Pittwater, Australia. "2Unlimited" Greg Prescott. March 16th thru 18th
Farr 30 Australian Championship
Gold Coast, Queensland. "Goa" Chris Tyquin. March 21st thru 24th
News
Farr 30 Groovederci Dominates Key West with Ten Straight Wins
The Quantum Key West Race Week concluded over the weekend in Florida USA, with Groovederci dominating
the Farr 30 division, finishing with a perfect scorecard of ten straight wins. The yacht’s performance has been hailed
as “one of the most impressive performances of the regatta”, which attracts high profile yachts and professional
sailors from all ends of the globe.
The ten-race series started on Monday and saw a range of wind conditions
over the five day event. The first day of the regatta saw gusts of up to 22 knots, reaching the upper wind limit for
the Farr 30 class and creating exciting challenges on the water. However the wind moderated throughout the regatta, and at
times yachts were seen drifting between whiskers of breeze, keeping trimmers on their toes and constantly changing gears.
Groovederci’s trimmer, Australian Darren ‘Twirler’ Jones commented “We did it tough
today, it was very close racing. Day One was quite testing - at one point we were as far back as fourth in the fleet and we
struggled to claw our way back up. Yesterday was very light and shifty but we managed to keep the boat going fast. Having
won the regatta with two races to spare was comforting, but we still wanted to come out here today and race. It has been an
awesome week with great conditions – and it feels very nice to come through with ten wins!”
Quantum
Key West Race Week is the first event in which the Groovederci team has competed since their World Championship win in San
Francisco last September. Owner Deneen Demourkas (USA) praised the efforts of her crew, with tactician Philippe Mourniac,
trimmers Darren ‘Twirler’ Jones and Cameron Biehl, and bowman Andrew Hudson contributing to both the World Championship
win last year and their perfect score-card at Key West. It seems that the Groovederci team will be well placed to dominate
the Farr 30 racing circuit in 2012.
Other podium placed Farr 30s at Key West included the USA based Theend
(Richard Goransson), who finished the regatta in second place on 29 points, and Mummbles (Brad Kauffman) closely behind in
third place overall. Full results from Quantum Key West 2012 can be found here: http://www.premiere-racing.com/
Image courtesy of Becky Furry / Sail22.com
Groovederci - 2011 Farr 30 World Champion
Photo - Meridith Block - www.blocksail.com
Santa Barbara’s Deneen Demourkas crowned Farr 30 World Champion On Dramatic Final Day
San Francisco, CA (11 September 2011) – The weather may have backed off from its
biblical peaks earlier in the week, but the battle for the prestigious 2011 Farr 30 World Championship raged until the final
leg of the last race of this testing, tough championship regatta. While she didn’t lead the event until the final
race, Southern California’s Deneen Demourkas won when it mattered, becoming the first female skipper to win a big boat
one-design World Championship in decades – if ever.
Going into this morning’s lighter air action, Santa
Barbara-based Demourkas (Groovederci) trailed Newport, RI’s Jim Richardson (Barking Mad) by just a point in second with
another 3 points up to local Scott Easom (Eight Ball) in first place. Demourkas was on a solid winning streak though,
having taken the bullet in the previous three races. “We’re actually looking for lighter air today,”
said tactician Cameron Appleton on Sunday morning. “We’re confident that we’ve got speed in all conditions,
but we need other boats to get in ahead of Scott and Jim.”
The lighter conditions Appleton was searching
for wouldn’t work out exactly as planned, at least at the beginning. In the first race of the day – Race 8 of
the series – Demourkas had a huge lead by the first windward mark when disaster struck thanks to light wind and ripping
flood tide. “The current was a bit stronger than we thought, and we ended up touching the mark,” explained
Appleton. The resulting penalty turn allowed 4 boats, including Barking Mad, to escape ahead of Groovederci, while Eight
Ball had a shocking 8th place finish.
