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Saturday 5th January 2008 9pm
In a series that's had it all, Bill Ebsary's Beneteau 44.7 ‘Le Billet' has defended her IRC series crown by winning the historical 27th Pittwater & Coffs Harbour Offshore Series, altered this year due to severe weather conditions lashing the mid North Coast, forcing the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club's series organisers to change course and host the event from Pittwater , the first time in the 27 year tradition of the event.
The winners were announced at tonight's prize giving at a buzzing Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, presided over by Commodores Angus Gordon (RPAYC) and Darren Digney from the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club and MC Russell Murphy, Vice Commodore Racing.
Bill Ebsary's Le Billet won in convincing style with five wins from five starts. The Beneteau 44.7 who finished 1st last year and 2nd in the 2005-06 series , defended the coveted IRC overall series trophy. She finished 7th over the line and 2nd on handicap in the altered 210nm, 2008 Pittwater return race with a perfect record in all five races, for those yachts contending the series.
Le Billet was in an unbeatable position leading into today's Race five, the final race of the series, an 11nm race within spectacular Pittwater renamed the Far South, South Solitary Islands race in honour of our friends in Coffs Harbour who are deeply disappointed the fleet weren't able to get to Coffs this year for their annual sojourn and "fun in the sun. "
With seas peaking at around 5.5m last night with winds gusting beyond 30 knots from an ESE direction, the forecasters got it right and the decision made by The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in conjunction with the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club was unequivocally the right one made, with foresight. The competitors, whilst disappointed not to race to Coffs this year, supported the decision and enjoyed the quickly altered course.
Today's race, to complete the five race series, was sailed in a 10-15 knot SE breeze with rain squalls then sunshine followed by more rain. With a large, bumpy swell offshore the decision was made by the Race Committee to opt for a course that had the fleet sailing inside Pittwater due to the start boat being unable to hold position offshore due to large swells.
The start line had a following swell which made it interesting, with boats surfing at the start, all starting without incident.
In the Seven boat IRC Division, the winner today was Le Billet both first over the line and on handicap in a corrected time of 1hr 24 mins 32secs , followed by The Business , Grant Halliday's Sydney 38 in 2nd three minutes behind the winner with the Murray 37, Dark & Stormy Witch owned by Bruce Staples and Jimmy King finishing 3rd, a further 3 minutes back.
In PHS, 12 boats contested the last race of the series, with corrected time showing that the team from the Flying Fish sailing school out of Middle Harbour Yacht Club, the Beneteau 40.7 First Fish skippered Neil Driscoll getting their first win of the series in a time of 1hr 29mins 6secs. In 2nd place was Steve Hobbs Harmony 42, Kick Back, the PHS winner of the altered passage race and, in 3rd position was Graham Friend's Radford, Sea Quest.
So with the historic 27th series now over and the prize giving now complete and everyone enjoying another great event at The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, tonight's official proceedings saw the following trophies awarded, broken down into the long ocean race (normally the Pittwater to Coffs Race) and overall series (consisting of 5 races)
60 yachts contested the inaugural 210nm Alternate Pittwater to Pittwater race. With 35 boats competing in IRC, it was Steven David's Wild Joe who took the prestigious line honours/ IRC handicap double and awarded with the Coffs Harbour Line Honours Bell Trophy. It's a title and a record he hopes he doesn't have to defend and Steven David said, "is looking forward to being back in Coffs Harbour next year, perhaps with a new boat, who knows."
In IRC overall it was Le BIllet 2nd on handicap with First Priority in 3rd. All three boats represented the three IRC Divisions in the race and obviously topped the ladder in their respective Divisions.
Divisional trophies for the three IRC divisions for the alternate race were awarded as follows; Division 1 to Steven David's Wild Joe 1st, in front of the two Farr 40 ODs in Short Shipped and Brannie Three in 2nd & 3rd respectively. Division 2 it's another title and back to back victories for Bill Ebsary's Le Billet, in front of The Business in 2nd and Dark & Stormy Witch in 3rd and finally in Division 3 the top three places are First Priority from Willyama and Onya, all sharing the podium.
