JOICO 2004 Australian Offshore Championships - Sydney 38’s Dominate At Joico Offshore Championships
Mon, 8 Mar 2004

Rapid changes are happening in Australian offshore racing. At Christmas 2003, the Rolex Sydney to Hobart fleet raced south with the IMS division winner crowned overall winner.

Less than a month later, the organising Club, the CYCA, had dumped the IMS class, replacing it with IRC and another 30 days on, there was only a single entrant in the IMS division at Australia’s premier offshore sailing championships. The end of an era.

The IRC fleet sailing off Pittwater was certainly classy, Matt Allen’s Farr 52 Ichi Ban was set up for IMS racing, but had no choice but to join the IRC fleet.

However, she continued her purple streak, following her Skandia Geelong Week and Sailing South IRC wins with the IRC National title. The 2002 Sydney to Hobart winner Quest (Bob Steel) claimed second place, with the Bavaria Match 38 Game Set (Tony Kirby), third.

Almost as momentous though, as the sudden demise of the IMS fleet, was the continued rise and rise of the Sydney 38 One Design on the Australian sailing scene. There were 27 entries in the 38 class, sailing their 2004 Nationals - more than double that of the IRC class.

It is easy to see why in the deciding race, race 10 of the 11 race series, in a rolling swell and sweeping rain, the Sydney 38 class racing is very exciting.

The 2003 National Champion, Rush (Cameron Miles/Steve Robson), had broken from the pack, but the battle behind her was very close. Steve Kulmar’s Shining Sea was second round the top mark, with Team Lexus and Uncensored on her stern.

Then came AMI Jade (Peter McNamara), Another Challenge (Lou Abrahams), eighth was London Tavern (Justin Lambeth), with early series leader, Cydon (Leon Christianakis), back in twelfth place. Then another 14 boats rounded, as many as five wide on the mark.

A lap later, Rush had extended, but the rest of the placings had swapped around, with AMI Jade now second, with Acuity, Shining Sea, Blue Sky (Michael Hill) and the fleet charging at the leaders.

While Rush sailed away to her second National title in the last two years, the next eight boats finished within sixty seconds of each other.

Lou Abrahams' Another Challenge from Victoria was second overall, as she was in the 2003 Nationals at Hamilton Island in August.

Lou was again gracious in defeat. ‘Cameron and his crew are very good sailors, they certainly deserved to win.’

Leon Christianakis, with four wins in the first five races, looked a likely winner early in the series, but Cydon faded in the last half of the regatta. She beat Justin Lambeth’s London Tavern on a count back for third place.

‘A big fleet and a lot of fun,’ was the Cydon skipper's summation.

The black-hulled Team Lexus, sailed by the Henry, May, Miller combination, sailed into sixth place ahead of Stephen Kulmar’s Shining Sea.

Six different winners across the 12 race series underlined the evenness of the class.

The Silver fleet trophy was won by Robin Tedder's fast improving Stonybroke. second was Martin and Lisa Hill's three month's old Estatemaster and third was The Bigger Picture.

The Class continues to grow, with its offshore racing credentials growing all the time.

With the 60th Hobart in December 2004, Sydney 38 Class Association CEO Simon Reffold indicated that as many as ten 38’s could line up on Boxing Day for the blue water classic.

At 77 years old, Lou Abrahams, dual Hobart winner, will lead the Sydney 38 fleet south in his 43rd tilt at the Hobart crown. ‘We will be fighting for a class win and an overall win, its just great racing.’

Cameron Miles and Steve Robson were presented with a very large Sydney 38 National Championship trophy, donated by Performance Boats. Just as well, it was a hometown win; the trophy would easily occupy two airlines seats.

Sydney 38 designer, Andy Dovell, was sailing on The Bigger Picture during the Nationals.

Dovell was very happy at the award presentation. ‘When we sat down with Sydney Yachts during the early design stages, we specified extremely tight One Design build tolerance, much much tighter than other keel boat one designs. Looking back, we can see this has contributed to the closeness of the racing and hence the fun elements, its very, very fair racing.’

North Sails Ritchie Alllanson, whose 3DL sails were worn by the top of the fleet, sailed aboard 16th placed Chainsaw for the first half of the regatta. ‘The class has been great for the sport. When we go sailing, we want to make sure everyone has fun and its certainly the case here.’

