CYCA’s Stephen Ainsworth and his crew on Loki win the Skandia Docklands Invitational earning them the rights to have the name of their impressive new Reichel Pugh 63 engraved on the perpetual Docklands Invitational trophy. The overall win was secured with a perfect record of two wins in Wednesday’s two races, after racing was abandoned on Day 2 of the regatta.
Loki helmsman Cameron Miles paid tribute to Loki’s well-raced sister ship and on-water rival Limit and thanked the Royal Geelong Yacht Club for another excellent Regatta, despite its shortened form.
Denis Thompson, PRO for Skandia Geelong Race Week confessed to being “a little anxious about the breeze” as he addressed the yacht owners, skippers and sponsors who gathered for the inaugural Skandia Docklands Invitational Owners Breakfast this morning.
Day two of the Skandia Docklands Invitational regatta was not looking promising and many owners and skippers were keeping a wary eye on the weather through the windows of the Melbourne Yacht Club Hotel. Churning water with whitecaps on the usually calm waters of Melbourne Docklands’ Victoria Harbour was an ominous indication of even worse conditions out on Port Phillip and the likelihood of conducting any further races in the series seemed slim.
Representing every State in Australia, the 17 boat fleet included many well-placed competitors from the recent Rolex Sydney Hobart. On day one of racing the Invitational yachts and their crews enjoyed perfect sea breezes, blue skies and flat water, but with many of the thoroughbred yachts now set up to compete in far lighter inshore conditions than the predicted 35-38 knot north westerly, the forecast was grim indeed.
Thompson made the prudent decision to hold all boats ashore with crews in “stand-by” mode but the strong breeze continued to build throughout the morning. As the front moved across Victoria, high winds in excess of 47 knots were recorded from the closest weather station to the race course. In the early afternoon with gale warnings issued for local waters, Thomson reluctantly made the decision to abandon racing for the premier IRC Regatta. “It’s extremely unusual to have a whole day blown out like this” he said. “We usually get some racing in but today it was impossible. I am very disappointed but at least with two races in the can, it constitutes a series by the Regatta Rules and at least we are able to officially announce a final result”
Channel Ten weatherman Mike Larkan recording an afternoon weather cross from the Docklands Precinct, described the adverse conditions as “unbelievably hot and windy with dust blowing down from the north west of Victoria” adding “it’s too windy for sailing even if you’re good because we’ve had gusts of 100k at Mt Dandenong and 60-80 out on the bay”
Final series results can be found at www.docklandsinvitational.com
By Traci Ayris – Skandia Media
