“ Chris unfortunately couldn’ t join us this weekend, which is a shame, as he was instrumental in getting the crew together and working. Steve McConaghy took his place this weekend doing tactics and was really good.”
Ritche also praised their course official, Steve Merrington:“ Steve was great. He puts a lot into his race management. We were leading Race 3, when he abandoned it, because the breeze went from 8 to 2 knots. We waited another half hour and he re-started us. His race management was exceptional.”
Two inshore races were run by RPAYC Commodore, Rob McClelland, both days. Yesterday was unbelievable, with spinnakers the whole way round the course,” he said.
“ Today, we had the first race in a lovely breeze and managed to get in race to Coasters Retreat and back, it took around two hours. The breeze came up from 6 to 12 knots, so beautiful sail on Pittwater. As they finished, the breeze evaporated.
“ We had to wait 1.5 hours till 3pm to get the last race started. A light easterly came in and increased. As we started Division 3, the breeze swung to the south, but we eventually got underway and finished in a nice breeze. A reach, a tight reach and run – it was a challenging day for all.”
A new Teams component to the Cup seduced a large contingent from Newcastle, but in the end it was won by the RPAYC2 team of Conspiracy( David Hudson), Harlequin( Ian Kindred) and Ascalon( Ian Quarrie). It is hoped this will become a popular addition to the regatta and other clubs are able to put teams together.
Heath Walters Melges 32, Rock n Roll took out Division 1 from Shaun James’ Sydney 47, Wot’ s Next. Richie Allanson’ s Newport 9, Ultime, which led yesterday, took third place on countback from Michael Coxon’ s Cole 30, Anitra Miday. Ultime scored two wins, but 18th in the middle killed Allanson’ s chances.
Division 2 went the way of Colin Hills’ Northshore 370 Sports, Gusto, which despite not winning a single race, scored a five point win over Kim Williams’ Summit MD35, Rock n Roll. Filling out the top three was Bombolo, the Beneteau Oceanis 46.1 owned by David Boekemann.
“ It was very intense, but very exciting, said Hills who racked up 5-3-4 results compared to Rock n Roll, which scored two wins, but fell down with an 18. The well-worn saying‘ consistency pays’ came into play.“ There were lots of boats and the crew did a fantastic job.“ Yesterday was exciting sailing the whole course under kite. We did a lot of gybes, which made the foredeck guys work hard. Today in the last race, we were delayed 40 minutes waiting for breeze and then had two General
Recalls. We were floating around waiting.”
Division 3 was won by Frank Milner’ s Jeanneau SO 349, Pinta Bay by seven points from Albert James’ Radford 10.6 Day Dreamin’. Scott Wallace and his Elan 340, Gee Whizz finalised the podium after winning the final race. Eighty six boats took part in the RPAYCs Pantaenius Pittwater Regatta, incorporating the ORC NSW Championship, Pittwater Cup, including the inaugural teams event, plus the Super 40 division and the Grand Soleil Yachts Cup.
Last night’ s spinnaker competition was a treat, as 20 odd crews had to pack, hoist and set a spinnaker on the Club’ s front lawn flagpole. The other competition had one person blind folded putting a life jacket on someone else and then inflating it. An absolute hoot of a night.
Commodore McClelland said at the end,“ From my perspective, 13 yacht clubs coming to visit and sail here. I think everyone’ s had a good time.”
Ashore tonight, the party fired up early as the end of the regatta ended and the final prize giving held to award all winners.