Melbourne -Stanley Race Report
RACE REPORT: MELBOURNE - STANLEY
8 boats from SYC participated in the ORCV Melbourne-Stanley race over Melbourne Cup Weekend, with SYC's WILD SIDE (Martin Vaughan's Sydney 36) having a fantastic race, winning Performance Handicap, 2nd on IRC and 3rd on AMS. Rob Sill on INSX also had a good race, with a 3rd on Performance and 4th on IRC. SYC's Georgia was pipped-at-the-post by 5 secs for Line Honours by Shogun, after leading the race for most of the way. Bruce Taylor's Chutzpah from RYCV sailed a great race to win the IRC and AMS divisions.
For Wild Side, one of the smallest boats in the fleet, the race was a perfect lead-up for their upcoming Sydney - Hobart campaign.
The race started at 5:00am Saturday in a 20kn Southerly, with the fleet splitting tacks and either heading East or West. During the course of the day, the breeze moved into the South East, and died out to 10kn, with several holes of less. The fleet continued beating into a short, choppy sea that gradually flattened out. Around 5:00pm the wind shifted into the East and strengthened to 15-20kn giving the fleet sprung sheets and considerably quicker speeds. Georgia and Shogun were neck-and-neck rounding The Nut at Stanley at 2:15am Sunday, but Shogun took a better line, and stole Line Honours from Georgia, in one of the closest finishes to an ocean race. The rest of the fleet, led by SYC's Goldfinger, enjoyed the fast reaching conditions finishing on Sunday morning, with the last boat finishing at 10:30am. Several boats enjoyed the hospitality provided by the Stanley Lions Club, before heading back to Melbourne, pushed along by a Southerly change that gave boats a nice, quick trip home.
Mark Welsh
