Commodore on song

Bill Wood wins Royal Sydney YS pointscore series

Bill Wood, in his first year as Commodore of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, has scored a close victory with his Jeanneau 45 Kookaburra II in the Squadron’s Division 1 Main and Summer pointscores for 2006-2007, which ended on Saturday.

Commodore Wood not only follows the very long and fine tradition of Squadron Commodores being active and successful racing yachtsmen, but he heads a line-up of Commodores, Past Commodores and senior yachting administrators who have sailed with success with the RSYS this past season.

Kookaburra II won the Main Pointscore by just 1.73 points and a margin of 22 seconds in the final race from Charles Curran’s Sydney 60 Sydney, skippered on most occasions by David Kellett, an ISAF Vice President and former Commodore of the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.

The Main pointscore went down to Saturday’s 24th and final race of the season, with Kookaburra II finishing second on corrected time, beating Sydney by 22 seconds

Kookaburra II, which notched up five first places in Division 1 over the season, also won the Summer pointscore. Sydney continued to be the ‘bridesmaid’ with a second under IRC handicaps, and a third each in the Spring, Summer and RPEYC pointscores.

The Spring pointscore winner was the Bavaria Match 38 Equiknox, owned by John Molyneaux and Peter Bray.

Two past Commodores of the Squadron, Jim Dunstan and Bruce Dickson (also a Past President of Yachting Australia) had division pointscore victories over the summer.

Dickson sailed the Peter Cole-designed Nantucket 43 Norske to first place in the RPEYC pointscore for Division 1 while Dunstan skippered his 1981 Sydney Hobart Race winner Zeus II, a Currawong 30, to first place in the Main, Summer and RPEYC pointscores of Division 4. The Spring pointscore in Division 4 went to Kupu Gila, a Jarkan 10 skippered by John Anstey.

Yachting NSW President and past Commodore of the RAN Sailing Association Lyndsey Brown sailed his Folkboat Dreamtime into first place in Division 5 Spring pointscore and lost the Main pointscore by just one point to the Kirsten II, John Bowman and Keith Short’s Hood 25. In a successful season, Kirsten II also won the Summer and RPEYC pointscores in Division 5.

In the Squadron’s Division 2, Peter Davenport’s former New Zealand-based 12m sloop Arcturus II had a clean sleep of the major pointscores, winning the Main, Spring, Summer and RPEYC series.

The International Etchells class season saw Stephen Barlow and Peter Gardner’s Humpback dominate results, taking out the Main, Spring and Summer pointscores and the Club championship. The RPEYC series went to Dot, skippered by Max Whitnall.

In the expanding International Dragon class, Martin Burke, skippering Riga, won the Main, Summer and RPEYC pointscores while the Spring pointscore went to Sidewinder, skippered for former Olympian Carl Ryves.

In the International Ynglings, Hamish Jarrett at the helm of Pourquoi , took out the Main, Spring and RPEYC pointscores, while the Summer series went to Jordan Reece in Meridian.

The Offshore Division 3 overall winner for the season was the veteran Illingworth and Primrose-designed Morag Bheag, skippered by John Maclurcan.