Light and late start to Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Harbour Regatta
by Di Pearson / MHYC media 1 Mar 09:06 GMT
1-2 March 2025
Harbour start line - Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Harbour Regatta © Andrea Francolini
It was light on for breeze, shifty and late to start because of those things at the Nautilus Marine Sydney Harbour Regatta opener and while the breeze remained relatively light, it was a spectacular summer-like day on the first weekend of autumn, with all competitors enjoying their Harbour and offshore racing experience.
Far East 28R One Design Australian Championship
Well-named Firecracker, Scott Lawson's defending champion, put the opposition on notice, jumping smartly out of the start gate to win all three windward/leeward races on Sydney Harbour. Just 17 seconds separated first from second placed Wildling 3 (Conrad Johnston and Steve Byrne) in Race 1 and so it went again between the two in Races 2 and 3.
A change in conditions tomorrow may prove the tipping point for the Wildling 3 crew and the rest. We'll see.
Open Class divisions
Three windward/leeward races were held on The Sound, just inside Sydney Heads. A light and shifty breeze of 5-8 knots put the two divisions through their paces. Both are hotly contested and new players aside, the rest have won trophies at various major regattas and races. It was good to see the Oatley family's RP66, Wild Oats X, out racing in Division 1, but it was a small boat race today.
Best in Division 1 was Brent Lawson's Bluetack, her 1-3-7 results giving the Farr 40 a one-point advantage from defending champion and recent Pittwater Regatta winner, Ross Hennessy's Kerr 40 MK3, Condor. Not to be outdone was another perennial winner, Bob Cox with Nine Dragons. The DK46 is three points off the lead and Cox is notorious for coming from behind to win. Tomorrow will decide it.
As the individual race results reflect, the finishes were very close when the handicaps were applied.
Division 2 and John Bacon's recent Melges 32 purchase of Crazy Diamond (the ex Cockwomble from Hobart), revelled in the light offshore breeze. Two wins and a second give Bacon a handy three point lead going into the final day tomorrow.
Bacon's fellow RPAYC member, Peter Farrugia is in second with his Bull 9000, Bullwinkle, while Matt Wilkinson's Farr 30, Foreign Affair, is on equal points with Bullwinkle but relegated to third place on countback.
Crazy Diamond cleared out in the opener, but Bullwinkle's crew did not let her off the hook easily in the second race, just 13 seconds separated them. Race 3 was also close, with Foreign Affair overcoming Bacon's boat by 21 seconds.
"Conditions were very well suited to a Melges 32. It was John's first event with this boat," said Darren 'Twirler' Jones, who is aboard the boat. "We got it to Sydney on Tuesday, put it together at Pittwater and bought it down to Middle Harbour for the regatta."
Jones continued, we bought Will Sargent up from Hobart - Will and I sailed on this boat before. We have Mara Stransky (2020 Olympian in the Laser Radial) as our strategist. Also Some of John's long time crew are on board too.
VX-One One design
Well-known Sydney sailor and yachtsman Warwick Rooklyn steered Bolt to 2-1-1 results on windward/leeward courses to lead the VX-One One Design class at the Sydney Harbour Regatta by three points from V Wagon, Chris Dawson and Steve Bryant's reining national champion. Jervis Tilley's AUS 353 is in third, tailing the leader by six points.
"The first race we were leading - we were stupid and finished second to V Wagon - but we won the next two," said Rooklyn. The former skiff and Melges 24 champion's ocean racing career famously includes skippering Apollo to second on line behind his father, Jack's, Ballyhoo in the 1976 Sydney Hobart.
Rooklyn said, "We got the boat this season and did the States, then the Pittwater Regatta and the Nationals. It's all a learning curve sailing the VX. I've got a young crew out of the 470s and we had Darren Nicholson aboard today too.
"They're a fun boat," Rooklyn continued, "They're like a big 29er, the way they are laid out. They're reasonably priced and Mackays in New Zealand do a good job of building them. At the Nationals we had the boat sailing at 23 knots."
Super 50s
David Doherty's Matador is proving again to be too good for the rest. Matador, with trophies from the TP52 circuit and other races, including a short offshore race, cleaned up in both Super 50s races today - under IRC and TP.
Sailing on offshore windward/leeward courses that started and finished on Sydney Harbour, not even Marcus Blackmore's Hooligan could come close. The fleet is made up of eight boats - seven TP52s and one RP52, Virago, which doesn't fit into the TP52s TP rating category, hence the two different scoring systems.
Under IRC, Hooligan was second in Race 1 with Peter White sailing his latest First Light (Geoff Boettcher's ex Secret Mens Business) to third. Race 2 was the beautifully prepared and sailed Matador again, with Hooligan second and Mark Spring's Highly Sprung third. Full TP scores for the Pallas Capital Gold Cup Act 1 are available on the Sydney Harbour Regatta website.
"Luck went our way a bit and at stages it went Hooligan's," Doherty said. "They (Hooligan) should have won first race, but shift didn't go their way, it went ours, so we won it. Our crew are really doing a good job. James Corrie does a great job on the boat preparation and the crew make me look good."
Doherty said offshore it was, "A pretty flat sea with winds up 7 to 8 knots."
As predicted in our preview, the Don Buckley skippered Yendys came out top of the pile in the Historical 18 foot skiffs. Buckley, a former six-time 18 foot skiff champion with the legendary Iain Murray and Andrew Buckland, has lost none of his pizazz and nor have his crew. Neville Turbit skippered Tangalooma to second and Terry Stewart's Top Weight was third.
Finally, 98-year-old sailing legend, Gordon Ingate, leads the Classic Yachts Division with Jasnar. Ingate turns 99 later this month and has lost none of his competitiveness - or cheek! More on this division tomorrow evening.
So many other classes sailing at the regatta, impossible to cover all, but full results in all are available at: shr.mhyc.com.au.