World champion in the Mumm 30 class, Sydney yachtsman Richard Perini, again underlined his prospects of achieving a unique double in international yacht racing when he scored a first and a third on frustrating opening day for the Farr 40 One Design class in the prestigious Rolex Trophy.
Perini, a member of the host Cruising Yacht of Australia, has his sights set on winning the 2005 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship, to be conducted by the CYCA off Sydney in March next year.
Today he sailed Evolution to a hard-fought win on a day that saw the start of the first race delayed for more than two and a half hours because of fickle winds off Sydney Heads.
Three general recalls for the second race further delayed things and instead of four scheduled short races, only two were sailed as a severe storm loomed up the coast.
Evolution won the opening race from Australian class stalwart, Marcus Blackmore sailing Emotional Hooligan and early leader Belle Property skippered by Chris Meehan with a crew of youthful dinghy sailors.
In the second race, American World Farr 40 OD champion Jim Richardson led virtually all the way in Barking Mad, with Evolution a close second, followed by CYCA director Matt Allen at the helm of Ichi Ban.
Provisionally, Evolution leads the pointscore with 3 points from Belle Property (3-5) on 8 points, followed by Barking Mad (9-1) on 10 points, with John Calvet-Jones’ Southern Star (6-7) and Matt Allen’s Ichi Ban (10-3) equal on 13 points.
Race watchers described the day as one where “tide and light winds be-deviled both officials and competitors.”
Throughout the day, the wind remained light and shifty, with boats struggling against a fast running southerly current as they beat to windward, but enjoying fast downwind sailing under spinnaker.
In the first race, the lead changed several times in this closely fought, owner/driver class, with Chris Meehan’s youthful crew aboard Belle Property, including Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medallist Tom King as tactician, leading at the first windward mark from the US boat War Path (Steve and Fred Howe) and Southern Star, helmed by former World Farr 40 champion John Calvert-Jones from Melbourne.
Remarkably, on the first spinnaker run Australian class pioneer Marcus Blackmore steered Emotional Hooligan from 10th to first place, picking the better pressure and strong current.
Blackmore held the lead until finally passed by Perini, with Meehan maintaining his position in the forefront of the closely-bunched fleet to finish third, ahead of David Urry’s War Games from Adelaide, Brighton Star (David Gotze) from Melbourne and Southern Star.
The three overseas entrants, War Path, Morning Glory (Hasso Plattner) from Germany and current World Farr 40 OD champion Jim Richardson in Barking Mad each had a mediocre race. War Path slipped back to finish third last, Morning Glory (with America’s Cup winning skipper Russell Coutts as tactician) placed seventh while Barking Mad was back in ninth place.
In the second race, Barking Mad got an excellent start at the third attempt by the Race Committee and virtually led all the way to win from Evolution and Ichi Ban, followed by Team Shockwave, with super maxi yacht owner Neville Crichton at the helm, and Belle Property.
The conditions offshore were in marked contrast to the early morning forecast of westerly winds of 25-30 knots and even the mid-morning updated forecast of south-westerly winds of 15-20 knots.
Instead, at the scheduled start time of 11am, it was a east to north-easterly breeze of under 8 knots.
Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson postponed the start for 35 minutes, then was forced to abandon the race for the Sydney 38s and then the Farr 40s as the wind shifted from 040 degrees to 090 degrees.
It wasn’t until nearly two hours later that the north-easterly seabreeze filled in and steadied in direction for the fair course to be set on the course east of the historic Sydney landmark, Macquarie Light.
With the east-north-easterly seabreeze filling in during the afternoon, a second race was again delayed, but this time by three general recalls.
PRO Thompson then called it a day as a black storm loomed up down the coast and sent the Farr 40s home as he continued to attempt to get a toey Sydney 38 fleet away after four general recalls.
FLASH QUOTE: “It was very tedious sailing downwind in light and bumpy conditions… I am pleased with the overall results, but there is a long way to go.” Richard Perini, owner/skipper of Evolution, provisional overall leader after day one.
