Read a continuously updated race summary as the race progresses
RACE UPDATE Sunday 0730 hours (1 day, 12 hours, 10 minutes after start)
30 boats have now completed the 2024 Cabbage Tree Island Race, leaving 25 still racing after two more retirement due to time constraints – Cyan Moon and Chancellor.
Following Whisper and No Limit’s arrivals yesterday afternoon, a constant stream of finishes started after sunset with most crews finding their way back to the CYCA to celebrate. The 52s were the first of these: Smuggler, Koa, Centennial 7, followed by Antipodes, Mayfair, Active Again, Happy Wanderer, Pretty Woman, Oroton Drumfire, Odin, Indigo II, Quantock, Bacchanal, Calibre 12, XS Moment, Kanreki, Ariel, Mondo, The Goat, Wots Next, and Georgia Express.
Ian Edward’s Dehler 46 Wings is just off North Head as is the first of the double handed entrants, Grant Chipperfield’s J/133 Joker X2.
IRC Overall standings see Master Lock Comanche atop LawConnect and Divison 2 leader Bacchanal. Pretty Woman and Ariel round out the Top 5.
PHS has Ray Hudson’s XP44 XS Moment leading Happy Wanderer and Bacchanal. IRC Corinthian: Pretty Woman, Koa and Calibre 12. Wild Rose IRC: Pretty Woman, Calibre 12 and Mondo.
Double Handed IRC & PHS has the same Top 3: Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth, Jupiter and Min River.
Sydney Coast: Broken Bay to Port Hacking
Forecast for Sunday 8 December until midnight
Winds: South to southwesterly 10 to 15 kts turning southeasterly 15 to 20kts during the morning.
Seas: Around 1 metre, increasing to 1 to 1.5 metres offshore around midday.
Swell: Southerly around 1 metre, increasing to 1.5 to 2 metres by early evening.
Weather: Becoming cloudy.
RACE UPDATE Saturday 1800 HOURS (22 hours, 40 minutes after start)
With the breeze dropping out over much of the course this afternoon, it has been a very slow day for finishes on Sydney Harbour. Thankfully the mist and drizzle of the morning has now made way for a lovely afternoon – just in time for the arrival of the mini maxis.
Since Master Lock Comanche took Line Honours victory at 11:14:40 this morning and LawConnect arrived shortly thereafter, it has been a long wait. Five other boats have finished since 1620 hours: Wild Thing 100, URM Group, Celestial V70, Wild Oats X and Moneypenny. Whisper will be the sixth, currently just off North Head. No Limit is about an hour out.
The rest of the fleet are a long way back and are led by Seb Bohm’s TP52 Smuggler. They stretch all the way up to Cabbage Tree Island where the RAN’s Navy One is just rounding the halfway mark.
As the click ticks, fewer boats are still mathematically capable of beating Master Lock Comanche‘s corrected time as Overall IRC leader and at their current speeds, it is becoming unlikely that any will.
Behind her, the IRC Overall standings currently have LawConnect and Whisper. Bacchanal is having another exceptional hit-out and leads Division 2 in 4th spot overall. In PHS, the two 100s lead Pretty Woman, with Bacchanal and Lisa Callaghan’s Sydney 38 Mondo close behind.
Double Handed IRC honours currently sit with Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth, Jupiter and Verite, but they have a long way to go so it is a pretty open affair for the podium.
The three retirements to date are Alive, Philosopher (electrical issues) and Maritimo Katwinchar (time constraints).
The CYCA Sydney Hobart Bar will be open tonight to greet the later arrivals.
Best wishes to those still racing!
RACE UPDATE SATURDAY 1130 HOURS
Master Lock Comanche claimed Line Honours in the 5th Race of the Audi Centre Sydney BWPS early afternoon Saturday 7 December, crossing the finish line at 11:14:40 hours. The 100 foot maxi finished the 172 NM race in a time of 15 hours 53 minutes and 23 seconds.
Christian Beck’s LawConnect is shortly behind Master Lock Comanche, sailing just outside Sydney Heads with 17 nautical miles to go.
Follow the live finish tracker on our race website: https://bwps.cycaracing.com/live-tracker/
RACE UPDATE SATURDAY 0900 HOURS (13 hours 40 minutes after start)
It’s shaping up to be another exciting finish with the two maxis that match raced for the finish of the 2023 RSHYR – (Master Lock) Comanche and LawConnect in first and second place on the racetrack.
The leaders are approaching Pittwater and are motoring south towards Sydney. Master Lock Comanche is currently doing 20.5 knots and with only 29.3 nautical miles to the finish in Watsons Bay, will be in for brunch. LawConnect is almost 10 miles behind with a similar gap over Wild Thing 100. The fleet is getting stretched out over the course and it will be a long day (and night) for arrivals.
On IRC Overall, the big boys hold down the top positions too. After the three LH leaders are Celestial V70 and URM Group. On PHS it’s a similar story with Master Lock Comanche besting Wild Thing 100 and LawConnect.
Jupiter, Rum Rebellion and Min River are still the best placed of the double-handed competitors on DH IRC, with Jules Hall’s Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth close in corrected timing for 3rd spot as it stands.
RACE UPDATE SATURDAY 0530 HOURS (10 hours 10 minutes after start)
Master Lock Comanche has recently rounded the turning point of Cabbage Tree Island just north of Port Stephens and is now making good speed heading back after a slower night of sailing for everyone. She is 12 nautical miles South of the Island doing 21.2 knots with an average speed of over the race of 9.8 knots.
