(Sydney, Australia- October 3rd)- Blustery southerly winds and squally rains greeted the fleet for Race One of the Grant Thornton Short Ocean Pointscore Series. The first race of the series was raced on Saturday, 3 October 2009, in wintery conditions and was conducted by Middle Harbour Yacht Club. In what is becoming a tradition for this race, the southerly winds and squally rains that greeted the sixteen intrepid and enthusiastic competitors appeared to be a re-run from previous year's events. Due to the 2-3 metre swells experienced off shore, the race committee was unable to lay the marks out past the "Sydney Harbor Heads", so they made the decision to send Division 1 yachts to Botany Bay and back.
For Ray Entwistle’s J/122 JACKPOT it was an exhilarating day’s racing. “We flew the 140sq.m asymmetric kite from the Shark Island start to the heads, turned the corner and the crew hit the rail for the beat down the coast to Botany Bay. The winds were averaging 25 knots, gusting over 30 knots at times, and the rain felt like small hail stones hitting our faces. The waves washed away the last of the red dust that remained from the dust storm, which had infiltrated every crevice of the boat. We lost some time when we missed a wind shift and that allowed the fleet to get away from us,” said Entwistle.
“Turning into Botany Bay, we had a few minutes respite from the weather. We rounded the mark and set the new heavy weather spinnaker off the bowsprit for what was a joyride back home. We hit a new top boat speed of 18.6knots in JACKPOT, averaging 14 knots. It felt like it only took 10 minutes to get to Bondi – the boat was flying and the crew were loving it,” concluded Entwistle.
JACKPOT finished third in IRC Division 2. Tim Cox’s J/35 SOUNDTRACK finished first in IRC Division 3, the course set in-harbour due to the rough sea conditions.