In Race 9 of the Championship, Demourkas started strongly again, leading
Jim Richardson around the track with John Demourkas slipping in between the two on the last leg of the race. John wasn’t
happy with just second place though, and he surfed down a big wave just a few feet from the finish, popping ahead of wife
Deneen and winning the race by literally inches. Still five points back, Deneen was chipping away at Barking Mad’s
lead – but would there be enough racing left for her to catch him?
Appleton didn’t think so, meaning
Groovederci needed a new strategy. “We needed to engineer possibilities for the rest of the fleet to get back
into the mix and perhaps pass Barking Mad, and in race 10, it couldn’t have possibly gone better for us,” he said.
He led Richardson around the bottom gate with the rest of the fleet far behind, and on the final beat of the race, Appleton
“pushed him out to the right to let the traffic get back in the race, and it all fell into place when they fouled Wild
Thing on the final downwind leg.” While Barking Mad sailed a penalty turn the fleet sailed by, knocking them back
to 11th place while Demourkas sailed to the victory and an overall championship lead she wouldn’t relinquish.
With her first lead of the entire regatta, nine-time Worlds skipper Demoukas could finally use her dominant boatspeed and
flawless starts to clamp down on the competition, and Demourkas covered Barking Mad and Eight Ball all the way around the
course on the final race, and Easom and Richardson’s battle for second place was an epic one. Richardson needed
to finish just one place ahead of Easom to win, but Eight Ball tucked their bow inside Richardson at the final windward mark,
working down on the Farr 40 and Farr 30 veteran and making the pass with less than two legs to go. Ironically, the smooth
driving that allowed Eight Ball to lead this regatta all week, through some of the most brutal Rolex Big Boat Series conditions
in years, would fail them when it mattered most. “I noticed that the vang was off when we rounded the mark, so
I called ‘vang on’ before the gybe,” Easom said. When Eight Ball went for the gybe inside Richardson, the
highly loaded mainsail came across with a bang, spinning Easom to windward in his first broach of the entire regatta in just
16 knots of wind. “The vang was on hard, and I noticed how hard our main trimmer was working to bring it across a little
too late, and as soon as it came across, we were dead.” The resulting broach allowed four boats to pass, giving
Richardson yet another second place World Championship finish – his third time as the runner-up in this competitive
class. “I guess I’m a permanent bridesmaid in the class,” he said with a laugh after landing on the
dock.
But the bride – as well as queen, empress, and president – of this class is now Deneen Demourkas.
“This has been a long time coming,” said the World Champion after fiercely hugging husband John at the dock.
“We certainly didn’t make it easy on ourselves today – we had to work really hard to keep our head in the
game and not let it get away from us.” Demourkas said. “I’ve been doing this for a lot of years,
and I’ve seen everything. The one thing I’ve learned is that you cannot stop fighting until the bitter end.
You never know what’s going to happen, and the incident with Jim [Richardson] is a perfect example; you stay in the
game, you stay patient and focused, and you see how things play out. There’s no giving up, or there’s no
championship.”
Demourkas attributed much of her success to her hard-working crew of tactician Cameron Appleton,
main trimmer Darren “Twirler” Jones, bowman Andrew Hudson, trimmers Cameron Biehl and Austin Herlihy and floater
Patrick Gavin-Byrnes. “Without these guys I wouldn’t have had a chance – they’re the hardest working
crew in sailing as far as I’m concerned,” Demourkas said.
Deneen Demourkas's Farr 30 Groovederci is right on track for the upcoming World Championship after posting 2
impressive wins in the past 3 weeks.
After winning the Canadian Championship
without loosing a race she backed that up by winning a close fought North American Championship from Scott Easom's 8ball and
Jim Richardsons Barking Mad.
