January 10 - 16, 2016: Issue 246
Coffs race fleet all in and placegetters declared
4 January 2016
A straightforward final night at sea for the Club Marine Pittwater to Coffs Yacht Race fleet brought the last boat, Out of Sight, from 42 starters to the finish line at 0632 hours this morning, Monday January 4, 2016.
All boats are safely tied up at Coffs Harbour marina on the NSW Mid North Coast or heading for home ports and the final placegetters have been declared. What was touted a promising smaller boat race for handicap turned out to be a big boat run north, at least for the major IRC trophy.
Line honours winner for the second year, Karl Kwok’s 80-footer Beau Geste (RHKYC), also takes home the key IRC overall and IRC division 1 silverware, a bonus prize pack says Kwok. Beau Geste maintained a decent pace for most of the 226 nautical miles in the predominant sou’easterly winds and came to the finish hot doing 20 knots of boat speed, with bow spray flying. They missed Wild Oats IX’s 2003 race record by just 16 minutes.
“Getting the record is something on our minds, but with the line honours and IRC overall win we achieved full marks,” Kwok said today. “Taking IRC overall is definitely an unexpected bonus! For all those who participated in this great race, they must be diehards like me! It was so nice to have big fleet for this event.”
Second IRC overall, first in IRC division 2 and first on ORCi handicap went to Adrian Van Bellen’s J/122 Jackpot from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. “It’s unbelievable; the conditions were perfect for us,” said the first time Coffs race owner/skipper. “I cannot speak highly enough of the crew; the credit should go to them. They are an inspiration to me.”
It’s been a steep learning curve for Van Bellen given he bought his first boat, a Compass 28, less than eight years ago.
Jackpot’s navigator Carl Crafoord said they competed without all the usual Rolex Sydney Hobart aids like MetEye and weather routing, instead “looking at the sky and sailing by seat of our pants… like back in the 80s. It was fun!”
In the downhill slide the planing asymmetric boats fared best, third overall on final IRC standings going to Bob Steel’s Mills designed Quest, the current Australian Yachting class B IRC champion.
Steven Proud’s Kernan 44 Swish from Middle Harbour Yacht Club, raced north by co-skippers Billy Sykes and Murray Gordon in the owner’s absence, took out PHS division 1.
Dockside Sykes recounted a very random mid-race attack. “We went through a school of squid… we had 4 or 5 jump on the boat flicking around. I was standing up and one hit me in the back; I thought it was one of the guys winding me up. It was pretty funny…a first that’s for sure!”
Another beamy downwind flyer, Marcus Grimes’ Elliott 10.5 High Anxiety sailing for the race organiser the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, finished the lead PHS division 2 boat.
“We had a great ride with big smiles all around and we are thrilled with the result,” said Grimes. “I am very happy for the crew and would like to thank the organising committee at RPAYC and the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club.”
Peter Wilcox’s Schionning Force catamaran called Mojo beat the rest of the multihulls in division on corrected time and Jeff Dusting’s AdventureSafety Jem from Sandringham won the Shorthanded division.
Video of the start on Saturday January 2 at 1pm from Broken Bay https://youtu.be/0z54yHqa930
Full handicap results in all divisions at www.pittwatertocoffs.com.au/live/race-results
This evening two members from each crew will attend a Mayoral reception at Coffs Harbour Yacht Club prior to the end of race trophy presentation at approximately 1700hrs. All crews are welcome to attend the prizegiving.
Tomorrow is the pursuit style Club Marine Solitary Island race kicking off with the race briefing at 1030hrs at CHYC where starting handicaps will be issued. The fleet of 17 will start and finish in the harbour from midday onwards and the BOM has issued a strongwind warning, which should make for a fast, fun race. The fleet can be tracked here
Black magic Club Marine Pittwater to Coffs finish for Beau Geste and Morticia
1200hrs, 3 January 2016
From the bulk of white coloured yachts contesting the 35th edition of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s key offshore event, the Club Marine Pittwater to Coffs yacht race, the charcoal coloured Beau Geste won the monohull line honours contest and the black-hulled Morticia easily took out the multihull race.
A final fast reach to the finish line in morning sou’west breeze swept Karl Kwok’s maxi Beau Geste to its second consecutive line honours win, this time tantalisingly within 16 minutes of the 2003 race record.
Their official finish time of 0745hrs on January 3, 2016 gave them an elapsed time of 18hrs, 45mins 17 seconds. Video of the finish
First multihull was Shaun Carroll’s 9.2m trimaran Morticia at 0855hrs. The four crew on board worked around the clock to keep the boat powered up and well in front of the two larger catamarans. Video interview with Shaun Carroll
Now the nervous wait begins for the Hong Kong and New Zealand crew of the Botin 80 Beau Geste to see if the gap back to the threatening 40 and 50 footers is wide enough for them to maintain their IRC overall handicap lead. The outcome is one they have no control over as it depends how quickly the others in with a chance take to complete the 226 nautical mile ocean passage that began yesterday at 1pm from Broken Bay.
Both TP52s, Peter Hickson’s M3 with Brenton Carnell skippering, and Mick Martin’s Frantic, are in the hunt for the major silverware. The pair is staging a match race within an ocean race, now off Nambucca Heads.
Adrian Van Bellen’s J/122 Jackpot and the Kernan 44 Swish, with a crack young crew bringing the boat north for owner Stephen Proud who disappointingly wasn’t able to join them, also feature high up in the current standings
There was very little rest for the hard-working crew of Morticia, Carroll said. “The boys will probably tell you I get the Golden Pillow (most sleep) award. It took us a few miles to get going after the start, when the breeze filled in. We always had a plan to go out to sea and it paid off.
“We spent a lot of time doing prep work for this race; we usually put 10 hours of prep in per one hour on the water, so we are confident we’ll get through OK.”
Sailing master Dale Mitchell spoke of last night’s unique challenge, “Trimming a black boat with black sails on an overcast and moonless night is a bit tricky!”
Pre-race video of RPAYC head coach Tommy Spithill talking to Dale Mitchell about sleeping arrangements and sailing with rangas (red-heads)
Kwok wasn’t fazed by narrowly missing the record; “I’m happy. Generally we had very steady wind and the boat never parked up. I didn’t realise we were so close to the best time....that’s the way life is.”
The maxi yacht is already on its way back to Sydney aiming to beat another cut-off, Monday’s strong wind warning, and the rest of the crew are ashore at Coffs Harbour enjoying a hot shower and a feed and welcoming the early arrivals in.
Marine Rescue in Coffs Harbour did a fantastic job of cooking and ferrying bacon and egg rolls out to Beau Geste’s delivery crew this morning, and they’ll continue to cook all day for the teams arriving tired and hungry at the marina.
Today’s Macquarie coastal waters forecast is for south-easterly winds 10-15 knots reaching up to 20 knots offshore south of Crowdy Head in the evening, exactly as the Bureau forecasted. All but a couple of yachts are due to finish this afternoon and evening and there is still only one retirement from 42 starters.
View the entry list here.
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By Lisa Ratcliff /RPAYC media
