 |
Photo: Lulu Roseman |
 |
Photo: Lulu Roseman |
The sun shone on Sydney Harbour and the breeze kicked in for the125 starters who lined up for today's Race 11 of the Audi Winter Series The instructions were clear from Balance’s owner Paul Clitheroe to his ‘middle of the boat’ crew who were in charge of Balance today. “Listen you idiots, I don’t care if you come last just don’t run into anyone or thing.”
 |
Photo: Lulu Roseman |
Celebrating his 55th birthday with a BBQ lunch at his new home at Kirribilli, all Clitheroe and his usual navigator could do was look on as Balance negotiated its way around the harbour and into second place in Division B. A joking Clitheroe said this afternoon when he heard the good news “I am not happy…I am not going to be able to live this one down for at least 12 months.”
Andrew Cribb “Cribby” also carried on the joke “All we had to do to place this season was to get rid of the owner!” The short-handed crew of seven played it simple on the race track – heeding the words of Clitheroe.
“Just before the start we got a couple of wind squirts up to 18 knots and we got a little worried about the headsails we were carrying, however it ended up being okay in the end,” Cribb added.
“We took one risk and split away from the fleet on our way back from Manly heading to Shark Island. We thought that we had killed our race then, but it turned out in our favour as we almost managed to catch Sintara (Gordon Anderson’s Beneteau 47.7),” Cribb concluded.
It was Sintara’s big overlapping headsails that were to make the difference on the reaches, handing her the division win from Balance by 47 seconds. Warwick Sherman’s well campaigned Cookson 12 Occasional Coarse Language placed third. In the series pointscore, Tony Kirby’s X-41 Patrice Six holds onto a narrow lead from Guy Stening’s Melges 32 Optimum, who did not sail this week after suffering damage in last week’s race with Darryl Hodgkinson’s Beneteau 45 Victoire holding onto third place in the division B overall series pointscore.
After one of the coldest winter weeks in 27 years, the sun shone brightly for all the yachties on Sydney Harbour today with a top temperature of 15⁰C, making a beautiful winter’s day sailing. Given the early finish, many crews were back at the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the race organisers, enjoying the sunshine and a few celebratory drinks on the deck.
For Rear Commodore Garry Linacre it was a family affair on his recently acquired Corby 49 Vamp (previously known as Limit) that placed third in Division A behind St Hillers Quest with Mike Green at the helm and Past CYCA Commodore Geoff Lavis’ UBS Wild Thing.
“We are having a lot of fun with the boat – we had four father/son combinations onboard including Andrew Madden and his 12 year old son, guests of Audi Australia, together with some Youth Sailing Academy sailors,” Rear Commodore Linacre said. Brooke Beale from Club Marine, another sponsor of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Youth Sailing Academy, also joined in the fun atmosphere onboard.
 |
Photo: Lulu Roseman |
“It was a beautiful day’s sail in conditions that suited some of the smaller and heavier boats in the fleet. After such a soft series weather wise, it is great to see some breeze in the last few pointscore races. This means that some of the divisional winners of the Audi Winter Series will only be decided in the last race of the season,” Rear Commodore Linacre added. There are currently three divisions (D, G and H) in which a tie exists.
Alan Mather, owner of Akela, is currently tied with Chris Rabbidge’s Mean Machine in Division D. “This is one of the toughest divisions to race in, with the likes of Peter Sorensen (The Philosophers Club) and Chris Rabbidge,” Mather said this afternoon.
The ongoing rivalry between Mather and Robert Skol (Scarlett O’Hara) now stands at 6-4 after Akela’s win today, means Skol will have to fork out for dinner for Mather’s crew unless he wins the last two races.
Justin Graham, owner of Jet, the current leader of Division E and second place today, was the lucky person handed the set of keys to an Audi A5 Sportback 3.0 TDI quattro for a week.
“We had a brilliant first leg today and were chasing Monkey Magic all day, but we unable to catch them” Graham added. Jet with thirteen points currently leads Division E series pointscore by nine points from Stuart Birdsall’s Sabre on 22 points, with Matthew Fisher’s Greengate a further point behind in third place.
Other division winners today included Pacific Sailing School’s Kioni (Division C), John Penfold’s Monkey Magic (Division E), Greg Mason’s Sinewave (Division F), Chris Antico’s Selkie (Division G), Lachlan Irwin’s Clewless? (Division H), Glenn Crane’s Lahara II (Division J), Phillip Denison’s Gusto (division K) and Richard Holstein’s Next (Sydney 38)
Two races remain in the Audi Winter Series, with the non-pointscore Ladies Day Race to close the Audi Winter Series on July 25.
By CYCA Media Team