Intense Weather Interrupts Sailing Program
The past week of intense rain and strong winds impacted a series of scheduled events at MHYC and other clubs:
- Thursday Twilight abandoned
- MC38 Australian Championships at MHYC postponed
- Saturday Inshore Race abandoned
- CYCA Short Ocean Pointscore Race abandoned
- RPAYC Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Race abandoned
- Deaf Sailing Come & Try Day postponed
With the sun out today and a moderate westerly breeze on the Harbour, it was a relief to be back sailing in the Pacific Rigging Wednesday Non-Spinnaker Series – the series that never ends!
As we approach the end of our summer program, it is a good time to consider what is coming up.
There are three races to go in the Saturday Inshore series and only two more Thursday Twilight Pursuits. The finale of the Women’s Twilight is this week. It was great to see the crew of Slac ‘n Off braving the conditions last Thursday and getting into the spirit of the St Patrick’s Day theme Twilight which was unfortunately abandoned.
After a short break in the latter part of April for Sail Port Stephens and the ANZAC Day Two-Up Cup, the MHYC Women’s Regatta will be held on Saturday May 8. The following Saturday May 15 is the Annual Prizegiving and sees the commencement of the series of Winter Pursuits alternating with the Winter Sprints.
To get your entries in for the Winter program of sailing – click here
For more information contact the Sailing Office – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Final Race in Combined Clubs Inshore Series
A freshening north-easterly and a fleet of 71 boats made for some good racing on the harbour this afternoon. The final race of the Combined Clubs Inshore Series was conducted by Race Officer Steve Tucker and the Middle Harbour Race Management Team, but is also part of the ongoing Summer and Annual Pointscores for the MHYC IRC, PHS, J/24 and Adams 10 fleets.
In the club series, Rock Solid (Mitchell Miller) claimed the Adams 10 One Design win from Another Dilemma and Sirius, with Another Dilemma (Jim Vaughan) top of the PHS results.
In the PHS competition, Division 1 went to Toy Box 2 (Ian Box) from Kukukerchu and Khaleesi. MRX (Geoff Pearson) claimed the Division 2 win from Stormaway and Wailea, and Escape (Dean Dransfield) took first place from Dania and Waterborne Again.
Innamincka (John Crawford) claimed the J/24 One Design win.
On IRC, Khaleesi (Rob Aldis & Sandy Farquharson) claimed the Division 1 win ahead of Toy Box 2 and Kukukerchu. MRX won Division 2 from Wailea and Stormaway.
After a non-pointscore race to start the series due to Covid and one abandonment, the Combined Clubs Inshore Series came down to the results of five races. Middle Harbour Yacht Club boats excelled.
Khaleesi (Rob Aldis & Sandy Farquharson) finished top of the Division 1 series standings, with Toy Box 2 (Ian Box) 4th and Kukukerchu (David Ross) 5th. Another Dilemma (Jim Vaughan) claimed the Division 2 series win from Sirius (Garth Riley) in 2nd and MRX (Geoff Pearson) in 5th.
The Combined Clubs Inshore Series has been a great innovation for the 2020-2021 season, providing interclub competition and larger fleets. As more boats register for ORC Club, it is anticipated this equipment based handicapping system will gain further importance for the interclub event.
Congratulations to all the MHYC boats!
- To view the IRC Results – click here
- To view the PHS Results – click here
- To view the Adams 10 Results – click here
- To view the Combined Clubs Inshore Series Results – click here
Marg Fraser-Martin was on the water to capture today’s action……
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Kayimai on top in Women's Keelboat Series
Liz Charles skippered Kayimai to a Division 1 race win today to sit atop the Sydney Harbour Women's Keelboat Series pointscore ahead of Tracy Richardson and No Friends.
A sixth place today follows a win in Race 2 and No Friends sits second overall, one point behind Kayimai. Stephanie Cook and the team of Rumba finished third today and are now fourth overall.
To view the results - click here
Thanks to Marg Fraser-Martin for the photos.
Sydney Harbour Regatta reunion and final results
Adrian Walters’ nippy Shaw 11 Little Nico, sailing for the Sydney Harbour Regatta host club, added another victory to their impressive regatta tally on day two of the weekend regatta. Divisional winners in 2016 and second in 2019 and 2017, Little Nico’s domination of the short-course format is well and truly etched in the flagship series annals.
