  as his tactician.

Marcus Blackmore’s Emotional Hooligan continued its consistent sailing to finish third, ahead of Americans Steve and Fred Howe from San Diego in Warpath and Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban.

Provisional overall placings for the Farr 40 OD class after day two:

1. Evolution (Richard Perini,  NSW) 1-2-3-2-10, 18 pts
2. Team Shockwave (Neville Crichton, NSW/NZL) 11-4-6-5-2, 28 pts
3. War Games (David Urry, South Aust) 11-4-2-6-6, 29 pts
3. Emotional Hooligan (Marcus Blackmore, NSW) 2-12-11-1-3, 29 pts
4. Belle Property (Chris Meehan, NSW) 3-6-1-8-14, 32 pts
5. Barking Mad (Jim Richardson, USA) 9-1-12-3-7, 32 pts.