Goa Triumphant in B2K
IRC Division 2, Chris Tyquin’s
Farr 30 GOA/NOVA was provisionally the winner. She was six minutes ahead of Andrew Knight’s Mumm 36 modified Georgia
Express on corrected time and 13 minutes ahead of Craig Coulsen’s Van de Stat 42 Trumpcard. Goa also claimed the Farr
30 Class win. 5 Farr 30's entered the 340nm race with Goa winning by a huge margin of near 3 hours.
Dockside some
interesting comments
GOA/NOVA - Skipper Chris Tyquin, quote from Darren 'Twirler' Jones
'It's a long
race in a Farr 30 but we took advantage of cruising the wake of the bigger boats who towed us up the course. This race is
quite tactical and being that we were one of the five Farr 30's we really had to stay focused for the entire time. Definitely
happy to be the first Farr 30 home. We gave our ETA at the Tropic of Capricorn which was just over a minute out from our finish
time. Can't complain'
GOA looks like a special for the Navigator’s Prize.
Below is a fun movie trailer and a video put together after the Transpac Race where we finished 2nd Overall.
What's a perfect Transpac ride? A lot depends on what you're doing, this time.
Philippe Kahn was plenty
happy in 2009 when he and Mark Christiansen set a new doublehanded record in an Open 50 named, as all the man's boats are
named, Pegasus. For 2011, however, the maestro of mobile software is going retro.
After seven months in the shed,
Kahn's Andrews 68 has been "de-turboed" as he says: "We cut 12 feet off the mast, shortened the fin and went
to a smaller bulb with a few thousand pounds of lead in the bilge. We also took out the bow sprit, and the new, shorter pole
gybes easily inside the forestay. Combine that with a simplified deck, and three to five of us can handle her at full potential
in 35 knots of wind. A perfect Transpac ride!"
Pegasus is now close to the configuration
of a stock Santa Cruz 70, Kahn says. "We plan to sail her surfing to Honolulu like a Moore 24 as opposed to sailing across
the waves, reaching, like a Melges 24. I surf, and I love surfing, and what we want is to have fair racing with the other
boats in the '70s' class using the Transpac ORR rating. We hope to get more people wanting to do this and have some great
Pacific Ocean sailing."
Gee, it seems only yesterday that the cool thing was to go "turbo."
The upper end of the fleet for the 2011 race has seven 70-footers entered, two 68-footers and, of course, good ole
Ragtime. The fleet has two starts, July 4 and July 8, and no one is more qualified to decide how he wants to do it "this
time" than Philippe Kahn. He has sailed 12 races to Hawaii, three of them doublehanded. The new record he set in 2009
with Christiansen stands at 7 days, 19 hours, which got them to the Diamond Head Buoy ahead of all the 70s, turboed or un,
and lopped two days off the doublehanded record.
He was already a more accomplished sailor-competitor, years
ago, when he declared to your reporter, "I have to learn how to sail before I die."
Farr 30 Australian Championship
Synergy misses out by a nose
The
Championship is over for another year with the title finally handed to Chris Tyquin and his Goa/Nova 106.9 crew after an intense
battle with local rival Synergy.
Going into the last race both Synergy
and Goa were equal on points. With the lead swaping between the 2 of them up to 5 times throughout the race It was Goa who
finally crossed the finish a mere 10 seconds ahead of Synergy in what must be one of the hardest fought Nationals in some
time.
'After four years of near misses we have finally taken home
the top prize,' said Tyquin this morning. 'I've finally recovered from the racing, slightly bruised, but incredibly happy
to have the Farr 30 Australian Championship perpetual trophy hanging on the wall.'
'Championships like these
are not won just by steering the boat. You need a solid team in front of you which we are very lucky to have,' said Tyquin.
Tyquin sailed with a highly regarded crew which included Australian Sailing Team Technical Coordinator and current
Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race winner (Secret Men's Business 3.5), Michael Dunstan.
Dunstan was equally happy
with the result saying that the highlight was the back and forth with Synergy.
