Ullman Sails Sydney 38 Series kicks off in Melbourne

7:10 PM Wed 21 Oct 2009 GMT

'Audacious - Ullman Sails Sydney 38 Series' Liz Haines

After the pre-season regatta four weeks ago in Geelong, the Victorian Sydney 38 fleet were keen to flex their muscles and settle some scores between the small but fiercely competitive fleet based in Port Phillip Bay.

To support the class, both Sandringham and Brighton yacht clubs have joined forces to run a combined Sydney 38 series over five weekends from October through to March 2010. The recently established Ullman Sails loft has increased its involvement with the Sydney 38 class by sponsoring this series with some attractive prizes on offer.

The owners decided to go with a limit of two jibs for this series, a concept that has been considered previously by the Sydney 38 Association, along with other current considerations such as increased crew weight limits and the recently accepted change to 25% bigger mast head kites for races over twenty nautical miles.

Of the six boats entered, only three boats made it to the start line, with Clockwork a last minute withdrawal after their forestay turn-buckle failed just before the start of the first race.

So it was the undisputed Victorian champion Challenge owned by sailing legend Lou Abrahams, against the undisputed Corinthian gun in the Mollison brothers Sierra Chainsaw, against the improving Audacious owned by Greg Clinnick and Paul Holden.

After a delay due to light winds, the Race Officer moved the race course further south and was immediately rewarded with a solid southerly breeze of around 12 to 15 knots. Racing got underway with three windward/leeward races of approximately 45 minutes duration sailed back-to-back.

With three boats all so closely matched for speed, this was One Design racing at its best with any small errors immediately noticeable as a three way match race unfolded. Audacious showed her upwind speed to be first at the windward mark in all three races, but only by metres. Challenge and Sierra showed their skill and experience to come from behind on more than one occasion to turn the tables.

In Race 1 it saw first blood to Sierra, with Audacious second and Challenge third with 20 seconds separating the fleet. Race 2 was even closer with Challenge turning the tables and finishing first, 1 second ahead of Sierra with Audacious third with only 9 seconds between first and third. In Race 3 Audacious put it all together in a softening breeze to take its turn for a win with a dominant margin of over 1 minute ahead of Challenge finishing a few seconds ahead of Sierra. One Design racing does not get any closer or better than this!

So after 3 heats all boats had a first, a second and a third place to be all locked up at equal first in the series. The good news is that it is all on again next Sunday when Sandringham takes their turn to host the second day of racing when Clockwork, 38 Degrees and Another Challenge will bolster the fleet as the battle continues...