The always well-sailed Beneteau 44.7 Mr Beaks Ribs took out a fine double over the weekend in the CYCA’s Flinders Island Race, the third long ocean race in the club’s 2008-2009 Blue Water Pointscore and Tasman Series.

In a slow race over the 92 nautical mile course south from Sydney to Flinders Island off Port Kembla and back to Sydney, the fastest time  was 18 hours 11 minutes, the slowest just over 24 hours.

The 23-boat fleet experienced light overnight winds on the Friday night leg south and then encountered a freshening nor’easter for most of the return leg.

Mr Beaks Ribs, skippered by David Beaks, finished late Saturday afternoon to win the Blue Water Pointscore (IRC) division by a comfortable 39 minutes on corrected time from Tony Kirby’s X-41 Patrice Six,  third place place going to AFR Midnight Rambler (Ed Psaltis).

Under PHS handicaps for the Tasman Trophy, Mr Beaks Ribs won from the MHYC entrant Pla Loma IV, skippered by that club’s past Commodore Rob Reynolds, and Balance, with owner/skipper Paul Clitheroe taking time out from commentating on  the world’s financial woes.

The Flinders Island Race was the 48th event for the Ron Robertson Memorial Trophy (Ron was lost at sea off the cutter Morna when returning from a race to Broken Bay) and also the 60th Kings Birthday Cup.

After three of the seven races in the prestigious Blue Water Pointscore for 2008-2009, the 2006-2007 season winner AFR Midnight Rambler, with placings of 2-4-3, has moved to a one point lead from Balance (1-5-4). In third place is Alan Brierty’s Corby 49 Limit (6-3-5).  Last year’s champion, Syd Fischer’s TP52 Ragamuffin is lying fourth overall with a 4-6-6 scorecard to date.

In the Tasman Series, Manly Yacht Club’s Greg Zyner’s Radford 12 Copernicus heads the pointscore with a 1-2-6 scorecard, two points clear of Balance (4-5-2),  AFR Midnight Rambler is third overall with a 7-6-4 scorecard.

Saturday’s freshening nor’easter provided perfect conditions for the Ocean Pointscore fleet in their race to Port Hacking and return and for the fleet in the Grant Thornton Short Haul Pointscore.

A fleet of 17 boats took part in the Port Hacking race, with Julian Farren-Price sailing his Cookson 12 About Time to a convincing IRC win from Amante (Dr Dennis Cooper) and Bernie Van’t Hof’s Tulip. 

However, Amante turned the tables under PHS handicaps, winning from Next (Richard Holstein) and Tulip, with About Time placed 7th.

In the Grant Thornton Short Haul race, 14 boats turned out for an excellent and close race in the 12-15 knot nor’easter, which saw Niel Burling’s Baltic Lady win on PHS from Denis Doyle’s Sextant and Cyril Latimer’s Kurraka.

Under IRC ratings, MRX (Jon Short & Miles Bastick) won by just 14 seconds on corrected time from the classic yacht Caprice of Huon (David Champtaloup) and Sextant. – Peter Campbell