8:38 AM Sat 13 Dec 2008 GMT
The ever-changing weather conditions had the Rolex Trophy One Design race committee busy re-laying marks and kept competitors on their toes with today's winds a bit like Forrest Gump's box of chocolates - you never knew what you were going to get.
"Within 45 minutes we had up to four changes in wind direction in race one including one 300 degree shift," said Principal Race Office Denis Thompson this afternoon.
"All we needed was a sou'easter and we would have had breeze from every direction," said tactician Sean Kirkjian from today's duel winner, the Sydney 38 Uplift.
Just two races were completed today before Thompson again brought the fleet ashore. Once the gusts climbed to 28 knots out of the north-west and the breeze continued to be unstable, the two fleets headed back to their home clubs.
Both the Farr 40 and Sydney 38 fleets were sent offshore for day two of the Rolex Trophy One Design Series, racing on the waters known as Macquarie Circle, an area located off the Macquarie Lighthouse on Sydney's South Head.
A wafting breeze between four and six knots from the north-east and a few big rollers, thanks to a long, slow swell, made for a challenging first race of day two.
Lisa and Martin Hill's Farr 40 Estate Master and Guido Belgiorno Nettis' Transfusion were both a bit too eager to start and were re-called by the race committee.
The Farr 40's began their regatta yesterday, completing two races. Lang Walker's Kokomo went into today's third and fourth races off the back of two straight wins yesterday but they weren't able to keep up the pace, finishing third and fourth today. They still lead the series by one point from Transfusion.
Brett Neill's Farr 40 White Cloud scored its first win of the series in race one today.
Late comer Ivan Wheen's Farr 40 Sputnik, arrived on the race course for race four, its first of the series, and led the fleet around the one-lap shortened course to take the gun.
For the Sydney 38 division conditions were described as 'freaky'. As the fleet approached the top mark in race two, boats that were 200 metres apart had headsails and spinnakers up heading towards the mark and then had to reach towards the finish line. Bizarrely, those carrying kites to the top mark dropped them, reached to the mark and then continued to the finish under headsail.
Uplift sailed a faultless two races to beat its class mates and claim Boat of the Day and lead the provisional pointscore going into tomorrow's second and final day of racing.
.PROVISIONAL POINTSCORE ONE DESIGN SERIES: 12-14 December 2008 R 40 Yacht Sail No. Owner/Skipper R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 Total Place Kokomo 8883 Lang Walker
Transfusion 6422 Guido Belgiorno Nettis White Cloud 8877 Brett Neill 4 3 1 5 13 3Estate Master 615 Lisa & Martin Hill 3 4 4 3 14 4Edake 51408 Jeff Carter 6 6 5 6 23 5Sputnik 5868 Ivan Wheen 8 8 8 1 25 6Easy Tiger II 5585 C Way & I Burns 5 5 8 8 26 7
THE CRUISING YACHT CLUB OF AUSTRALIA | The Rolex Trophy 2008 | ONE DESIGN SERIES: 13/14th December 2008 | PROVISIONAL POINTSCORE | SYD 38 | Yacht | Sail No. | Owner/Skipper | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Total | Place | Uplift | 6095 | Darryl Hodgkinson | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | The Tavern | 6157 | Ian & Shane Guanaria | 2 | 4 | 6 | 2 | Iplex Outlaw | R38 | Alan & Tom Quick | 6 | 3 | 9 | 3 | Zen | 3838 | Gordon Ketelbey | 4 | 6 | 10 | 4 | Calibre | 7777 | Geoff Bonus | 8 | 2 | 10 | 4 | Acuity | 6418 | Tony Walls | 3 | 8 | 11 | 6 | The SubZero Goat | 7027 | Clayton, Gordon & Foye | 5 | 7 | 12 | 7 | Swish | 6073 | Steven Proud | 7 | 5 | 12 | 7 | Limit | 8938 | Alan Brierty / Roger Hickman | 10 | 10 | 20 | 9 |
by Rolex Event Media
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