The PHS Division had 25 yachts contesting Race 4 with Steven Hobbs' Harmony 42, Kick Back taking the incredible honours from Graham Friend's Sea Quest in 2nd with the Sydney 38 from the CYCA, Love Byte in 3rd.
The PHS fleet was split into two Divisions for the long race, with the Divisional trophies presented to; Division 1 Love Byte, the Coffs Harbour Sydney 41, B52 in 2nd with Sea Hawk in 3rd spot with Division 2 being awarded to Kick Back, Sea Quest and the other Coffs Harbour entrant Overdrive in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Overdrive is owned and skippered by husband & wife team Andrew & Meegan Johnson in their Northshore 380 with Andrew saying " I'm stoked and totally surprised. What a fantastic series."
Turning to the overall series, the prizes were awarded as follows:
In the Lone IRC Division, contested amongst a fleet of 10 it was another resounding victory for Bill Ebsary (RPAYC) and his crew on Le Billet who had made it a perfect 5 from 5 for the series and in doing so defended the crown he held so proudly this year. With one drop allowed in the series Le Billet finished on 4 points. A count back separated 2nd & 3rd place in IRC after both Dark & Stormy Witch and The Business finished on an equal 10 points. The count back went in favour of Grant Halliday's Sydney 38, The Business (RPAYC) when she just pipped the King/Staples Dark & Stormy Witch (RPAYC) by 3 minutes in the final race of the series. Their positions leading into the final race were in reverse with only one point separating the two. It can't get much closer than that. An RPAYC trifecta.
Bill Ebsary said of his back to back IRC victories, "I'm absolutely delighted with the win and to back up and do what we did last year and I pay tribute to the 12 crew, who are just a great bunch of guys who have sailed together for a long time and without them, this simply couldn't happen. The camaraderie is what racing's all about, and sure winning's nice but the camaraderie's more important to me than winning races. Those guys are really fantastic. We're thrilled with the prospects of going back to Coffs for a third attempt," after his picking up his back to back IRC Pittwater & Coffs Harbour Offshore Series trophy.
Commenting on the alternate race to the annual Coffs race and the battle with Wild Joe for handicap honours, Bill offered, "The "space shuttle" (referring to Wild Joe) got us in the end, as far as our boat is concerned we couldn't have sailed any faster and he deserved his win and did a great job in the "Coffs" race, and congratulations to them for a well earned victory because we were on their tails and sailing hard, let me tell you. He was a stand out in the conditions and they certainly suited the type of boat he was in, they were just perfect for Wild Joe. But hats off to them. For the rest of the fleet it was a really tight race and there was no room for laxity and we didn't have time to relax, by any means."
On the decision not to send the fleet North, Bill had this to say, "In hindsight, the Club (RPAYC) made the right decision, a very prudent one and correctly made with foresight, particularly with the way conditions have unfolded up in Coffs. The Club needs to be commended on the way they dealt with it, given the urgency of the situation in bringing together a fully agreeable set of conditions for the whole fleet to sail in. I haven't heard one negative comment from anybody in this event. Great leadership taken by the club and that's good for sailing."
In the sole PHS Division, 15 yachts competed in the 2007-08 series and it was a clear win for Tony Pickering from the CYCA, aboard his 2001 launched Sydney 38OD, Love Byte who finished on 12 points. Only one point separated 2nd to 5th place making it too close for comfort. In the end, 2nd place was awarded to those bomber boys from Coffs Harbour aboard the Sydney 41, B52 on 19 points, after a big improvement finishing 7th overall in last year's series. B52 elected not to sail in the last race held today, instead heading home for Coffs, making it her drop for the series. In 3rd spot, only 1/2 a point behind and half point in front of the next two boats was another RPAYC competitor, Ray Hudson's Next Moment, an X-442. on 19.5 points. Robert Alder's Jayhawk and Garry Holder's The Real Thing, both tough RPAYC competitors were in 4th & 5th on 20 points. Jayhawk led the series after the third race of the series.
