173rd Australia Day Regatta 2009

Winner of the City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Cup, the prestigious trophy for the overall Performance Handicap winner of the Australia Day short ocean race from Sydney to Botany Bay and return, is St Hilliers Quest.

The Nelson/Marek 46, overall winner of the 2002 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and many other major regattas, including Hamilton Island Race Week, is now owned by CYCA member Tim Casey.

Yesterday’s race, sailed in a 10-12 knots southerly breeze, was the first race of 2009 for the CYCA’s Grant Thornton Short Ocean Pointscore and the CYCA’s Ocean Pointscore, but was also a traditional part of the 173rd Australia Day Regatta.

The race fleet included 35 yachts specifically nominated as Australia Day entries, sailing the same course as the First Fleet did when it up-anchored at Botany Bay and sailed north to found the City of Sydney and the Colony of New South Wales in 1788.

The City of Sydney Trophy is awarded to the yacht in both the Short Ocean Pointscore and Ocean Pointscore fleets specifically entered for the Australia Day Regatta with the lowest PHS corrected time.

St Hilliers Quest, a casual Australia Day entrant, won PHS Division 1 of the SOPS fleet with a corrected time of 5 hours 16 minutes 50 seconds to win the Cup.

Next lowest time was that of Kevin O’Shea’s S&S 36 Stormy Petrel which had a PHS Division 3 winning corrected time of 5 hours 18 minutes 19 seconds.

The other major Australia Day trophy, the Geoff Lee Trophy for line honours, went to Andrew Short’s 80-footer ASM Shockwave 5.

IRC results saw Division 1 go to Leslie Green’s Ginger and Division 3 to Brilliant, skippered by CYCA director Howard Piggott.

The Ocean Pointscore results saw a PHS win for Annette & Robin Hawthorn’s Imagination and an IRC victory for ASM Shockwave 5.

On the Harbour, many CYCA boats were among the 108 keelboats, ranging for gaff riggers to state-of-the-art harbour racers, that competed in the 173rd Australia Day Regatta,  the oldest continuously-conducted sailing regatta in the world.

Division 1 saw a win by CYCA member Gerard Kesby in Nocturne while another member and wellknown yacht broker Brendan Hunt won the Gaffer division with Oenone.  

Peter Campbell’s Bonbridge 27 Hornblower won line and handicap honours in Division 3 with Steve Sweeney on the helm in Peter’s absence in Tasmania. – Peter Campbell