The sun was out for the final race of the Audi Centre Sydney Ladies Day Series, which saw 33 female skippers and their crew take to Sydney Harbour with a steady but light westerly breeze.

Staying true to winter weather patterns, the westerly which saw the fleet off the start line slowly faded throughout the day. The faster of the boats were able to sneak around the two-lap course and make their way through the finish line, with the second half of the fleet left drifting in the afternoon sun.

Two boats which were able to make the most of the early westerly and take first place in their respective divisions were Janey Treleaven’s Finn and Grawnya Skol’s Scarlett O’Hara.

For the team onboard Finn it was a great finish to the Ladies Day Series with this being their third win to take out the series in a clean sweep.

“Being out on the boat and being on the helm is my happy place. To get first place in all three races and take out the series win was the icing on the cake,” said Janey.

­The light westerly worked to their advantage with the Farr40 design being well suited to the conditions.

“Our mission was to beat Cyrene 3 who were sitting in second place, they are very good and have sailed the boat for a long time. We were able to pass them at Shark Island which was great for us,” said Janey.

“The only other boat we had to beat was Thirlmere which we snuck past at the Garden Island mark on the second lap. From there we were in the lead and just kept looking forward.”

In division three Grawnya Skol was on the helm of Scarlett O’Hara, notching up another race win for the team which the week before had won PHS DivD in the Audi Centre Sydney Winter Series.

“It was a great way to finish off the season, I have done many of the Ladies Day Series before but haven’t won many. If the wind faded any faster than it did, we would haven’t struggled to get first place,” said Grawnya.

Robert Skol (Grawnya’s husband) normally steers the boat but had to take a step away from the helm this week which may have been a little harder than first thought, with some rules being put in place if he felt the need to give some assistance.

“To keep my husband off the helm I told him that every time he touched the tiller he would have to buy a round of beer when got back to the bar!”

Divisional winners from this week included PHS Div1 – Janey Treleaven’s Finn, PHS Div2 – Beth Abbott’s Rapid Transit, PHS Div3 – Eli Wallis’s Next and PHS Div4 – Grawnya Skol’s Scarlett O’Hara.

As this was the last week of the 2018 Audi Centre Sydney Ladies Day Series, the divisional winners have been decided (subject to results audit) with the winners including;

• PHS Div1 – Finn
• PHS Div2 – Clewless?
• PHS Div3 – Solymar
• PHS Div4 – Hubcap2

The official Audi Centre Sydney Winter Series Prizegiving will be held on Friday 20July in the temporary Clubhouse with tickets available for sale at the event page by clicking HERE.

Full results are available at the CYCA website results page.