Neville Crichton and his Alfa Romeo crew made short work of Day 1 of the Rolex Trophy Passage Series, taking line and handicap honours in Saturday's (19 December 2009) 27 nautical mile Passage Race. The 100 footer from New Zealand took just one hour 48 mins 25 secs to complete the course, also picking up the coveted overall IRC handicap win. 

Two separate fleets sailed the course; the Rolex Trophy Rating Series Division 1 and 2 competitors, who are on Day 3 of their series having already contested two days of windward/leeward racing, and the 21-yacht fleet in the Passage Series.

In what was ultimately a reaching race for the top half of the fleet, it was a comfortable offshore race sailed under a sunny sky on relatively flat seas. The yachts reached around the course that took them from the start at Shark Island to a Rolex mark laid offshore, to the finish in Watsons Bay, tucked just inside Sydney Heads. The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson said: “We were expecting a southerly wind, so set up the course that way. Instead, the fleet started in a lightish 10 knot breeze that was west of south-west and slowly bent round to the south and picked up to 18 knots after the bigger yachts had finished.

As the two fleets comprising 32 boats got underway off the same start line, Alfa Romeo led, making 20 knots of boat speed as she charged up the Harbour. Most popped spinnakers off the start line, Black Jack, Peter Harburg’s RP 66 from Queensland, coming unstuck early with a spinnaker problem that took more than 10 minutes to sort out, costing them dearly.

Bruce Taylor, a veteran of 28 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Races finished the day second overall on his IRC 40, Chutzpah, with Niklas Zennstrom’s RÁN third. Onboard Chutzpah, a Melbourne entry, is Kingsley Piesse, a 26 Rolex Sydney Hobart race veteran who this week won the Ocean Racing Crew Person of the Year award at the CYCA. Commenting on his performance, owner Taylor said: “Conditions really suited our boat. We got a good start which helped, and going out to sea we could see up ahead and who was doing well. Having a spinnaker that was built for light, shy, reaching was also really useful today. It was a great work out for Hobart,” said Taylor confessing, “There were a few crew whoopsies; we’re a bit rusty as we haven’t really sailed as a group since Hamilton Island.”

A lot of nervous eyes were on the international challenger RÁN, having her first proper hit-out in Australian waters. Niklas Zennstrom’s JV 72 from the United Kingdom did not disappoint. Considering the crew has only had a couple of days to unload the thoroughbred from a ship at Port Kembla, get her to Sydney and put her together again, they had a good opening day with third on line honours and overall. Boat and crew will be back on the water tomorrow for the final race of the Series. Declared the overall winner of the Rolex Fastnet Race in August, RÁN is highly rated as a chance to take out the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race starting in a week’s time. Representing the United Kingdom, Zennstrom has said he is keen to win the Rolex Hobart, which starts on Boxing Day at 1.00pm. Sean Langman’s 100ft Investec LOYAL finished the race second over the line after suffering spinnaker problems heading to the top mark. Langman finished 20 minutes astern of Alfa Romeo.