One prominent IRC skipper, who declined to be named commented, ‘I’ve enjoyed the rating games in the handicap fleets, IOR, IMS and IRC over the years, but now I have to look seriously at switching to the Sydney 38 One Design class.

My crew would much rather be in the middle of a 20 plus boat fleet, rounding a mark, or be one of ten boats in a blanket finish, rather than using binoculars to see when our IRC rivals cross the line. As he spoke, his crew seemed to be more interested in socializing with a large number of women crew who sail in the big One Design fleet, so his problems seem to be multi-layered.

Vessel: Sail No: Owner: Club: RACE 1 RACE 2 RACE 3 RACE 4 RACE 5 RACE 6 RACE 7 RACE 8 RACE 9 RACE 10 RACE 11 DROP TOTAL

1 Rush 6071 Robson / Miles RPAYC 2 6 2 3 4 1 3 4 9 1 DNS DNS 35

2 Another Challenge SM2 Lou Abrahams SYC 11 7 6 1 13 2 1 1 11 8 8 13 40

3 Cydon 6211 Leon Christianakis CYCA 1 1 1 9 1 DNF 6 9 12 12 6 DNF 58

4 London Tavern 6157 Justin Lambeth RPAYC 3 10 7 5 3 BFD 2 5 10 9 4 BFD 58

5 Acuity 6255 Tony Walls RPAYC 4 12 22 16 14 7 12 2 4 4 1 22 76

6 Team Lexus 6565 Henry/Mayo/Miller CYCA 26 8 15 11 5 13 7 6 6 6 10 26 87

7 Shining Sea 6338 Stephen Kulmar RPAYC 21 19 16 7 25 14 4 7 3 2 3 25 96

8 The Business 8838 Matthes/Halliday RPAYC 5 4 17 4 12 11 18 15 13 20 2 20 101

9 AMI Jade 6900 Peter McNamara RPAYC 23 5 12 6 18 10 20 19 2 3 13 23 108

10 Stonybroke 6231 Robin Tedder MHYC 7 16 18 2 2 6 15 8 22 22 19 22 115

11 Estate Master 7027 Lisa & Martin Hill MHYC 14 11 10 12 6 BFD 11 11 18 13 12 BFD 118

12 The Bigger Picture 6051 TBP Syndicate RPAYC 13 20 3 8 8 18 13 10 14 14 18 20 119

13 Cinquante 5038 Michael Jones MHYC 22 9 17 20 7 9 8 21 15 11 7 22 124

14 Eleni MH60 Tony Levett MHYC 12 3 14 13 9 3 14 25 16 23 20 25 127

15 Chainsaw 6115 Anthony Skinner MHYC 19 13 4 10 15 16 5 13 21 15 22 22 131

16 Easy Tiger 6305 Chris Way RPAYC 9 DSQ 5 15 15 4 19 17 OCS 17 5 DSQ 134

17 Uncensored 6340 Chris Lobb MHYC 20 DSQ 19 25 19 15 10 12 5 10 9 DSQ 144

18 No Options 6095 D Hodgkinson CYCA 17 24 26 21 17 8 17 22 OCS 16 14 OCS 152

19 Wadadli 3838 Gordon Ketelbey MHYC 10 17 21 26 11 21 25 3 20 DNF DNS 25 154

20 Blue Sky 6276 Michael Hill RPAYC 15 21 DSQ 17 16 12 22 24 8 5 17 DSQ 157

21 Livewire SM3801 Terry Hall SYC 6 14 24 14 24 BFD 23 16 OCS 7 15 BFD 171

22 Hidden Agenda 9797 Graham Gibson CYCA 16 23 11 22 22 22 24 20 1 19 16 24 172

23 Bashful 7777 Geoff Bonus CYCA 18 2 13 23 25 17 DSQ 18 19 21 21 DSQ 177

24 Conspiracy 6138 Conspiracy SyndicatRPAYC 24 18 25 18 21 5 9 23 7 DNF DNS DNF 178

25 The Bolter 6190 Rick Welch RPAYC 25 15 23 24 23 19 16 14 17 18 11 25 180

26 Risk 5944 Payne / Rock RPAYC 8 22 8 19 26 20 21 26 23 24 23 26 194

27 Love Byte 6175 Anthony Pickering CYCA 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 28 280

by Rob Kothe