“Most of us have sailed together for a few years,” Walters said after racing. “This year we tried out some new sails and overall we are very happy with the result. Every year we seem to get better and better. The MC38s make us work hard though.” Walters has a busy program planned for Little Nico, including Sail Port Stephens in April and the northern regattas in the Queensland Whitsundays later in the year.
On the huge reunion that the 16th annual Sydney Harbour Regatta afforded sailors from around the state, Walters adds, “It’s nice to see real people again after Covid. All the regattas going forward are going to have good participation; everyone’s keen to get out after a long break.”
Sydney Harbour Regatta is the state’s first major multi-club and multi-class regatta post-Covid restrictions, drawing 187 entries and 1,293 crew who completed 84 races across seven course areas thanks to MHYC and the eight supporting clubs and 87 wonderful volunteers. Amazingly, there were only two protests.
Day two video highlights thanks to Tilly Lock Media.
Results for all divisions are available here.
Open IRC division winner Khaleesi (MHYC) quashed the two Pittwater crews who usually duel for the top spot. Rob Aldis’ DK46 managed four corrected time firsts from six starts, out-sailing Gerry Hatton’s Mat 1245 Bushranger and Keiran Mulcahy’s King 40 Soozal, both from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. On ORC results, Bushranger beat Khaleesi by half a point.
“I’ve been associated with Middle Harbour Yacht Club for a long time, and I’m so pleased for the club to see all this camaraderie and confidence. This regatta has a sense of normalcy about it,” said Aldis dockside. “Owning the DK is a good learning experience for me, I came to the sport fairly late,” he added.
The Sydney 38 state trophy went to David Hudson and Peter Byford’s Pittwater-based Conspiracy from a hot fleet. Points from six windward/leeward races offshore, the first three in cool south-easterlies then warm north-easterlies off Manly beach to close out the pointscore, saw Conspiracy relegate the local favourite, Peter Sorensen’s Advanced Philosophy, to second overall.
International J/70 NSW championship winner Reg Lord and his Juno crew kept their challengers at bay with five wins from six starts. International Yngling NSW champion Hamish Jarrett went one better, achieving the picket fence of six bullets.
Performance spinnaker and non-spinnaker fleets wrapped up their four-race series with two passage races around harbour islands and other marks. A third for Russell Waddy’s Sydney 38 cruiser Allsail Another Challenge in the final division 1 race was enough to leapfrog Steve Hatch’s M, a Sydney 36 cruiser/racer out of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.
Ray Parrott and his Drummoyne Sailing Club (DSC) X332 X-Ray successfully defended their 2020 Performance Spinnaker division 2 win while in Performance Non-Spinnaker, MHYC boat Pearl 2, owned by Michael Twomey, added another host club division victory.
DSC based Flying Tiger Ophir, skippered by Bruce Taverner, won the Super 30 division from Foreign Affair.
Waddy, Parrott and all the other divisional placegetters are invited to gather at MHYC on Monday evening, March 8, to be recognised at the official trophy presentation and go in the running for the Grand Prize Draw of:
- First place draw - Sail Racing merchandise voucher (value $2,000)
- Second place draw - Manly Spirits Co. Distillery experience for yacht crew (up to 12 persons)
- Third place draw – Mercedes-Benz North Shore and Mercure Resort Hunter Valley Gardens have made available a Mercedes weekend drive experience plus two nights’ accommodation at the Mercure Resort Hunter Valley Gardens for two people.
MHYC acknowledges the support of key Sydney Harbour Regatta sponsors Club Marine, Sail Racing, Robert Oatley Wines, Short Marine, Mercedes-Benz North Shore and Mercure Resort Hunter Valley Gardens and supporting sponsors Ensign Yachts, Fever-Tree, Manly Spirits Co. Distillery and DeckHardware.
MHYC also thanks all race management volunteers plus partner clubs Manly Yacht Club, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club, Royal Australian Navy Sailing Association, Sydney Flying Squadron, Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Sydney Amateur Sailing Club.
By Lisa Ratcliff
Photos by Andrea Francolini........
