TRITON
SAIL NO: 6377
LOA: 18.3m
CLASS: IRC/ORCi
DESIGNER: David Lyons (AUS)
YEAR BUILT: 2004
TYPE: Lyons/Cawse 60
OWNER: Michael Cranitch/David Gotze
CLUB: Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, NSW
CREW: D Gotze – Skipper, A Manders – Navigator, M Wenke – Navigator, T Ellis, A Simpson, D MacPherson, J Goluzd, K Swiney, L Blateau, N Chambers, P Morrish, R Bott, T Colclough, T Lobb, T Paola, C Spence, A McWilliam
Sydneysider Michael Cranitch and Melburnian David Gotze purchased the former Vanguard in August two years ago, renaming her Triton, and opened their campaign with the Sydney Hobart, but were among the first casualties, retiring on the first night with forestay problems. Triton contested the 2015 Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race and finished 46th overall. Raced the 2015 Hobart, but retired with sail damage, culminating in 14th overall in the 2015 Blue Water Pointscore. This boat and her experienced owners and crew are capable of much more. As Vanguard, and owned by Dick Cawse, she scored the trifecta of line honours and first under IRC and PHS in the CYCA Ocean Point Score almost immediately after its launch. In the final race of the 2004/2005 OPS, from Sydney to Newcastle, she repeated the experience of line, overall IRC and PHS wins to claim the series trophy in both classes. In 2010, wrapped up the 2009/2010 OPS, mirroring its 2004/2005 result.
Crew of interest for this race includes 48 Hobarts veteran Tony Ellis, Laser sailor Richard Bott and Trent Paola returns after a long absence. His farming father, Tony, famously purchased Condor, renaming her Condor of of Currabubula (near Tamworth) during the early 1990’s, with which he took line honours in the 1994 Sydney Gold Coast Race.
UBS WILD THING
SAIL NO: 1014
LOA: 15.12m
CLASS: IRC/ORCi
DESIGNER: Inglis/Murray
YEAR BUILT: 1991
TYPE: Inglis/Murray 50
OWNER: Geoff Lavis
CLUB: Cruising Yacht Club of Australia
CREW: G Lavis – Skipper, R Cooper - Navigator, A Smith, J Smith, A Hay, J Crawford, A Scrivenor, J English, A Lavis, B Lavis, J Owens, K Griffiths
CYCA Past Commodore Geoff Lavis has extensively campaigned his Inglis/Murray 50 UBS Wild Thing since he purchased her in 1999, contesting numerous major events: Sydney Hobarts (2), Sydney Gold Coast (11) and Sydney Mooloolaba (3) races among others. Under original owner, Grant Wharington, also contested one each of the Brisbane Osaka and Melbourne Osaka races, for which this 25 year-old timber boat still holds the race record, set in 1995 in a little under 26 days 21 hours. She is fastidiously maintained and remains quick and very wet off the breeze! UBS Wild Thing has given her owner Lavis some exhilarating rides, including when she won PHS overall in 2006 Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, third in 2007 and second in 2009. Her last Gold Coast race was 2011, when she finished third in PHS Division 1. Has recently been updated, including new rig and sails and measured for IRC. This race will be a first gauge her performance as opposed to when she raced under PHS.
While Lavis’ wife Pip will miss the race, their sons, Adam and Ben, will uphold the family tradition. Both are former CYCA Youth Academy students and they will be joined by others who have attended, including Amanda Scrivenor, who is one of Lavis’ drivers. Getting into shape, UBS Wild Thing recently finished second overall to Swish in Division A1 of the Land Rover Winter Series.
VANISHING POINT
SAIL NO: 22000
LOA: 17.6m
CLASS: PHS
DESIGNER: Farr Yacht Design (USA)
YEAR BUILT: 2005
TYPE: Beneteau 57
OWNER: Bill Wheeler
CLUB: Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, NSW
CREW: B Wheeler – Skipper, R Dexter – Navigator, J Wheeler, M Cox, M Nizik, P Hardy, R Palazzi, I Cox
Vanishing Point, a Beneteau 57 is set up for cruising. This will be a first Sydney Gold Coast Race for Bill Wheeler’s boat, which is more at home in local Beneteau regattas. She finished third in the Spinnaker Division in the 2015 Beneteau Regatta on Sydney Harbour and sailed two races in the recent Land Rover Winter Series, finishing last in Division B both times. Come what may, the crew of this attractive yacht will have a comfortable, almost luxurious voyage to Southport.
VICTOIRE
SAIL NO: AUS5299
LOA: 15.2m
CLASS: IRC/ORCi
DESIGNER: Farr Yacht Design (USA)
YEAR BUILT: 2006
TYPE: Cookson 50
OWNER: Darryl Hodgkinson
CLUB: Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, NSW
CREW: D Hodgkinson – Skipper, D Rutherford - Navigator, S Guanaria, P Gardner, E Psaltis, B Gregory, L Jamieson, T Lake, M Hayward, T Tubman, I McDiarmod, M Ramaley, S Schutz
Victoire finished 23rd overall and eighth in Division 0 of the 2015 Gold Coast race, but retired from the 2015 Sydney Hobart when Dr Darryl was amongst others in the fleet who took a painful tumble in big conditions, his resulting in a trip to hospital. Due to an otherwise good season, inclusive of winning the Flinders Islet Race and placing second in the Cabbage Tree Island Race, the canting Cookson 50 finished seventh overall and sixth under ORCi in the 2015 BWPS. In the 2014 Gold Coast race, Victoire was seventh overall and fifth in Division O, a year after winning IRC Division 0 in the race, shortly after Dr Darryl bought the yacht known as Quantum Racing and then Jazz. Even better things were to come. In 2013, Victoire won the Rolex Sydney Hobart overall, and in the process, he and team mates Patrice and Wild Rose won the reignited Southern Cross Cup.
