Estate Master into the lead

After the opening day of the Rolex Trophy One Design series

In some close racing on The Sound at the entrance to Sydney Heads, Martin and Lisa Hill and their Estate Master crew from Middle Harbour Yacht Club have come out on top after three races on Day 1 of the Rolex Trophy One-Design series.

Sailing on windward/leeward courses, five of Australia’s top Farr 40s are contesting the series organised by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA). Estate Master’s crew by no means had it all their own way today; the top three results across the board were mixed.

Hill and his crew notched up 3-1-2 results to lead on countback from Lang Walker’s Kokomo, from the CYCA and to be named ‘Boat of the Day’. Walker and his crew were the equal of Hill, scoring 1-2-3. Guido Belgiorno-Nettis (MHYC) and his Transfusion crew are third overall after finishing their day with a fifth, third and a win.

"The wind was from every which way and up and down in pressure, just to add spice to an already spicy day, Martin Hill said this afternoon.

"It was a tough day, you had to grind for your money’s worth. Although the breeze was going left throughout the day, there were plenty of right hand shifts,” he said.

Hill agreed the regatta is not over yet, with two days and six races remaining. "We’ll have to stay very focused," he said.

Principal Race Officer Denis Thompson described today’s racing as "really good - the racing was mostly quite close – especially Race 3, as the yachts kept crossing each other and there was a great gybing duel going on throughout the race.”

Racing started in a south-easterly with big variations in strength - from 5-20 knots, in fact, but mostly in the 12-15 knot range.

"The breeze kept going left all day, and by the time we waited for a ship to pass us going into the Harbour, the breeze had gone to the east, so we moved the marks to reflect that,” Thompson said.

Race 3 and the breeze was more north of east in the 15-18 knot range. "It was a weird day breeze-wise,” said Thompson who plans to race the yachts offshore tomorrow in what is expected to be a typical summer north-easterly breeze.

Racing resumes tomorrow morning from 11.00am, weather permitting. The Farr 40s will be joined by the Sydney 38 One Designs which will be contesting the first races of their two day series.

Nine races will decide the Farr 40 series, while the Sydney 38 One Design series will consist of six races.