Attached are the provisional results of the Classic Summer Series Race 4 plus the Series and Marie Louise III consistency aggregate status. Problem with listed finish times of Ettrick and Snow Goose. RYCV Web site has them listed as a tie but time keeper has recorded them with separate finish times. Plus no listing of Sirocco. Will work on this tomorrow.

After racing over a course that had 3 beating and 3 running legs congratulations go to George Fisscher and Michael Rhodes for their no fault performance that had Boambillee lead the Classic fleet home by a significant margin. Frances with Peter Johns and his team was second home after eating the fleet up to record the best on course time of the day. Martin Ryan bought Mercedes back to life after the sea conditions changed to take out the third placing.

Tight finishing times across the following fleet was a feature of the race Peter Lloyds Marie Louise III with consistent sailing held off Anne Batsons Zephyr and the 20 stouts hearts on Sayonara to come home fourth. After recovering from some fleet entrancing tactics Craig Browns Cyan picked of Phil Atkins Trim by 30 seconds. 2.5 minutes separated these five at the finish line.

Gordon Tait kept Ettrick going in heavy lee gunnel down conditions to catch George Low who put in another big race performance on Snow Goose.

In the spirit of what pursuit racing is all about we had a tie finish between Jim Hutchinson’s Dingo and Roger Dundas Avian. Maybe it was the spirit of Dave Brodziak’s grandad with his Tumlare Var Flicka giving Avian that the one extra puff to hold off Dingo in the race to the line.

Close pursuit style finishes were recorded with Ross Clark pushing Martini to follow Avian by 14 seconds who was then followed by Bob Munros Tandanya 44 seconds later with Michael McTavish on Serifa following a minute 22 seconds later. This race was the first for the season for Serifa after her new engine installation.

After her 12 month rebuild Charlie Salter put Sirocco through some active racing to see what work was needed to bring her back to her race winning ways. Not much and she’s reasonable tight was the report.

Analysis of the results on a handicap basis showed the sail of the day had to go to Richard MacRae who kept Claire going at her best, racing home with the catch performance, throughout the race.

Like many races the wind always dies at the wrong time. So it was with this race where a dying breeze caught out and stunted the finish times of Matthew Fewster and Peter Denniston in Loama, in spite of their efforts to lighten her and Kent Bacon who kept Renene going in the way that she is known for throughout the fleet.

One feature of the race was to see Lindsay Holland’s Tumlaren Zea racing with us. After deciding to back off from racing two up Zea kept the fleet company throughout the race.

So ends another year our Classic racing for 2014.

After conducting Classic Yacht racing since 1997 and this years Summer Series with 29 entries including 7 Tumlarens, and more to come, listed for the current Summer Series plus 8 consecutive Cup Regatta Classic Yacht racing the respect from all the port Phillip senior yacht clubs. The challenge to the CYAA is to maintain the standard of our now world class Classic Yacht racing.

Regards to all

Peter Costolloe
CYAA (Vic) Handicapper

Results Link

Sorry no fleet photos. Everyone is to full on for any spare time. However the sight of the day has to be Sayonara with her 20 stout hearts of movable ballast creaming her way through the chop to almost eat up Marie Louise III.

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Below are links to the “Pre race notes”, start times and sailing instructions for Race 4 of the Summer series.

Race 4 Pre Race Notes December 11 2014

Race 4 Pursuit Dec 14 Entrant Group Start Time V1 10_12

Race 4 Dec 14 (Pursuit) Sailing Instructions (RYCV) V1 10_12

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Race 3 November 30 Post Race notes.

Attached are the Race 3 results plus the Series aggregate status

Congratulations to the Tumlarens Zephyr and Dingo for their light wind performances. It’s interesting that both took either side of the course to make the weather mark indicating similar sea and wind hole conditions all round. Even though the spread of corrected times was wider than usual due the light conditions, there were still tight grouping that showed mistakes were to be paid for.

Throughout the race images Classic Yacht racing of old were seen. From Sayonara and Acrospire III in full rig to watching Frances fly her “Big Red” for the first time in possibly 20 years.

The race committee made reference to being on hand to watch another big and on the button Classic start with no problems. Frances, Sayonara and Zephyr were committed at full speed with 2 seconds to go. Shortly after the start Avalon and Loama were seen at the head of the fleet, Renene was also going well. Avian was the first to throw on to port for clean air while Acrospire III came through after the start on port for clean air.

Boambillee unfortunately found a wind hole when approaching the Windward mark that Zephyr managed to avoid. Throughout the race Acrospire III led the fleet but Frances with the Big Red flying managed to close up when Acrospire III used downwind gybing to keep going in the light. On the reach to R4 she cleared out from Frances.

Sayonara also kept her speed with downwind gybing.

Both Bluejacket and Snow Goose put in noteworthy performances. Not sure what Mike Hurrell was up to on Snow Goose but being the shipwright who bought Snow Goose back to racing condition Snow Goose obviously enjoyed his company.

One sight to see was Blackadder steaming up to the weather mark. Unfortunately with a dying breeze both Blackadder and Avalon knew the game was up after rounding the weather mark for the run down to St. Kilda.

The results have been left as published by Hobsons Bay Yacht Club. Next race the finish time will be lengthened by another 30 minutes. There was a consideration to lengthen the finish time but we have to stay with what was published in the Sailing Instructions for the race 3.

One more race for 2014. Race 4 on December 14, a pursuit.

Regards to all

Peter Costolloe
CYAA (Vic) Handicapper

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