Honours for Loki and Ragamuffin

Peter Campbell reports from Sydney's JP Morgan regatta PLUS a report on the Farr 40 racing

Loki, Stephen Ainsworth’s Swan 47, this weekend has again shown she is more than a luxury cruising boat by outsailing a grand prix fleet in the IRC division of the JPMorgan Regatta off Sydney.

In fact, she did it with aplomb, winning three out of four races for what is Middle Harbour Yacht Club’s 20th annual short ocean racing championship, with the likes of Grundig, Brindabella, Ragamuffin, Nips N Tux and Austmark unable to upset her grip on corrected time handicap honours.

Skandia, Grant Wharington’s awesome new 98-footer from Melbourne, was the only boat to beat Loki on corrected time, winning the final race - by a margin of just two seconds.

Ainsworth, a Sydney businessman with a range of investments in the leisure industry, including Black Wolf camping and hiking gear and the large Sydney Harbour charter boat Whitehaven, emphasised that Loki is essentially a cruiser/racing.

“After Hamilton Island Race Week, I took the family cruising in the Whitsundays, and this was her first racing since then,” he said today. “The good windward beats over the short courses suited Loki, although we would have liked more wind,” added Ainsworth who has again entered the 2002 Australian IRC champion yacht for this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Race.

Loki, with Tony Kirby on the helm, won the IRC division with a 5 points score, comfortably ahead of Skandia on 10 points, third place going to the Swan 45, Joe, steered by Chris Links for owner John David, with 14 points, Syd Fischer’s Farr 50, Ragamuffin, placing fourth with 16 points.

Skandia swept away from the IMS and IRC fleet to take line honours in all four races and achieved an impressive corrected time scoreboard of 5,2,2, 1, obviously improving with every race, notably in crew work.

“We had a fantastic day, we were more settled and the crew work was much better…we had no spinnaker moments today,” owner/skipper Wharington said after the racing in a 12-15 knot noréaster and lumpy seas offshore. “We are also underpowered downwind as we were using old spinnakers…our new ones for the Canon Big Boat Challenge and the Rolex Trophy Series will be 100 square metres bigger,” he added.

While Ragamuffin’s IRC results disappointed, the Farr 50 made amends by dominating the smaller IMS division, winning all four races on corrected time, from the Lyons 47, Austmark (Gunther Schmidt-Linder) and Nips N Tux (Howard de Torres).

To win IMS, as the premier rating category for this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, is Ragamuffin’s main objective and she has turned in her best performance since being optimised last month with a new sweptback spreader rig.

With the combination of young Michael Dunstan on the helm and the highly experienced Michael Green calling tactics and highly efficient sail handling by the crew.

Dunstan steered Ragamuffin in place of regular driver Sean Kirkjian who this weekend is contesting the J/24 State championship while Green was wearing his Doyle-Fraser Sailmakers cap as well as giving his input with experience of the similar sweptback spreader rig on Quest, which did not racing this weekend.

Farr 40 report by Sam Crichton: Marcus Blackmore's Emotional Hooligan wins the Farr 40 division at the MHYC Short Ocean Racing Championship 2003, sponsored by JPMorgan.

Marcus Blackmore continued his winning streak after taking out his second regatta in a row and winning the Farr 40 OD class at the MHYC Short Ocean Racing Championship today. Blackmore finished first and second in today's races to finish six points clear of overnight leader Rob Skinner's Weapon. The Farr 40 fleet sailed off Sydney's South Head in a building Nor' east breeze that reached 17 knots.

In race three of the series Steve Ellis on Buon Giorno had a great start close to the boat end of the line with Emotional Hooligan, Richard Perini on Corinthian Doors and Lang Walker on Kokomo starting at the pin end of the line. These three boats rounded the top mark at the front of the fleet with Kokomo in front followed by Corinthian Doors and then Emotional Hooligan.

Dick Voorderhake and his crew on Rapscallion sailed well to finish second in race two behind Emotional Hooligan with only a six second separation between the two boats. Michael Blackburn - Olympic Laser class hopeful - was trimming the mainsail onboard Rapscallion this weekend.

With the breeze building for the final race of the series, Corinthian Doors had a good start and maintained their leader position during the race to finish first over the line and improved on their overnight position to finish third behind Weapon for the regatta.

Weapon sailed a consistent regatta with two ex 18 foot skiff sailors, Rob Brown and Olympic 49er class contender Chris Nicholson, both part of the regular Weapon crew.
Unfortunately Kevin Miller's Valley Tram suffered from a headsail twisting around the forestay, which cost them valuable time in the final race of the series.

The next regatta in the Farr 40 Australian season will be the Rolex Trophy Series being hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia on December 13-15.

Farr 40 Results:
1st Emotional Hooligan (M.Blackmore - RPAYC) 3,2,1,2 8
2nd Weapon (R.Skinner - CYCA) 2,1,7,4 14
3rd Corinthian Doors (R.Perini - RSYS) 4,6,4,1 15
4th Kokomo (L.Walker - CYCA) 5,3,3,5 16
5th Buon Giorno (S.Ellis - RPAYC) 1,5,5,6 17 6th Rapscallion (D.Voorderhake - CYCA) 9,7,2,3 21
7th One Step Ahead (D.McDonald - CYCA) 6,4,6,8 24
8th Panther (S.O'Rourke - CYCA) 7,9,8,7 31
9th Valley Tram (K.Miller - RQYS) 8,8,9,10 35
10th Capria (P.Hyland - RPAYC) 10,10,10,9 39