Classic 2013 Winter Series Race 1 May 5

Attached are the results of our 2013 Winter Series Race 1 plus then status of the Series points and the Marie Louise III consistency trophy.

Port Phillip tuned on conditions for another great day for Classic Yacht racing. Sailing amongst a classic fleet of 25 starters preparing for a race start was one of the many highlights of our first race of the 2013 Winter Series.  For many of us the break between series is definitely not good for our start timing. Instead of our usual pressure start we had several not too late starters but no barging problems. The fleet soon split with those taking to the river side, to use the outgoing tide, came out top at the first mark. Maybe a gentle reminder is needed  for skippers to be aware of the course bounding mark requirements when racing along the shipping channel.

The results show Kingurra taking out the race line honours from Mercedes III by 28 seconds with handicap honours going to a resurgent Mercedes III helmed by Martin Ryan and his soon to be enrolled Boy Scouts crew, for a primer on knot tying skill, rumor has it.. An excellent sail of the day by Roger Dundas and Pip Todd bought our Avian home for second overall and for a first within the Tumlare fleet, the mighty Kingurra took out a deserved third. Other notable sails were the George Fisscher and Michael Rhodes team who bought Boambillee home fourth overall and a closely watched performance, by the handicapper, from the Andy Doolan team to bring Tina of Melbourne home seventh, after her long break from Classic Yacht racing.  Our first time starter with the Classics, Leigh Norgate’s Avalon, with noted prestart manoeuvres. Like all first timers for a Classic Yacht Race start, you learn more about your boat in five minutes when racing that in five years of no stress sailing. Leigh can vouch for that. Avalon made the start, in good time, looking a picture of graceful Classic beauty.

Still showing her war wounds from the 2013 Festival of Sails passage race drama, as described in our recent Classic Yacht Magazine, with Michael Williams on the helm and Ross Clark presiding, Martini put in another consistent performance that makes the handicapper want to sharpen his pencil. Dingo with Jim Hutchinson on the helm came in for sixth overall after other notable Tumlare performance. With our two other tums racing yesterday, Kate Solly helmed Ettrick home first across the line for the Tum fleet while Anne and Karen Batson had a strong sail on Zephyr that put her well in the top mix of corrected times.

Looking over the corrected time spread for race 1 shows that any mistake on the course will be punished. No doubt your handicapper, who you all know and love, will be sharpening his pencil after analysing the race results. This doesn’t apply to cutters that don’t fly topsails.

I’m told our classic yacht fleet, headlined with the topsail cutters of Sayonara and Acrospire III along with our Australian Registered Historic vessels in the form of Mercedes III, Avian and Cameron Dorrough’s Bungoona, racing along the Beaconsfield Parade foreshore were once again, people and car stopping images.

So we’ve broken the ice for our Winter Series. All our fleet for race 1 were winners for the cause of our fleet’s world class Classic Yacht racing.

That’s it for now.

Great fleet, great racing

Regards to all

Peter Costolloe.
CYAA (Vic) Handicapper

Results Page

Some addendum’s

To relive our 2013 Winter Series May 5 race 1 yesterday check out these two sites

Race start action as seen from the Race Committee boat, At this time the video is unedited.

Some race action as seen from Pastime II

Future Classic Yacht Events

To help our skippers and crews with their priorities of life below are some dates to pencil into your Classic Yachting diaries.

  • Tall ships Melbourne Sun Sept 8 to Fri Sept 13
  • Old Gaffers Sydney Sunday Oct 13
  • Classics Regatta Mebourne Oct 31 to Nov 3
  • Royal Geelong Yacht Club Festival of Sails Jan 26 2014
  • Goolwa Wooden Boat Festival Feb  22 23 2014
  • Geelong Wooden Boat Festival March Thurs March 6 to Sun March 9 2014
  • Queenscliffe Maritime Festival March 28 2014

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