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How to follow the Sydney Harbour Regatta:
Website: https://shr.mhyc.com.au/
Facebook: @SydneyHarbourRegatta
Instagram: sydneyharbourregatta
Outlaw claims NSW State Title
CYCA/RSYS yacht Outlaw has today been crowned the NSW Farr 40 State Champion.
The prizegiving was conducted at Middle Harbour Yacht Club after racing concluded with a special presentation by former Class President and owner of Zen, Gordon Ketelby.
Races 4, 5, 6 and 7 were run on the inshore Sound course by PRO, Phil Yeomans and the race management team. Conditions were an improvement on Saturday’s racing with early cloud clearing and breeze increasing to the 10 - 12 knot range.
After Day One Nutcracker, owned by Andy Baker and Rob Davis, held the lead in the series, followed by Outlaw and Good Form. The lead changed throughout the day with Race 4 being won by current Class President, Rob Reynolds and his crew from MHYC on Exile. Tactics on-board were called by Joe Turner.
Race 5 was won by Outlaw representing the CYCA and RSYS, steered by Tom Quick, under the expert eye of David ‘Chappo’ Chapman. Nutcracker had another win in Race 6 but that was not enough to hold off the Outlaw team on a countback. The Newcastle entry, Good Form rounded out the podium, on another countback with Exile.
Crews enjoyed the extremely tight racing on the Harbour and are looking forward to some more exciting competition during the final event for the Farr 40 season, the National Championships, which will be hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia over 12-14 March 2021.
By Simone Hill
To view the results - click here
Conspiracy rises to day one Sydney Harbour Regatta challenges
Conditions offshore on day one of Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s annual Sydney Harbour Regatta had tummies churning and skittled one Sydney 38 bowman who was saved from a Man Overboard incident by the lifelines, which was ideal for both he and his crew given they were the lead boat at the time.
As Peter Byford and David Hudson’s Sydney 38 Conspiracy approached the first top mark rounding of the class’ NSW Championship series in heavy seas, bowman Antony Hawke suddenly hit the deck during the kite hoist. The slightly embarrassed crewman said after racing that he definitely thought he was going for a swim and was happy to shift the blame to the people pulling the ropes at the back.
Conspiracy went on to win that opening race and finished second in the next two windward/leewards, giving them the boat of the day title. Byford steers their Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club Sydney 38 for the starts and upwind and Hudson takes the helm downwind. “It was challenging to steer and too choppy to get a roll on, in order to surf the waves,” Byford said. “The crew is consistent for these big regattas, and two of them are my sons Tim and Ben.”
Results for all divisions are available here.
Hazardous surf and swell along the New South Wales coast made the sea state uncomfortably lumpy for the offshore divisions – TP52/Super 50, Open Class and Sydney 38s – but also provided opportunities for the planing hulls, particularly when the sou’east breeze gusted to 19 knots. Leading the Open division after two races is Keiran Mulcahy’s consistent King 40 Soozal out of Pittwater.
Inside North Head, the Super 20s, 30s and 40s enjoyed wave action at the heads with less swell. Top of the Super 40s on IRC handicap is Darryl Hodgkinson’s Carkeek 40 Victoire and on EHC handicap they are second to Adrian Walters’ Little Nico, sailing for the host club. Steven Proud’s Swish is the first MC38 as that class uses the series to prepare for their upcoming national title, March 19-21.
The inshore courses stretched from Manly almost to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and those divisions had a much easier time in 12-14 knots and flat water. The largest Performance Spinnaker and Non-Spinnaker divisions completed two passage races.
Four state titles fall under this year’s Sydney Harbour Regatta umbrella. As predicted, Reg Lord’s Juno is at the head of the J/70 pointscore thanks to three bullets and matching Juno’s unbeaten run in the Yngling state title is Hamish Jarrett’s Miss Pibb. Craig Mitchell’s Centaurus claimed the Cavalier 28 NSW Championship based on today’s one design results.
The two-day series, hosted by Middle Harbour Yacht Club and made possible thanks to on-water support from eight other Sydney clubs, has drawn 187 entries for the 16th edition. Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson was delighted the sun came out and winds moderated from the forecast fresh southerlies. “It was great sailing; everyone had a lot of fun. There wasn’t as much congestion in the harbour this time; we had fleets going to different marks and we made sure they didn’t overlap too much.”
