Ragamuffin Holds Onto Lead

Champion Farr 50 Ragamuffin remains the provisional leader of the CYCA’s Bluewater Pointscore series following an IMS handicap win in last night’s Flinders Islet Race, the replacement course for the cancelled Wollongong Weekend.

The fleet lined up for the 20:00 hours start in a fresh nor’easterly sea breeze, however before the gun fired, the fleet was reduced by one to 15 when John Walker’s Impeccable sailed in between Brindabella (George Snow) and Gunther Schmidt Linder’s Austmark (ex-Vanguard), and was overshadowed by Snow’s 80-foot maxi.

With no steerage, Impeccable’s mast sliced through Brindabella’s huge mainsail, rendering her a non-starter.

With Brindabella out of line honours contention, Sean Langman’s Open 66 Grundig enjoyed an easy win, finishing at 07:13 hours this morning almost two hours ahead of the second-placed Ragamuffin.

In the IRC Cape Byron Series, Ragamuffin has also provisionally held on to first place while Richard Holstein’s Sydney 38 OD Next and Ashley Reed & Michael Spies’ Beneteau 40.7 Shipping Central gained valuable points towards their quest for an overall pointscore win with a second and third respectively in this race.

Shipping Central also finished third in the IMS division behind Terry Mullens’ Farr 49 Sting while in the PHS Tasman Performance Series, Next placed first ahead of Sting and Shipping Central.

The fleet sailed south in a pleasant 10-12 knot nor’easterly breeze but once they rounded Flinders Islet off Wollongong, conditions deteriorated with a strong south running current and heavy rainstorms in the early hours of this morning making for a slow return journey.

The Ocean Pointscore fleet began Race 7 of their series, to Port Hacking and back, at 10.00am this morning and will finish throughout the afternoon and early evening.