'Eveyone really stepped it up
for the Australian Championship especially the Synergy crew. It was great close racing and they pushed us all the way. It
was a brilliant to be sailing with Chris (Tyquin) and his mates and we're proud of what we achieved,' said Dunstan.
Alex Douglas, owner and skipper of Synergy was leading Goa going into the last day of racing. The withdrawal of Goa
in race eight after an 'incident' may have started the Synergy crew thinking they had the title, but a strong fight back from
GOA sealed the deal for the 2011 regatta.
The Synergy crew included two time Farr 30 World Champion Darren "Twirler"
Jones who offered one of the best prizes of the regatta. For the first time the Farr 30 Australian Corinthian Championship
was awarded with Jon Drummond owner and skipper of the Gladstone based boat Loco securing that championship. The prize on
offer, which was only announced at the presentation, was a day's coaching with Jones.
'We are so honoured to
have received this great prize,' said Drummond. 'We sail with our mates, we are all amateurs, so any professional help we
can get is fantastic!'
The Corinthian Championship will be awarded for all Australian Championship regattas moving
forward and will go to the winning boat with a full armature crew.
One point separated first and second and that
one point was also the deciding factor for third and fourth. It was Italian Job skippered by Lew Perrin that crept into the
third position after holding off Loco. Perrin was thrilled with his crews result after starting the regatta a little off pace.
The media frenzy surrounding the arrival of the Townsville based Farr 30 Guilty Pleasures III didn't put these
enthusiastic sailors off their game. A Channel 7 helicopter news crew captured the boat 'sailing' down a flood infused highway
with the keel and bulb creating a decent sized wave break along the way. The footage made its way into a Channel 7 promotional
commercial and the image of them battling the elements before racing even began went viral on the internet.
'We
have had a tough time getting here but it was fun,' said skipper Leon Thomas. 'We had a great regatta and are really looking
forward to racing against these Farr 30's again in the future.'
Colin Loel, skipper of Asterix and considered
to be the grand Daddy of the local Farr 30 class was congratulated for all the work he put into organising a great Australian
Championship. Whilst his result was not what he had hoped for, Loel did say that it was one of the best regattas he had competed
in.
RBS Morgans Immigrant skippered by the colourful Jeffrey Paul certainly did provide a lot of entertainment
throughout the regatta.
'We always have a great time regardless of what happens!' laughed Jeffrey. 'Just being
a part of it is what matters. We will be back for the next regatta and the next one after that because it's all about being
involved and a part of the action.'
The Farr 30's will rack up again in the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club Brisbane
to Gladstone yacht race and then the Queensland IRC Championship on the 28-29 May at Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.
Young
Australian of the Year, Jessica Watson, was here to ring the bell signifying the launch of the Tourism Queensland campaign.
The Hon Wayne Swan MP Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and The Hon
Anna Bligh MP Queensland Premier were also present to announce the joint purchase of the S&S (Sparkman and Stephens) 34
Ella's Pink Lady which Jessica sailed around the world. The yacht will be on permanent display at the Queensland Maritime
Museum at South Bank and will become a part of Queensland and Australian maritime history.
Then to the racing.
Leon Thomas and his Guilty Pleasures III crew brought the rain and wind with from them from Townsville with racing for the
first day of the conducted in overcast, windy and rainy conditions.
Although it was raining the breeze was in
from the south east with plenty of thrills and spills for the first race of the regatta. GOA/Nova 106.9 (Chris Tyquin) had
a great start in race one however Synergy (Alex Douglas) with two time Farr 30 World Champion Darren "Twirler" Jones
on board slipped into the winning position after rounding the gate marks for the final time.
Psychologically
Synergy had the upper hand going into the second race, however GOA/Nova 106.9 put the first race behind them and held their
own to secure the win with Synergy finishing 22 seconds behind.