The delightful Tony Pickering (CYCA), winner of the PHS Series had this to say about his campaign, "I'm very proud of the crew, who've been together for about 6 to 8 months now. We had a go at the Gold Coast race earlier in the year and then we set our sights on winning the pointscore in this Coffs series. We've put a lot of effort into it, I'm just so proud of the crew, proud of the effort they've put into it, and am very happy with the result."
"I would Just like to thanks to The Real Thing crew who were our pen partners and helped us out on the dock over the last few days and we've had some great boat on boat racing with them. We had fun today, just hunting them and cross tacking across their stern, there was nothing in it for us today as the series was in the bag with B52 deciding not to race today, we just had to make sure we didn't get a DSQ," Tony pointed out.
The prestigious Navigator's Trophy (for Navigator's, at least), awarded to the boat that gets the closest actual finish time to its ETA, from the last radio check in point to the finish boat, set at Bangally Head, off North Avalon this year. The trophy was awarded to one of the smallest boats in the fleet, Cleopatra a Mumm 30 from the Victorian Sandringham Yacht Club who managed to get within 33 seconds of their ETA to their actual finish time. Not bad!
Angus Gordon, Commodore of The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club summed up his thoughts on the 27th Pittwater & Coffs Harbour Offshore series this way, "We're very sorry we're not going to Coffs this year because we always look forward to and, always appreciate the sister club relationship between us and the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club. We're really sorry for the club and the people of Coffs Harbour because we know the impact of this decision. Unfortunately this year, we had a situation on our hands where the weather was too severe that would have put the competitor's live's and their vessels at risk, we were all in agreement with that and so, it was one of those situations where we had to make a sensible decision and we firmly believe it was the right decision.
Further, the Commodore added, "I believe it's been a great series and hasn't detracted from the traditional Coffs Harbour series, in fact I believe it supports it and shows the versatility and the preparedness to work together and we look forward to next year to be able to go to Coffs to continue the tradition of this fabulous event."
Commodore of the Coffs Harbour Yacht Club, Darren Digney who would normally oversee these proceedings in Coffs Harbour tonight said, "It's just great to see the commitment from all the crews', even though it wasn't what everyone wanted, but yet they still turned up and supported the event and you can't ask for any more than that and we now look forward to next year when it just gets bigger and better for us in Coffs Harbour , when we will welcome you all once again with open arms. Everyone in Coffs Harbour is disappointed from the volunteers who hand out the box of beer and the bunch of bananas right through to the Mayor's Office, it's affected a lot of people but the right decision was made ultimately, safety for the competitors is the key issue. Everyone will just need to eat & drink twice as much next year. We look forward to seeing you in Coffs in 2009."
Ted Anderson, Principal Race office for the series said, "we salvaged what could have been a non-race to what turned out to be an enjoyable race for all and, everybody was happy. Overall, a great series but sorry we are missing out on the Coffs Harbour hospitality that we always enjoy every year and we look forward to being back in Coffs next year for the 28th Pittwater & Coffs Harbour Offshore series."
The final comment was reserved for Chris Stone, Race Director who did a sterling job with the event, under enormous pressure and, "was extremely pleased with the overall outcome of the 2007-08 series. Given the circumstances, it's been a great series, we've completed all our races and had minimal drop outs considering the responsible decision to alter the course to Coffs Harbour. Even with the change for the Coffs ocean race, we were still five boats up on last year , when 55 boats contested the event. Everyone has enjoyed themselves and whilst we are obviously disappointed for Coffs Harbour, we'll be back bigger and better next year," he said.
Vice Commodore Racing, Russell Murphy Commodores thanked all the volunteers, particularly 'the never say die" Ted Anderson and his amazing Race Committee, the people of Coffs Harbour, the Umpires Committee, the staff of the RPAYC and finally Line 7 for their tremendous sponsorship support.
We'll see you in Coffs in 2009! What a year, historic and proud to be a part of it!
Click here for full series results.
This year, Line 7 have sponsored the merchandise and provided the prizes and we are extremely grateful for their support.
Final Report by Damian Devine on behalf of The Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club.
"Over and out!"
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