LawConnect leads a procession of bigger boats in pursuit, in approximate order of size. She is 3.4 nautical miles astern. Wild Thing 100 has just reached Cabbage Tree Island. Following are URM Group, Celestial V70, Wild Oats X, Moneypenny, Whisper and No Limit. Smuggler is the best placed of the 50-footers, with a good lead over Celestial 7.
Division 1 boats currently hold down the first twelve spots in IRC Overall standings. Sam Haynes’ Celestial V70 leads Master Lock Comanche, URM Group and Law Connect. The best placed of Division 2 is 13th on the leaderboard – Ron Forster and Phil Damp’s Beneteau First 40 Ariel. Simon Kurts’ perennial S&S47 Love and War and the newly-built JPK11.80 Bacchanal raced by Ron Epstein of the U.S follow.
In PHS, Wild Thing 100 shades Master Lock Comanche and Law Connect. IRC Corinthian honours sit with Pretty Woman, Happy Wanderer and Koa – the same three boats in a different order from our last report.
Double handed IRC is led by Jupiter, ahead of Jiang Lin’s JPK10.30 Min River and Shane Connelly’s J/99 Rum Rebellion.
It is showing 5-7 knot northerlies at The Entrance/Norah Head which will tend east later in the day with a bit more breeze later. The fleet can expect a bit of drizzle.
RACE UPDATE FRIDAY 2230 HOURS (3 hours 10 minutes after start)
Three hours and 10 minutes of race time and it’s an interesting state of affairs.
The fleet has headed well east of the rhumb line as we’d predicted but the current Line Honours leader is Grant Wharington and Adrian Seiffert’s 100 footer Wild Thing 100 (formerly a Botin 80) which carries a much smaller rig than the other maxis. Her decision to stay closer to shore has paid off. The VPLP Verdier 100 Master Lock Comanche under Matt Allen and James Mayo is only 0.1 nautical miles behind in terms of distance to go but is further out to sea.
Wild Thing 100 is currently doing 12.1 knots and has averaged 8.5 knots to this point. She is 16 nautical miles East of Broken Bay. Christian Beck’s Juan K 100 LawConnect is shadowing Comanche. Anthony and David Johnston’s Maxi 72 URM Group and the Oatley Family’s Wild Oats X skippered by Tony Mutter are inside of them and tracking well.
Most of the fleet are back 10-15 nautical miles off North Head in a very tight group.
In IRC Overall Standings, Wild Thing 100 leads URM Group and Wild Oats X. In IRC Corinthian, Peter Wrigley and Andrew Kearnan’s TP52 Koa sits atop of Richard Hudson’s IC45MOD Pretty Woman and Daniel Cannon’s Corby 49 Happy Wanderer.
PHS sees Wild Thing 100 ahead of Wild Oats X and URM Group.
Double Handed IRC standings are led by Grant Chipperfield’s Joker X2, Paul Beath’s J/99 Verite and Ian Smith’s J/99 Jupiter.
With conditions at Copacabana on the NSW Central Coast currently 6-8 knot Nor-North East and expected to drop to 3-4 knots over the coming hours before swinging to the North West around daybreak, it looks like a testing night ahead.
RACE UPDATE FRIDAY 2020 HOURS (1 hour after start)
A fleet of 61 boats started this evening’s 172 nautical mile Cabbage Tree Island Race at 1900 hours and like in the previous Audi Centre Blue Water Pointscore outing, the Bird Island Race, almost immediately received a General Recall after multiple boats were pushed over the start line early in their attempts to start at the favoured boat end of the line.
The RP66 Alive skippered by Duncan Hine retired with forward rudder damage shortly afterwards. The 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart Tattersall Cup winner’s race was over.
At the second attempt 20 minutes later, competitors once again favoured the weather-end and it was again close quarter racing but this time only two Individual recalls were made – Sam Haynes’ Celestial V70 (Jim Cooney’s Willow) and his former TP52, now Centennial 7 with new owner Ernesto Echuaz.
LawConnect squeezed through a tight hole and made good progress closer to the eastern shore. Master Lock Comanche, URM Group and KOA showed good speed in the middle of the channel, making the most of the 8-9 knot North Eester. Whisper, Wild Oats X, Moneypenny and Smuggler were not far behind.
Master Lock Comanche was first to Bradleys Head where she tacked back across LawConnect and set herself up for a good run to Steele Point at Nielsen Park. By this point, the two 100s had extended their lead to a few hundred metres over the chasers back in Taylors Bay.
The breeze collapsed in the beat through to Sow & Pigs, going marginally left. Relishing the lighter conditions, URM Group played catch up to the maxis and by Camp Cove after many tacks, had set herself up on a nice line to exit the Heads. Master Lock Comanche and LawConnect sailed closer to North Head and were impacted by gusts over the headland. The breeze did build and now offered 12-14 knots.
In order out the Heads were: Master Lock Comanche, LawConnect, URM Group, Wild Oats X, Wild Thing 100, Whisper, Celestial V70, No Limit, Antipodes, Koa, Centennial 7 and Smuggler.
A large group of middle size yachts were close behind.
The first double handed boat out was Avalanche, Toucan, Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth and Jupiter.
The fleet was standing out to sea as the sun set over Sydney, most heading out wide as expected.
Breeze is forecast to build a bit before dropping off after midnight.
Photos by Andrea Francolini.
