10:57 PM Wed 29 Oct 2008 GMT
The day of the X-Yachts Australia Cup dawned, beautiful and sunny, with a gentle, warm breeze wafting over Sydney Harbour. Stark contrast to the freezing southerly that had been howling for the previous three days.
An impressive 10 X-Yachts lined-up at the start off the CYCA in Rushcutters Bay. Racing got underway at 1330 with the first race being sailed over a windward leeward style course of approximately 6 NM. The light easterly breeze of 6-8 knots was difficult to read and the lead changed often.
The first yacht around the top mark was Bill Neill's X-43 White Satin, closely followed by Tony Kirby's X-41 Patrice SiX. The magnificent brand new X-50 Xscape owned and sailed by Andrew Boller rounded third, the guys from Darwin learning quickly that Sydney is a difficult harbour to sail.
By the finish the order had not changed with the corrected time placing being White Satin 1st, Patrice SiX second and Denis Doyle's X-412 Sextant third .
The second race was a longer course of approximately 12NM around Sydney Harbour. The breeze had filled in a little but was still patchy and difficult to read. A close fought start was followed by a long work-up to the JB mark north of the Sow and Pigs.
The new X-50 Xscape powered up and stamped her authority on the race, easily leading around the first and all subsequent marks and finishing over 10 minutes ahead of the second placed yacht Patrice SiX. The crew from Darwin had clearly learned the conditions from the first race and demonstrated the class of the new X-50. On corrected time Xscape had sailed fast enough to finish first with White Satin second and Ray Hudson's X-442 Next Moment third.
The overall results were in the end very close with White Satin first on 3.0 points, Patrice SiX second on 6.0 points followed very closely by Xscape on 7.0 points in third position.
Overall honours for the day went to White Satin winning the X-Yachts Australia Cup 2008 with David McLean's beautifully sailed X-37 Solvieg taking honours in the non spinnaker division for both line and handicap. The line honours trophy for the X-Yachts spinnaker division went to Xscape.
After racing concluded the competitors convened back at the CYCA for the presentation.
DIV 1 X YACHTS SPINNAKER | Pointscore |
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| Sail No | Yacht | Type | Owner/Skipper | R1 | R2 | Total | Place | 6543 | White Satin | X-43 | Bill Neil | 1 | 2 | 3.0 | 1 | 360 | Patrice SiX | X-41 | Tony Kirby | 2 | 4 | 6.0 | 2 | 501 | Xscape | X-50 | Andrew and LeeBoller | 6 | 1 | 7.0 | 3 | 6198 | Next Moment | X-442 | Ray and Fran Hudson | 5 | 3 | 8.0 | 4 | 6343 | Great eXpectations | X-43 | Rod Wills | 4 | 5 | 9.0 | 5 | 9412 | Sextant | X-412 | Denis Doyle | 3 | 9 | 12.0 | 6 | 8412 | Cyrene3 | X-412 | Michael Selby | 7 | 6 | 13.0 | 7 | 7621 | Viking | X-382 | Robert Baker | 8 | 9 | 17.0 | 8 |
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| DIV 2 X YACHTS NON-SPINNAKER | Pointscore |
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| Sail No | Yacht | Type | Owner/Skipper | R1 | R2 | Total | Place | 6737 | Solveig | X-37 | David McLean | 1 | 1 | 2.0 | 1 | 6482 | Gaia | X-482 | Wayne Jupp | 2 | 3 | 5.0 | 2 |
All the prizes were donated by key suppliers adding a final and important touch to a great days sailing.
Alegayter Sails
Australian Yacht Winch Company
Barlow Distributors, Lewmar
Boat Stripes
Boatworks
Club Marine Insurance
Contender Sailcloth.
Doyle Sail makers
Hood Sail makers
Midko Marine
North Sails
Ocean Media
Q Media
Quantum Sail Group
Ronstan International
Sheets Ahoy
Ship Shape Marine
SLAM
The Quays Marina
Volvo Penta
Yaffa Publishing
by Robert McClelland
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