Australia Day success

Elliott 1050 wins this year's oldest continuously held regatta

The 171st Australia Day Regatta’s City of Sydney Sesquicentenary Cup for the CYCA’s Australia Day short ocean race to Botany Bay and return has been won by the Elliott 1050 Spearhead, skippered by Rick Fielding.

The Cup is awarded to the yacht with the lowest PHS corrected time among those specifically entered for the Australia Day Regatta among the fleet contesting the CYCA s combined Ocean Pointscore and Short Ocean Pointscore race to Botany Bay.

Spearhead’s skipper and most of her crew are air traffic controllers who race the yacht as their relaxation when not undertaking their onerous tasks at Sydney Airport, but this was the boat’s first ocean race this summer.

Speahead won PHS Division 1 of yesterday’s Short Ocean Pointscore, sailed in a freshening northeasterly seabreeze on a hot and sunny day in Sydney, recording a corrected time of 4 hours 56 minutes 52 seconds.

Her elapsed time was a mere 10 seconds better than that of Warwick Sherman’s Cookson 39 Occasional Coarse Language which placed second in PHS Division 1 of the Short Ocean Pointscore and won the PHS Division of the Ocean Pointscore.

The Geoff Lee Trophy, for line honours in the Australia Day Regatta race to Botany Bay, went to Dick Cawse’s Cawse/Lyons 60 Vanguard which sailed the course in the fast time of 3 hours 25 minutes 13 seconds, also taking out the IRC Division of the Ocean Pointscore.

Vanguard won the IRC division of the Ocean Pointscore on corrected time from Julian Farren-Price’s Cookson 39 About Time with the casual entry Splash Gordon (Stephen Ellis) third and Occasional Coarse Language fourth.

Occasional Coarse Language won the Ocean Pointscore PHS division by just 6 seconds on corrected time from Out of Sight (Matt Wilkinson) and Black Adder (Stephen Thomas).

Spearhead took out PHS Division 1 of the Short Ocean Pointscore from Occasional Coarse Language, third place going to Black Adder, with Big Blue (Bob Penty) winning PHS Division 3, from Out of Sight and Morag Bheag (John Maclurcan). Big Blue was not an Australia Day Regatta entrant

About Time and AFR Midnight Rambler, Ed Psaltis and Bob Thomas’ Farr 40, continued their duel for top honours in IRC Division 1 of the Short Ocean Pointscore, with About Time taking honours by just under two minutes.

In IRC Division 3, the classic Illingworth & Primrose-designed Morag Bheag strengthened her grip on the pointscore with a win from Out of Sight and Brilliant (Howard & Susan Piggott).

The Ocean Pointscore fleet raced again today, to Lion Island and return, with Vanguard again taking line honours and first place in the IRC division, winning from About Time and Occasional Coarse Language. PHS division winner was Occasional Coarse Language with About Time second and Occasional Coarse Language third.