GOA/Nova 106.9 also won race three but only by
a whisker with Guilty Pleasures III bringing it up the inside and providing the leading crew with some nail biting action
on the finish line. Italian Job (Lew Perrin) was a thumb nail behind Guilty Pleasures III finishing just 3 seconds from their
stern.
The fleet of seven Farr 30's was happy to see the sun set on day one after close and intense scuffles.
No breakages were reported however many did complain of bruises to their battered bodies.
Day two of racing was a long affair with the complete opposite conditions on the race track. Blue skies,
humidity and just 3-4 knots of oscillating breeze are hindering racing untill the seabreeze finally kicked in to compleate
the final 2 races of the day.
Synergy is back in the game after winning
the first 3 racesand now sits a mere 1 point behind favourite GOA/Nova 106.9.
Tomorrow
is the last day of racing for the championship with 3 races left to sail.
Place
Ties
Sail No
Boat Name
Skipper
From
Sers Score
Race 7
Race 6
Race 5
Race 4
Race 3
Race 2
Race 1
1
523
GOA/NOVA106.9
Chris Tyquin
RQYS
9.0
1.0
2.0
2.0
[4.0]
1.0
1.0
2.0
2
AUS150
Synergy
Alex Douglas
RQYS
10.0
4.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
[4.0]
2.0
1.0
3
YC333
Loco
Jon Drummond
PCSC
21.0
2.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
5.0
5.0
[7.0]
4
AUS11
Guilty Pleasures III
Leon Thomas
TYC
22.0
5.0
3.0
5.0
3.0
2.0
[7.0]
4.0
5
87
Italian Job
Lewis Perrin
RQYS
23.0
3.0
5.0
4.0
[6.0]
3.0
3.0
5.0
6
3093
Asterix
Colin Loel
RQYS
32.0
[8.0Q]
6.0
6.0
7.0
6.0
4.0
3.0
7
PC6
RBSMorgans Immigrant
Jeffrey Paul
PCSC
37.0
6.0
7.0
7.0
5.0
[7.0]
6.0
6.
Estate Master Wins 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
Sydney to Hobart Race - 2010
So,
another Hobart race has been run and won. This year I sailed aboard Alan Brierty's RP63 "Limit". Unlike in
recent years, this year brought a mixture of weather, and a more typical crossing of Bass Strait, seeing us carry 3 reefs
and a #5 jib, sailing into 45 knots and very large waves. Although this didn’t last to long, its still a test of survival
with several boats in the fleet retiring with gear failure.
Sailing down the Tasmanian coast was both exhilarating
and frustrating. For the first part we were still neck and neck with our sister ship "Loki" and both of us knew
who ever was to be first across the line, stood a good chance of Overall handicap honours. Well, this theory was put to bed
very quickly on day 3 when we sat in light winds for extended periods, sometimes sailing a course that would take us closer
to Sydney than Hobart just to find some consistent breeze. All the while the "Mini Maxi's" were going no where,
there was a herd of 40 and 50 footers sailing along in good breeze, not only closing the gap, but in some cases passing us.
With the chance for Overall honours gone, it was time to continue our 630nm match race with Loki. The only thing to
sail for now was a few jugs of beer which were put on in friendly bets between ourselves and Loki. From about half way down
Tasmania, the breeze finally picked up and kept building into the night from the Northwest. This made for some great running
conditions with speeds in excess of 20 knots. We were fast approaching Tasman Island, marking the run home to the finish.
As it was always going to be, I suspect, both Loki and Limit were only a mere boat length apart at Tasman Island
setting up an exciting dual into the finish. A finish that would have us only 4 minutes apart, after 3 days of sailing through
several weather systems and more sail changes than I care to reflect on. I think we used all of the sails on board bar maybe
the storm gear which at one stage across the Strait, very nearly went up.
So,15th overall, 7th across the line,
and a 630nm match race made for the end of a great month of sailing which included the Solas Big Boat Challenge and Rolex
IRC Regatta.
