Northerly winds at 10-15 knots, tending north-easterly later in the afternoon and up to 20 knots is on the agenda for Sydney Harbour and its surrounds today, meaning a possible change up in results and more action sailing than that of yesterday’s lighter airs.
First up again will be the Premier/Performance Ocean Passage boats which start at 11.30am, featuring Grant Wharington’s Queensland super maxi, Wild Thing.
Firing up in the PHS non-spinnaker division, Wolverines singer/drummer, John Clinton said he would practice some scales while racing today.
Clinton and his country band will play to competitors and fans from 4.30pm today back on the sands at Middle Harbour Yacht Club. 'We’ll be performing all our own sailing songs and some by Jimmy Buffett,' the bearded Clinton said.
'We’ll be tuning up on the water to stay in time and start the race in time; so I hope we’re on track on the water and everyone is kind to us so we get back in time for a quick tune-up. I’m looking forward to playing to the crowd – they like to party hard at the Sydney Harbour Regatta – we know, because we’ve entertained here before.'
Apart from the offshore race, all other classes will be back in action from 12.00pm will be the Flying Tigers and Sydney 38’s, both conducting their national championships and the Cavalier 28’s which are racing for the NSW Championship.
While Marcus Bristow currently holds the lead in the Flying Tigers, with his Hello Tiger, his lead is tenuous, with Rod Gibbs Shere Khan just two points adrift and Bruce Tavener’s Ophir just a further point behind. Today’s predicted big breeze could mean the day ends in tears for some in this trapeze and big spinnaker class that will be thrilling to watch when the boats gybe under spinnaker.
In the Cavalier 28, Philip Mahony’s Blind Justice is nicely positioned at the top of the leaderboard, six points clear off Christina III (Andrew Christian) and last year’s dominant winner, Scuttlebutt (Greg Purcell).
The Super 30’s will be one light today after Matt Wilkinson had to crash tack his Masrm 920, Out of Sight, to avoid a collision with an Historic 18 footer. Wilkinson, who was leading the series with two wins and third on the card at the time of the incident, said this morning 'We’re gutted. We hailed the 18 footer a couple of times; I don’t know whether they saw us or not.
'We crash tacked and they smashed into us and punched in the rudder. We’ve had the damage assessed, but the boat builder told us it’s not safe to race, so ‘we’re out,' Wilkinson said.
'My crew have come from all over the state for the regatta, and I had the boat prepared. We were on track to win – and today’s conditions look perfect….'
Despite not finishing Race 3, Out of Sight is still sitting in second place, behind new leader, 2Xcess (Peter Woodhead), with Garry Corstorphen’s Youngstar in third place, seven points off the lead.
In the Adams 10 class, Mitchell Miller’s Rock Solid is just four points ahead of Jim Curtis’ Another Dilemma, with a five point gap to No Friends (Geoffrey Charters), although the racing was much closer than the scores reveal.
X boat distributor, Andrew Parkes, is leading the X series, aboard his Xeme, while Ian Box and his XP44, Toy Box 2 is knocking at the door, just one point behind.
Hamish Jarrett leads the Yngling class with Miss Pibb from triple Olympic representative Karen Gojnich and Evie. The J24 keelboat class is led by David West’s Ace, by four points to Marc Tromp’s Waterborne Again and Brett Hudson’s Wild Fire.
Nick Kingsmill (Vincero) leads the Etchells from Touch Pause Engage (Michael Stovin-Bradford) by a point, while Bob Killick’s Yendys sailed to victory in the Historic 18’s one race, after a handicap start in which he started third last. John Winning, who’s Aberdare was the scratch boat, finished second.
Assisting Middle Harbour Yacht Club in the running of NSW’s largest regatta is the CYCA, MYC, NCYC, RANSA, RPAYC, RPEYC, RSYS, SASC, and SFS, who made the job easier.
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