This evening is a chance for crews to unwind and swap tall tales at the MHYC beach party. Racing resumes on Sunday March 7 with decent autumn breeze expected from lunchtime onwards.
MHYC acknowledges the support of key Sydney Harbour Regatta sponsors Club Marine, Sail Racing, Robert Oatley Wines, Short Marine, Mercedes-Benz North Shore and Mercure Resort Hunter Valley Gardens and supporting sponsors Ensign Yachts, Fever-Tree, Manly Spirits, DeckHardware.
Day one photos by Andrea Francolini
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How to follow the Sydney Harbour Regatta:
Website: https://shr.mhyc.com.au/
Facebook: @SydneyHarbourRegatta
Instagram: sydneyharbourregatta
Read more: Conspiracy rises to day one Sydney Harbour Regatta challenges
ORC Club Handicapping coming to MHYC
MHYC will be introducing an additional handicapping system for Saturday divisional racing from Season 2021-2022. ORC Club will be added to the existing PHS (Performance Handicapping System) that has served the club well for many years.
ORC Club uses the Velocity Prediction Program (VPP) to rate boats of different characteristics. It relies on the measurement of a boat and its sails, affecting their theoretical speed. Unlike PHS, ORC Club does not use the prior performance of the boat and its crew to determine the handicap. With ORC Club, a boat’s handicap remains constant from week to week. Identical boats (with the same size sails etc.) will have identical ORC Club handicaps.
ORC Club will only apply to the MHYC Saturday divisional racing (Inshore Series & Ocean Series) and will not apply to any other racing fleet at MHYC. Boats racing in the Saturday series are encouraged to obtain an ORC Club rating before the commencement of the 2021-2022 season.
For more information, click on ORC Club Information
Ready to Rumba at Sydney Harbour Regatta
Entries for Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s flagship Sydney Harbour Regatta on this weekend, March 6-7, have climbed past the 180 mark, among them a local yacht jointly owned for close to 20 years that has competed in every Sydney Harbour Regatta since the inaugural series in 2006.
For owners Rob Carr, Stephanie Cook and Kerry Burke and their Northshore 370 Rumba that sails from the host club, netting a few trophies is only one reason to front up year after year. “In our Performance Spinnaker division we sail against a whole heap of 28 to 34 footers of similar speed; that’s the fun bit. The party on the MHYC beach on the Saturday night is fun too, though we’ve been known to give away our day one advantage by partying too late.”
Rumba has recorded mixed results over 15 years. “As a general rule we’ve been in the top three in the last five to six years. Before that we were a bit ad-hoc,” Carr laughs. He’s hoping for 12-15 knots of wind and flat water on Sydney Harbour.
Sydney’s long-range forecast points towards steady 15 knot southerlies on Saturday and a fickle Sunday morning before a single-digit east nor’easter develops across the afternoon.
Standard entries have closed though MHYC may accept late entries up until midnight on Thursday March 4. View the starting list and enter here.
The sailing instructions will be published today here.
Performance Spinnaker is the most popular entry category and for the first time these divisions will also be scored on ORC, including both ORCi and ORC Club ratings. ORC Club is growing rapidly around the world and several Sydney clubs (MHYC, RSYS and RPAYC at this stage) have adopted this as a low cost, simple rating system to run alongside the usual Performance Handicapping System.
The International J/70 state title plus the Super 20, 30 and 40 divisions promise hot competition at The Sound, the area of deep water inside North and South Heads, just one of seven course areas that will operate across the harbour and offshore thanks to race officials, volunteers and support vessels from multiple partner clubs.
MHYC thanks Manly Yacht Club, the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club, Royal Australian Navy Sailing Association, Sydney Flying Squadron, Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Sydney Amateur Sailing Club.
Grand Prize draw
In addition to regatta trophies and prizes, to be eligible for the Grand Prize draw the skipper or skipper’s representative from the top three placegetters in each division must register and be present at the official trophy presentation function at MHYC on Monday March 8.
- First place draw – Sail Racing merchandise voucher (value $2,000)
- Second place draw – Manly Spirits ‘Distillery Experience’ for yacht crew (up to 12 persons)
- Third place draw – Mercedes-Benz North Shore and Mercure Resort Hunter Valley Gardens have made available a Mercedes weekend drive experience plus two nights’ accommodation at the Mercure Resort Hunter Valley Gardens for two people.
