The Notice of Race is published and entry to the perennial Cruising Yacht Club of Australia Winter Series is open with another big fleet anticipated, including a reintroduced Sydney 38 one design division which is drawing strong interest.
Click here to enter the CYCA Winter Series.
Eight of a likely division of 10 Sydney 38s have been entered, the class making a strong return to Sydney after the critical mass moved north from Victoria.
Class president Peter Byford says, “Quite a few Victorian owners sold to New South Wales owners. Phoenix is now Philosopher and being campaigned by Peter Sorensen and Cinquante has come up from Geelong. This is about critical mass – growth in the class encourages people to think about racing among equivalent boats, in terms of performance and camaraderie.”
Australia’s largest ongoing series is steeped in history, dating back to 1949, and longstanding traditions continue to be honoured. The Breakfast Club’s breakfast of champions on a cold morning, the best set of prizes on Sydney Harbour for the placegetters and warm afternoons spent lapping up the winter sunshine on the brand new west-facing club deck.
CYCA sailing manager Justine Kirkjian reckons the Musto prizes for the top three in every division are a major drawcard. “We are renowned around the harbour clubs and competitors for the wonderful Musto prizes we offer – they are the best on offer – and the Winter Series is still the most popular on the harbour.”
In terms of preparation for winter conditions, Kirkjian suggests planning for a broad range of wind strength and temperatures. “Winter days can be light and sunny T-shirt weather or freezing cold and blowing 30 knots from the west. The crews who do best over the entire season are the well-prepared all-rounders who also go the right way!”
The CYCA Winter Series 2019 includes nine pointscore races book-ended by the popular opening and closing Women’s Winter Series non-pointscore races. The two Women’s Winter Series races plus a third, on the Queen’s Birthday weekend in June, will make up the Women’s Winter Series pointscore.
An IRC division, limited to 12 entrants on a first come first served basis will be included again with a scratch start prior to the main pursuit divisions. Zoe Taylor’s Grace O’Malley took out the 2018 IRC win.
Second in division A last season was Geoff and Pip’s UBS Wild Thing, a consecutive Winter Series starter since 2000.
Five members of the Lavis family will campaign the Inglis/Murray 50, including their two adult sons Ben and Adam and 16-year-old granddaughter Maddi who has been part of the CYCA Youth Sailing Academy for multiple seasons and says she is ready to tackle offshore racing,
“Our eldest Maddi is mad keen to get into offshore racing so she’s committed to the CYCA Winter Series and hopefully will be part of our Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race crew,” said dad Ben. “It’s a bit of a family affair on the boat, which is also known as the YSA kindergarten for the number of YSA kids we’ve supported to transition into yacht racing. Many of them have gone onto much bigger and better things including Will Ryan who medalled in the 470s at the last Olympic Games and America’s Cup sailor Sam Newton.”
In 2019, we will see the return of the Sydney 38 Division along with the IRC division that proved successful in 2018. Both IRC and Sydney 38 OD classes will start off a scratch start prior to the main pursuit divisions.
Please note that boats shall only be eligible to enter the IRC division if they have participated in other CYCA IRC events in the past 24 months.
To enter the CYCA Winter Series 2019, follow this link.
To view the NOR and supporting documentation, click here.
