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Rex Gorell Rating Series division 1 & 2
Final points from Tuesday January 24 and the deciding three windward/leeward races in 20 knot sou’easters firmed Terra Firma as the Rex Gorell Land Rover Club Marine AMS division one victor (IRC) by one point. Only once did Nick Bartels’ Cookson 50 Terra Firma drop out of the top tier, after race six today, when they fell in behind Geoff Boettcher’s TP52 Secret Mens Business from Adelaide but still on equal points.
Second overall Geoff Boettcher’s Secret Men’s Business put up a great fight. “We had them on toast in the last race, then blew a tack line and it was all over. If we’d started the regatta and someone had said ‘would you guys take a second and walk away?’ we would have said no. Failure cost us the race. You can’t pick that, it just happens. “How close was it? It’s a great division,” Boettcher added.
Rating 2’s IRC results clearly belonged to Bruce McCraken’s Beneteau Ikon which has now won overall at Geelong at least three times.
Second by 10.5 points was Bruce Taylor’s Sydney 38 Chutzpah (VIC) and third was Shaun Tiedemann’s Sydney 36 Philosopher, a Tasmanian entry.
MYC results NIL
Gill Sports Boats
Julian Newton’s Thompson 8 Game On from South Australia went back-to-back in the Gill Sports Boat Series. They were challenged right to the end by the Viper 640 called Heat, skippered by 15 year-old Tyler Ratcliff, the youngest skipper at the regatta.
MYC results 6th KISS Greg Scherwinski
Cruising AMS division 1 & 2
It was hard to argue with Jon Lechte’s five firsts in five races with his Cookson 12 A Cunning Plan (SYC), winner of the Cruising AMS division 1 (AMS) from Jen and Brenton Carnell’s Phoenix.
EHC handicap winner of the Peroni Wolf Blass Cruising AMS division 2 was Paul and Angela Woodman’s Bavaria 44 Summer Wind from Royal Brighton Yacht Club.
MYC and SBSC's Peter Russell’s Sydney 36r Wild Goats won the AMS handicap top trophy.
MYC Results
Cruising Div. 1 AMS
4th Javelin M9 Mark Nicholson
13th Rogue M2 David Phillips
Cruising Div.2 AMS
1st Wild Goats M123 Peter Russell
12th Seduction M406 Richard Nichols
Club Marine cruising divisions 1,2,3, non-spinnaker, multihulls & classics
The largest contributor to the final fleet size, the good natured banter on the dock and the spectacle of the annual Festival of Sails hosted by the Royal Geelong Yacht Club are the cruising boats.
Grant Anderson’s Beneteau First 45 First Passion received the winner’s trophy in Club Marine Cruising spinnaker division 2. “Another fantastic regatta, it’s something we enjoy every year and to take out the division 2 this year is a great feeling. We had a great time and always enjoy the Festival of Sails,” the Sandringham Yacht Club skipper added.
Mark Hanlon’s Noelex 30 Maitresse performed the best in Cruising Spinnaker division 3 and Rick Blanck’s Beneteau Oceanis 34 Suri was declared winner of the Marina YE Cruising Non-Spinnaker after five races, four passage and one twilight race on Sunday afternoon.
MYC Results
Cruising Spinnaker Div.1 EHS
3rd Obsession 2999 Michael and Laurie White
19th Joker on Tour M1250 Grant Chipperfield
Cruising Spinnaker Div.2 EHS
27th Trim M27 Tony Grundy
Cruising Spinnaker Div.3 EHS
2nd Friday harbour B2911 Kon Cili
21st Windsong of Mornington M5 Jim Watson
Performance Racing
3rd Beligerent M3100 Max and Bryn Lynch
Classic
4th Athena Ron Caddy
Final words from the Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson
“It’s been pretty interesting weather-wise and the event delivered on the last day with breeze, which will be the lasting memory for the sailors.
“We had a good traditional Passage Race that began in breeze and glassed out in the middle before the sea breeze came in, which turns the results upside down and is typical for passage racing, whether it’s the Sydney to Hobart of the Melbourne to Geelong.
“The light middle section of the series was good for the low handicap raters and then we had a perfect sailing breeze to finish.”
Dates for the future Festival of Sails have been locked in for the second last weekend in January. The 2018 edition will begin on January 20 and the core sailing component will end Tuesday 23.
Next year’s festival is an important milestone – the Sesquicentenary of the Melbourne to Geelong Passage Race, the foundation event upon which the Festival of Sails was born.