Sydney Newcastle Yacht Race - Victoire slips into top three

10:25 PM Sat 20 Mar 2010 GMT

'Audi Sydney-Newcastle 2010 - VICTOIRE' Andrea Francolini / Audi &copy

Victoire, Darryl Hodgkinson's Beneteau First 45, has sneaked onto the IRC podium of the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race overnight, after crossing the Hunter River finish line at 11.48pm.

With only three yachts left at sea in the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia organised race, Geoff Ross' RP 55 Yendys is the provisional winner, from Victoire, which had the bonus of Sean Kirkjian in the afterguard, bumping Bob Steel's TP52 Quest down to third overall. All three are from the host club.

However Steel can be happy that he is the provisional winner of the CYCA's prestigious 2009/2010 Blue Water Point Score (BWPS), taking the title by one point from Yendys and Syd Fischer's TP52 Ragamuffin.

After leading the BWPS by one place coming into this 213 nautical mile race, Fischer has been relegated to third place on countback.

Fischer, the legendary yachtsman who turned 83 this month, was disappointed when he arrived at the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club last night. After match racing Quest all the way to the finish and losing in the final stages, he then discovered they had missed beating Loki by four seconds to finish fifth overall.

Kelp found wrapped around Ragamuffin's keel could have made the difference, or maybe it was the failure of his crew to follow Quest inshore on the first night while leading their foe, after Fischer went off watch. Who knows?

However, both Fischer and Bob Steel said Chris Nicholson had sailed Yendys to an excellent win of slow and tactical race to Newcastle. 'Chris and the crew sailed a brilliant race and deserved to win. They got away from Syd and us and we weren't going to catch them,' said Steel who was backed up by Fischer: 'They sailed a bloody good race,' he said.

Disappointment for AFR Midnight Rambler's owner Ed Psaltis, who finished the race sixth overall behind Ragamuffin by 21 minutes, costing him a podium finish in the BWPS in which he was third placed coming into this race.

However, the modified Farr 40 from the CYCA has provisionally won the Tasman Performance Series by a long shot, ironically Psaltis using the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race as his race drop. He finished the Series on 23 points.

Relaxing over a beer or two at the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club late last night, Psaltis said: 'It was a long, slow race. We missed our rivalry with Tow Truck (which her owners have sold, so it did not finish the series). I think had they been here we might have been better off.'

Steven Proud and his Sydney 38 Swish crew (CYCA) have finished the Tasman Performance Series in second place with 31 points, with Robin and Annette Hawthorn's Beneteau 47.7, Imagination (CYCA) third on 41 points.

Twenty five yachts started the Audi Sydney Offshore Newcastle Yacht Race, of which five have retired: EZ Street, Patrice Six, One for the Road, Nips-N-Tux and Mr Beaks Ribs.

Three boats remain at sea this morning in what has been a slow and tactical uphill battle the whole way. As at 7.30am,SES Inch By Winch had 8.7 nautical miles to go and was sailing at 5 knots, due in after 8.00am, Menace with 16nm to go sailing at 3 knots (after 10.00am) and Allegro, which had a long 55 miles to go and was sailing in 5 knots with an ETA of mid afternoon.

Winners will be awarded their trophies at the Audi Winter Series cocktail party on Thursday April 8th, 2010.