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Neville
Crichton's new super maxi Alfa Romeo scored a double double
on the first day of Middle Harbour Yacht Club's 28th annual
Savills Short Ocean Racing Championship sailed offshore from
Sydney on 26-27 November.
The 30m Reichel/Pugh sloop took line honours and first place
on corrected time in the IRC Division A fleet in both
races. The following day, however, with racing inside Sydney
Harbour because of strong to near galeforce winds offshore,
Crichton wisely elected not to risk racing the big boat in
the crowded inshore waters. Instead, the crew went offshore
to practice sailing with the yacht's storm sails - a bright
orange storm trysail and storm jib. Despite missing the
third race on the second day (race four was abandoned as
winds rose to 38 knots), Alfa Romeo still took second place
overall to Wild Joe, the Reichel/Pugh 60 which, as Wild
Oats, led the Australian team to victory in the 2003
Admiral's Cup in England.
Race one of the Savills regatta resulted in a score of:
Weather 1; Boats 0 in which the wind ranged from 8 knots
down to 0 and back up to 4 knots and changed direction 180
degrees. The opening race was a tricky one for all boats in
the regatta, notably Alfa Romeo, but the Reichel/Pugh-designed
98-footer showed her class by recovering from getting
"caught in irons" going through a tack soon after the start
to taking line honours and first place on corrected time.
The super maxi stalled mid-tack, her huge mainsail
de-powering. She sat almost dead in the water for about four
minutes before getting under way again the light 8-knot
northeasterly breeze in pursuit of the small grand prix
feet.
Observers on the water at first thought the big boat might
have lost engine power, leaving the crew without hydraulic
power to operate the main winches, steering and the canting
keel. This had happened during a gybe at Hamilton Island
Race Week. However, owner/skipper Neville Crichton said
after the race there had been no mechanical problems. 'It
was just a stuff-up, lack of co-ordination between myself
(on the helm) and the trimmers. and I got her into irons,'
he said.
Alfa Romeo overtook her smaller rivals before the first
windward mark but as she rounded, the wind fell away to only
3 knots. As she rounded leeward mark for the second
windward\leeward legs, the boats astern of her carried a new
breeze, with Sean Langman's Open 66, AAPT, carrying a huge
spinnaker before an westerly breeze. With the wind (what
there was of it) coming from three different directions, the
Reichel/Pugh 60, Wild Joe, skippered by Stephen David,
rounded in second place with Stephen Ainsworth's Reichel/Pugh
60 and AAPT rounding almost together. Yendys, Geoff Ross'
Judel Vrolijk 52, brought up the tailend. Alfa Romeo
continued to open up a commanding lead, with Crichton
confident that 'despite giving the boys a bit of a start'
Alfa Romeo had won the race on handicap as well. He was
right, but the winning margin far exceeded his
prediction. On corrected time, Alfa Romeo, the favourite
for line honours in this year's Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht
Race, won by more than 17 minutes from Geoff Ross' Judel
Vrolijk 52, Yendys and Stephen Ainsworth's new Loki, a
Reichel/Pugh 60 with a conventional bulb keel.
Race two was a different story, with a northeasterly sea
breeze freshening from 15-20 knots and Alfa Romeo powering
away from the fleet upwind and downwind. |
