The Sail Port Stephens Windward-Leeward Series transitioned to Passage Race mode for the fleet at the weekend.
And, with the change of pace came a change of pace, literally, as both the wind and seas calmed considerably.
Racing began in the shadows of Mount Tomaree, at the entrance to Port Stephens, in near drifting conditions as the morning nor’westerly yielded to the arrival of a light sou’easter.
Friday’s lumbering swells had also become more languid.
In the ensuing vacuum, numerous TP52s sat stationary, even lagging behind the division 2 fleet despite a five-minute head start.
Former Sydney Hobart winner Celestial set a chute, seized a small puff, and was the first to escape, heading directly east.
“It felt like a punishment,” skipper Sam Haynes said.
“But, our navigator Alex Nolan was confident it was the right way to go… and our tactician David Chapman agreed.
“We were in 4-to-5 knots of breeze, occasionally 6, and it remained quite fluffy most of the way.”
Marcus Blackmore’s Hooligan followed suit and took the lead shortly before the turning mark positioned near Broughton Island.
Celestial stayed in touch on the reach back to Hawks Nest beach, running a Code Zero, and crossed the line second on scratch, second on IRC and TPR.
“It has never really been known as a light-air boat,” Haynes said.
“However, we’re running a bigger main for the inshore regatta, we’ve got some newer jibs and we changed the keel slightly last year to gain more grip upwind.
“We’re actually going better in the 5-knot range than previously.”
Michael Martin, a former Wallaby, pulled a Kiwi-sourced light-air kite out of Frantic’s bag of tricks and finished a creditable eighth across the line, seventh on IRC and fourth on TPR – an excellent result for the heavyweight among TP52s.
The sail bore Emirates Team NZ livery as Martin has several New Zealanders aboard.
“We wanted to get them excited,” he said.
“We’re sailing for fun against a lot of really good sailors and if a few boats finish behind us we’re pretty happy.”
Looking at the results for the TP52 fleet, also competing in Act 3 of the Pallas Capital Gold Cup, Hooligan (6pts) leads Matador (12pts) and Zen (14pts) with three races to follow.
Matador and Quest are tied on 10 points under TPR.
Division 2 honours went to Bullwinkle, Peter Farrugia’s Bull 9000 from Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, following a hasty repair job on a holed transom.
The damage resulting from a collision with Saltwater Wine had the crew initially fearing the yacht could potentially sink but they were able to limp home.
“As soon as we got back to the dock on Friday we ran to Bunnings [hardware] and a boat supply place to grab all the necessary materials… and we finished just before it began raining,” Farrugia said.
“While that was underway, we had a protest hearing and successfully received redress for the two races we missed yesterday, so we were pretty happy with that, too.
“The crew of Saltwater Wine felt terrible and there’s absolutely no hard feelings there… it was just a racing incident and we’ve all moved on.”
On Saturday, the Bull took a perfect gybe angle to the northern mark, arriving along with the bigger and faster yachts in its division.
The IRC/ORC double was warmly applauded by Bullwinkle’s fellow competitors, including Let’s Get it On skipper Garry Holt who came second under both handicap systems.
Overall, Bullwinkle now lies second on IRC, trailing Team Hollywood.
On ORC, Let’s Get it On leads Bullwinkle and Daguet 2 after four races.
- Sail Port Stephens Media
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