Race 5 Feb 1 2015

Another day of great Classic Yacht racing for the 20 Classics that went out to race at the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron in the prevailing blustery and squally conditions.  Attached are the Race results and the status of the series aggregate and the Marie Louise III consistency trophy.

Avalon leads the Classic fleet out from RYCV

With her magnificent sounding 10 HP Simplex engine running true Avalon the William Atkins Little Dipper class led the Royals classic fleet over to the RMYS race venue.  Although the decision on Avalon, after sampling what Port Phillip was throwing at the fleet, was not to race, her presence was the inspiration of the day.

Start Line Scenes

Pre start rain squalls in 1.5 metre seas followed by bursts of warming sunshine were put to one side as the fleet set themselves up for the run at the RMYS start line, the first time for several years. Boambillee and Marie Louise III were set up for long runs to be powered up for the windward chop only to see Mercedes III lead the fleet over the line.

Reports from several Classics said the sight of 6 Tumlarens all going hard for an on time start was the sight of the day. The scene was no different from those days 70 years ago when RMYS was the home of Tumlaren racing.

With Craig Begbie  using heavy Tum racing skills from his days of racing Vahine to advantage and twisting  new life into some Sirrocco deck fittings that her previous owner, Dave Allen, never thought possible,  Charlie Salters recently restored Tumlaren Sirocco held off Marie Louise III, forcing her to throw to the least favoured tack.

Elsewhere Phil Aitkins was holding Trim a tight line to the weather mark while Michael Mactavish’s Serifa and Avian under the helm of that great man Roger Dundas were also going well. Sayonara was dropped down slightly to keep her powered up through the chop. Also in the mix at the start were the two classics that were to be the feature boats of the day Bluejacket and Snow Goose.

Around the Course

Not long after the start Richard Macrae gave his Claire a let off after being hit by some decent size waves. After overhauling Sirrocco,  Boambillee and Fairwinds settled down on the starboard tack to power through the chop and lift themselves up closer to the weather mark lay line. Avian, Bluejacket, Ettrick  took the port tack punt while Marie Louise III joined them to keep clear of Sirrocco. Unfortunately the port tack chop was head on and Trim cleared out to lead this group to the weather mark.

Some approaching the mark drama for Bungoona with their club foot head sail . This drama put the Bungoona crew to the test which they passed but Tandanya was able to get past and clear out from them on the reach.

Zephyr also reported trouble that put paid to their efforts to keep up with the Tumlaren fleet on the first beat.

After a clean gybe at the outer turning mark Dingo was going well but a slight wind shifted caused the main to gybe and bang went the Goose Neck. Their headsail which promptly wrapped itself the forestay. With these two items of action dingo’s race to a sad ending. Jim Hutchinson informs the damage is repairable.

On the second time around the course Boambillee continued her battle with Mercedes III while Sirocco held on toFairwinds. This time around a short dig on the port tack bought Avian, Ettrick, Martini and Blue Jacket back with the fleet at the weather mark while Serifa did well on the starboard tack to also stay with this group.

Along the reach with Doug Jenkin on the helm had his crew working hard to have Bluejacket in great racing form and successfully put Marie Louise III to task to protect his wind.

After taking longer tracks to the weather mark than the rest of the fleet Sayonara again picked off the fleet on the run where Serifa received an acknowledgment from Dave Allen for allowing extra room for Sayonara to safely sweep past the turning mark.

Finish line action

Mercedes III continued to hold off Boambillee to take out line honours and Sirrocco followed Fairwinds and held off Sayonara to take out 4^th over the line. Meanwhile back in the fleet tight turning into the wind at the leeward mark allowed Marie Louise III prevent Trim gaining a windward advantage and drop over to the port tack.

Tight sailing along the RMYS Breakwater allowed Marie Louise III to make the finish line in one tack but not before being pipped by Avian by 35 seconds. Close elapsed times between Serifa, Ettrick, Snow Goose, Martini and Trim were also a feature of the race.

Bringing up the last of the finishers was Blackadder who kept with the fleet in difficult circumstances.