Victoire also won the 2014 Gosford Lord Howe Island race after finishing second on line. In December 2011, Hodgkinson was named Ocean Racing Rookie of the Year and in a first, a year later was named Ocean Racer of the Year on winning the 2011/2012 BWPS and successfully defending his class victory at the 2012 IRC Australian Championship, courtesy of his previous Victoire, a Beneteau 45. The addition of Ed Psaltis, sailmaker Ian McDiarmod and Larry Jamieson for this race, will add some extra flair and rates her among the favourites.
WAX LYRICAL
SAIL NO: 248
LOA: 15.2m
CLASS: PHS
DESIGNER: Niels Jeppesen (DEN)
YEAR BUILT: 2012
TYPE: X-50
OWNER: Les Goodridge
CLUB: Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, NSW
CREW: L Goodridge – Skipper/Navigator, M Roe, D Eagle, L Stevenson, B Smith, D De Coster, C Blogg, F Etter, B Cohen, A Ozols
Les Goodridge and Wax Lyrical are proving a formidable team and have been almost impossible to beat in PHS in major events, including the 2015 Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race and the 2015 Blue Water Pointscore, in which they claimed the PHS Trophies. In the 2014 Gold Coast race, she finished PHS fifth overall. In mid-July Goodridge finished seventh overall in the 2016 Land Rover Winter Series, but her score takes into account that Wax Lyrical missed two of the races. Wax Lyrical is a pretty Danish X-50 cruiser/racer designed for her owner, who keeps her busy on the race track in CYCA races. She is easily recognizable by the fearsome skull and crossbones on the white kite.
WILD OATS XI
SAIL NO: AUS 10001
LOA: 30.48m
CLASS: IRC/ORCi
DESIGNER: Reichel/Pugh (USA)
YEAR BUILT: 2005
TYPE: 100ft Super Maxi
OWNER: The Oatley family
SKIPPER: Mark Richards
CLUB: Hamilton Island Yacht Club, QLD
CREW: M Richards – Skipper, J Vila, I Murray, B Ruthenberg, C Baillie, C Harmson, C Jones, C Links, D Senogles, G Taylor, J Morris, J Whittaker, P Magee, S Major, S Jarvin, S Quigley, S Pollard, T Wiseman, T Woodcock, T Anderson
After breaking this race’s 13 year-old open record in 2012 (22hrs, 3mins, 46secs), Wild Oats XI returned in 2014, taking line honours from Perpetual Loyal by over two hours. The 100 footer underwent radical modifications ahead of the 2015 Sydney Hobart, but her main ripped in half during the race, causing her only retirement from the race ever. Bob Oatley passed away a short time later, in early January 2016, leaving a dent for all who knew him. Wild Oats XI is the only boat in the history of the Sydney Hobart to have twice achieved the historic treble of line honours, new race record and overall win (2005 and 2012).
She also holds the record for the most consecutive Hobart line honours wins – four – from 2005 to 2008, and the record for most line honours victories, as she also took line honours in 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014, breaking a record seven held by Morna/Kurrewa IV, held from 1960 to and including 2004. The super maxi also holds the Cabbage Tree Island Race record of 12hrs 15mins 55secs, set in 2012. A strong crew includes Spaniard Juan Vila, who will stay in Australia for all of WOXI’s races, and Jono Morris, a talented yachtsman and co-managing director of McConaghy, which built this super maxi and undertook her major modification last year.
WILDFLOWER 2
SAIL NO: 4242
LOA: 12.9m
CLASS: PHS
DESIGNER: Marc Lombard (FRA)
YEAR BUILT: 2011
TYPE: Jeanneau 42 DS
OWNER: Glenn Burrell
CLUB: Southport Yacht Club, QLD
CREW: G Burrell – Skipper, R Short – Navigator, T Horkings, S McKean, T Trigg, C McLennan, P Young
Wildflower 2 was raced by her previous owner at Hamilton Island Race Week in 2014. Glenn Burrell purchased her from Sydney in August 2015 and sailed her to her new port at Southport Yacht Club (SYC), which finishes the Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race. He has been racing her in SYC twilight races and offshore events, all the time learning how to make her go faster. Wildflower 2 is predominantly a cruising yacht and one of three yachts representing SYC in the race, and one of eight representing Queensland. Aboard are the experienced Tony Horkings and his crew from Leeway, who represented SYC in the race last year and finished 22nd overall and 10th in Division 3 after receiving a 70 minute penalty. They won’t make that mistake again.
XS MOMENT
SAIL NO: 11744
LOA: 13.3m
CLASS: IRC/ORCi
DESIGNER: Niels Jeppesen (DEN)
YEAR BUILT: 2011
TYPE: XP44
OWNER: Ray Hudson
CLUB: Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club, NSW
CREW: R Hudson – Skipper, G Holder – Navigator, B Newton, C Grant, C Zonca, I Westlake, K Rainbow, R Speedy, R Suttie, R Palmer, T Harvey
Ray Hudson sailed XS Moment to 31st overall and eighth in Division 2 of the 2015 Land Rover Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race, bettering his 36th overall of the 2014 race. Earlier in 2015, Hudson and his Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club crew claimed fourth overall in the Club Marine Pittwater Coffs race. In the 2016 Pittwater Coffs, XS Moment placed PHS second overall and IRC 10th overall, then went on to finish third overall in the Production X Yachts class at the Sydney Harbour Regatta in March. Come 30 July, she will again face off against the likes of Pretty Woman and Occasional Coarse Language One, both of which are incidentally fellow RPAYC members. XS Moment, a racer/cruiser constructed in Denmark, the first of a new series for X Yachts, also contests events at the Alfreds where Hudson has been a long term member.
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