MHYC acknowledges the support of key Sydney Harbour Regatta sponsors Club Marine, Robert Oatley Wines, Short Marine, Sail Racing, Mercedes-Benz North Shore and Mercure Resort Hunter Valley Gardens and supporting sponsors Ensign Yachts, Fever-Tree, Manly Spirits, DeckHardware.
How to follow the Sydney Harbour Regatta:
Website: https://shr.mhyc.com.au/
Facebook: @SydneyHarbourRegatta
Instagram: sydneyharbourregatta
Outlaw leads Farr 40 NSW Championships
While there was no club racing scheduled today, MHYC is hosting the Farr 40 NSW Championships this weekend and a number of members were competing in the CYCA Short Ocean Pointscore.
After some light morning rain, the day remained overcast with a light north-easterly establishing itself soon after 11am. The Farr 40 fleet were held ashore by Race Officer Phil Yeomans until the breeze improved and were then able to complete three races on the Manly Circle. The wind fluctuated between 5 to 10 knots during the afternoon, swinging from north to north-east and back again and the sea state remained moderate.
The light and variable conditions made for some mixed results, but at the end of the day Rob Davis and Andy Baker’s Nutcracker from CYCA sits on top of the leaderboard, one point ahead of Tom Quick and Outlaw (CYCA) and with Joe de Kock’s Good Form (NCYC) in third. The MHYC Race Management Team are planning to run four races tomorrow to wrap up the Championships.
To view the results - click here
Photos by Marg Fraser-Martin
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Centreboard Club Championship Continues
Day four of the Centreboard Club Championship was sailed today in a moderate south-easterly in Hunters Bay - perfect conditions for the MHYC Opti fleet.
Miles Greenwood (Rallar) posted a 1-2-1 in today's races to consolidate his strong lead in the championship, two thirds of the way through the schedule. Will Wilkinson (Rocky) was the winner in the second race of the day.
Louis Tilly (Saphira) sits second overall in the series score ahead of Zara Marks (Dark Horse) and Heidi Bates (Never Say Never) tied on points but with Zara in third on tie-break.
Many thanks to Race Officer Jervis Tilly and the team of parent race management volunteers who put on a great series of races today.
The next round of Centreboard Club Championship racing is Sunday March 14.
For the latest results - click here
Thanks Lisa Wilkinson for the photos........
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Light Breeze for the Sprint Series
A delayed start for the Sprint Series on Saturday with light breeze frustrating the Race Committee and sailors alike. A gentle fluctuating Nor' Easterly breeze kicked in allowing the boats to get underway in the Sound for two short races conducted by Race Officer Steve Tucker and the MHYC Race Management Team. .
In Division 1 Peter Sorensen won both the IRC and PHS for Race 1 on Advanced Philosophy with Toy Box 2 (Ian Box) taking second place IRC and Samarkand (Walter Carpenter) second in
the PHS. In race 2 Ian Box picked up first place for both IRC and PHS on Toy Box 2. For the PHS results for Race 1 in Division 2, Goran Hultin won podium position on Stella Polaris
followed by MRX (Geoff Pearson) and Rumba (Robert Carr) in third place in PHS with Neil Padden taking first place in the IRC on Wailea. In Race 2 Wailea (Neil Padden) won first place for both the IRC and PHS with MRX (Geoff Pearson) taking 2nd place also for both handicap systems. Alliance (Ben Thompson) received third place for the PHS and Stormaway (Jack Stening and Colin Gunn) for the IRC.
In the Adams 10 Fleet Tracy Richardson had a successful day on No Friends taking first place in Race 1 for both One Design and PHS with Rock Solid (Mitch Miller) coming second in the One Design and Another Dilemma (Jim Vaughan) in third place. In Race 2 for One Design Mitch Miller won first place on Rock Solid followed by Contentious (Brian Lees) in second and No Friends (Tracy Richardson) in third place. Contentious (Brian Lees) won first place in the PHS result.
For full results click Inshore Sprints or Adams 10 Sprints
Thanks to Marg Fraser-Martin for the great photography on the day. For more photos here.