Estate Master wins the Farr 40 Summer Sprint Series

Sydney (AUS) – Sixteen Farr 40 teams taking part in the Farr 40 Summer Sprint Series spent the weekend racing on Sydney harbour in the Sound area and offshore on the Macquarie Circle course. After five long races, with a different winner for each, the winner of the regatta was Lisa and Martin Hill’s Estate Master.

“This has been a fantastic warm up event and it is terrific to see so many of our international teams who are in Sydney for the upcoming Rolex Farr 40 Worlds doing this event with us. I think we had a taste of some conditions we could see on the race track over the next two weeks during both the Farr 40 Australian Championship and the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds as well. It was extremely tight racing the whole weekend with boats finishing within seconds of each other which makes it all the more exciting racing”, commented Martin Hill after racing.

Using this event as a practice for the upcoming Class Australian and World Championship titles, all 16 boats capitalized on the opportunity to tune up crew work and sailing skills. Teams for four countries, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the USA all took part this weekend along with two teams who have travelled from Tasmania to race over the next two weeks.

2010 Sprint Series winners Estate Master were the series leaders after day one with Guido Belgiorno Nettis’ Transfusion in second and international entry Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad from the USA in third. The race management team decided to run racing in the Sound are on Sydney Harbour on day one due to the 25+knots from the South East that they saw when they went out to the offshore race course. Teams had a taste of harbour racing when they had to manoeuvre around ferries and ships.

Day two and the fleet headed for the offshore Macquarie Circle course and a building Southerly breeze. After getting race four of the series run and won the fleet then went into three general recalls and an ever increasing breeze for the start of race five. A number of boats decided to return to the dock with damaged gear and sails and the race committee wrapped up racing after finishing race five which was won by New Zealander Brett Neill’s White Cloud who finished the series in third place overall on a count-back from Transfusion.

German team Struntje Light owned by Wolfgang and Angela Schaefer won the Corinthian Division which had five boats competing in this division.

The Summer Sprint Series, which has been hosted by Middle Harbour Yacht Club, is the second last event in the 2010-2011 Farr 40 Australian Circuit with the season being wrapped up next weekend when the 2011 Farr 40 Australian Championship will be held on February 18-20 and hosted by Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

2011 Farr 40 Summer Sprint Series Final results:

Place Boat Owner Yacht Club Country Points
1 ESTATE MASTER LISA&MARTIN HILL MHYC AUS 24.0
2 TRANSFUSION GUIDO BELGIORNO-NETTIS MHYC AUS 29.0
3 WHITE CLOUD BRETT NEILL RNZYS NZL 29.0
4 BARKING MAD JAMES RICHARDSON NYYC USA 34.0
5 KOKOMO LANG WALKER YCCS AUS 34.0
6 SPUTNIK IVAN WHEEN RSYS AUS 36.0
7 STRUNTJE LIGHT WOLFGANG SCHAEFER NRUKYC GER 37.0
8 EDAKE JEFF CARTER MHYC AUS 39.0
9 PLENTY ALEX ROEPERS NYYC USA 40.0
10 VOODOO CHILE ANDREW HUNN RYCT AUS 41.0
11 EASY TIGER CHRIS WAY RPAYC AUS 42.0
12 HOOLIGAN MARCUS BLACKMORE RPAYC AUS 50.0
13 FLASH GORDON HELMUT JAHN CYC USA 54.0
14 IMPI IVAN RESNEKOV SASC AUS 65.0
15 WIRED STEPHEN BOYES RYCT AUS 68.0
16 ENIGMA GOTZE/CRANITCH CYCA AUS 80.0

Estate Master winner of the 2001 Farr 40 Summer Sprint Series | Photo Michael Blackburn