Alfa Romeo creates regatta history

• NEWS
• 03 Dec, 2002 03:42:00 PM

Alfa Romeo creates regatta history

The CYCA-based super maxi Alfa Romeo made history in the 25th annual JPMorgan Regatta over the weekend when she brilliantly won line honours and first place on IRC corrected time in each of the four races of the short ocean racing championship.

The CYCA-based super maxi Alfa Romeo made history in the 25th annual JPMorgan Regatta over the weekend when she brilliantly won line honours and first place on IRC corrected time in each of the four races of the short ocean racing championship.

Steered by her owner,  Sydney businessman Neville Crichton,  she outclassed the fleet which included several of her rivals for line honours in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
The 90-footer and her crew gave a faultless display of fresh weather sailing yesterday as strong southerly winds of 20-25 knots,  with sharp gusts of 30 knots and more turning Sydney Harbour into a sea of white caps with many dramatic spinnaker wipe-outs.

Other Rolex Sydney Hobart Race entrants also sailed impressively in the other rating classes and one design divisions in this important lead-up to the major long Christmas-New Year ocean races.

With a strong wind warning and rising seas offshore,  Middle Harbour Yacht Club yesterday elected to sail all divisions within Sydney Harbour,  creating a crowded scene with some 70 boats racing, dodging Manly ferries and a huge tanker as it left the port.

More than a dozen boats did uncontrolled broaches and “chinese” gybes as they crossed the Heads where the waters were churned up by the strong winds and big tidal flow.

Middle Harbour Yacht Club member Peter McNamara fell overboard from his Sydney 38,  AMI Jade,  in the fourth race but was quickly recovered by his crew.

Alfa Romeo again turned in a faultless display of power sailing after her two wins on Saturday, as did the grand prix racers, Quest,  Ragamuffin and Sting,  and the 30-footers Toecutter and Krakatoa,  all leading contenders for line and handicap honours in this month’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Overall on corrected time,  Alfa Romeo won the IRC division with 4 points,  second place going to the well sailed Pittwater yacht,  Pretty Woman, a Corel 45, skippered by Richard Hudson.
Third place overall went to the smallest yacht in the regatta,  Toecutter,  skippered by her designer, builder and part-owner Robert Hick from Melbourne’s Royal Ocean Racing Club of Victoria.

It was an impressive display by the 30-footer Toecutter which will be one of the smallest boats in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Another small boat entered for Hobart,  Rod Skellet’s Young 31, Krakatoa,  finished an impressive third overall in the JOG-Super 30 division,  flying her brand new “Offshore Yachting” magazine spinnaker.

“I certainly did not expect us to do so well over the short courses,  with windward and leeward legs of less than a mile, but we got good starts and quickly broke away from our rivals to hold our time on the smaller boats,” Crichton said at the regatta presentation at Middle Harbour Yacht Club.

In the IMS Division,  Sting, Terry Mullens’ Farr 49,  won her second successive JPMorgan Regatta championship  after close boat-for-boat racing with Syd Fischer’s Farr 50,  Ragamuffin. 
However,  Ragamuffin missed yesterday’s first race and, as a result,  placed fourth overall,  second going to Bob Steele’s Nelson/Marek 46, Quest, and third to Howard Piggott’s Beneteau 40.7,  True North, Sting, which won the 1999 Sydney Hobart as Yendys,  is in top form this year having won the IMS divisions at Hamilton Island Race Week, in the Sydney – Gold Coast Race,  the Gosford to Lord Howe Island Race and now,  for the second year,  the JPMorgan Regatta.

In the Sydney 38 One Design Division,  Rolex Sydney Hobart Race entrant Andrew Short Marine,  skippered by Andrew Short, won the final race to finish third overall in the regatta,  while another Hobart entrant,  Peter Rodgers’ She II won race two in the PHS Division.