Result and analysis

For the sail of the day congratulations to Charlie Salter and Craig Begbie putting in a great race on Sirrocco and for showing todays classic fleet how Tumlaren racing must have been 70 years ago. Analysis of the results show even if Sirrocco was racing at a handicap (635) way above the 5 other Tumlarens she would have carried the day. Dave Allen Sirrocco’s previous owner was seen giving her a serious once over after the race.

While the race could have been a little bit longer the RMYS Race Director used the prevailing conditions to select the course and to be able to keep a decent watch of the race from the race control tower. The race director was later on the water in the RMYS rescue vessel William Paterson.

The average on course time across the fleet was 90 minutes. Close to the number we aim for.

SAIL NO.	YACHT	SKIPPER	FINISH	ELAPSED	H’Cap	ETP	CORRECTED TIME
322	SIROCCO	Charlie Salter	11:55:51	85.850	612	4	52.540
R1115	BLUEJACKET	Doug Jenkin	11:59:59	89.983	610	10	54.890
96	AVIAN	Roger Dundas	11:58:14	88.233	623	6	54.969
309	SNOW GOOSE	George Low	12:01:29	91.483	605	13	55.347
R1363	SERIFA	Michael McTavish	11:59:36	89.600	619	8	55.462

Close corrected times between all the finishes was another feature of the race results. Check out the attached pdf.

Two other notable sails of the day were given to the fleet by Doug Jenkin with Bluejacket and George Low with Snow Goose.  These results show a clean sweep of the race by 3 Knud Reimers designs.  A design that is still holding true to the day when it left his drawing board.

So all up another great day of Classic Yacht racing with our next race scheduled for Feb 15 to be conducted for us by the Hobsons Bay Yacht Club.

Series Aggregate status

The series aggregate status is tight with three on the same points score where all races count.

Oct 5	Nov 16	Nov 30	Dec 14	Feb 1
Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Aggregate
SAIL NO.	YACHT	Points	Points	Points	Points	Points	Points
S51	BOAMBILLEE	1	8	9	1	11	30
321	ETTRICK	3	6	5	9	7	30
R450	MERCEDES III	2	2	14	3	9	30

 

Marie Louise III Consistency Trophy

		Oct 5	Nov 16	Nov 30	Dec 14	Feb 1	Series
		Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Aggregate
SAIL NO.	YACHT	Points	Points	Points	Points	Points	Points
321	ETTRICK	4.1	1.7	0.6	0.0	1.6	8.0
R502	MARTINI	1.2	2.4	4.1	5.2	1.8	14.7
S51	BOAMBILLEE	5.4	3.9	3.0	3.6	1.9	17.7

Post race announcements

With the race all done the results were announced thanks to some timely work by the RMYS race director and the RYCV Admin staff.

Two special announcements were made. These announcements were to acknowledge the Classic Yacht Association of New Zealand continuing support of our Cup Regatta and in particular the much acknowledged Bud Nalder sail bags. Both especially made for the 2013 and 2014 Cup Regattas.

The first Bud Nalder sail bag was presented to Dave Allen for his best overall result in the first time conducted Elliot’s Teams race between the Australia and New Zealand Classic Yacht Associations and the Couta Boat Association. The second Bud Nalder sail bag was presented to Mark Chew for his successful efforts to have a CYANZ team compete in the 2014 Cup Regatta on Fairwinds and for pitting up for the successful auction of the two sets of Classic Yachting on Port Phillip montages.

Don’t forget Karen Batsons Cookie Restaurant. Karen has been our Cup Regatta Concours d’Elegance sponsor for the last 2 years. Incidentally yesterday the main reason for Zephyr’s performance was no Karen on forward deck.  Another restaurant opening was the main task for Karen yesterday.

The next announcement was to award the trophy provided by Andy Doolan of Tina of Melbourne. From now on the winner of each series race will receive a six pack of NeverFail water courtesy of Neverfail.

Below are some of our Cup Regatta sponsors

So that’s it till Feb 15 when the Classic fleet lives again.

Handicaps and revisions will be worked on. The pencils are already sharpened and at the ready.

Once again no photos.We need action photos of our fleet racing on the day, If you take a couple or so select some and and pass them over on an immediate basis to the handicapper.

Regards to all

Peter Costolloe
CYAA (Vic) Handicapper

www.classic-yacht.asn.au/results/

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