Lincoln, lovin' it

Good racing, good fun; the 60th Lexus Adelaide-Lincoln Race and Race Week had it all. Words and pictures by Bob Ross.

PRINCIPAL Race Officer Stewart (“Jock”) Ross expressed the spirit of the racing as well as raising a laugh at the briefing for Lexus Lincoln Race Week, which followed on from the 60th Lexus Adelaide-Port Lincoln race.

“Regarding protests,” he said. “We don’t protest in this regatta. Just go around the back and belt s..t out of each other.”

Stewart explained to me later that’s the way they used to do it in his 14-footer sailing days at St Kilda in Melbourne: “… behind the shed with spinnaker pole stumps.”

Seriously, however, race management and organisation at this event, run totally by volunteers, is efficient as well as informal. By the end of the week, there were no serious protests in this friendliest of regattas; just a query on the allocation of points after a redress hearing.

ISAF-qualified Stewart Ross, who has been the regatta’s PRO for the past five years and his wife Rose towed their caravan the 646kms from Adelaide to stay in the Port Lincoln caravan park. Event/manager coordinator Steve Kemp was also filling his usual role as navigator/tactician on Secret Men’s Business 3.5. Port Lincoln Yacht Club Commodore Mary Clark sat with her laptop on the committee boat with Ross’ team to provide a swift results service.

The Adelaide-Lincoln race, a 156 nm overnight sail in frustrating but not frightening light-air conditions, was contested by a fleet of 66. After a day’s break for the presentation lunch and party, a very competitive fleet of 38, including trailables and performance cruising classes joining the IRC and PHS racers, enjoyed good breezes and sunshine for the flat-water sailing on Boston Bay in the four-day Lincoln Week regatta.

Daily prizes including engraved glasses, bottles of local wine and Bundy rum (for the silliest act each day) and the opportunity to go into a draw for 16 very big crayfish, were presented each afternoon at the Lincoln Cove Marina tavern, which handily is also regatta headquarters.

With many of the crews staying in the tavern’s accommodation and in townhouses and apartments around the marina, the presentation eased the way into relaxed evenings, either over dinner at the tavern or in a nearby crew pad.

Megga’s barbecue, held on the beach at Spaulding Cove after a short race around Boston Bay marks, was again a notable feature of the social program and sponsor Lexus hosted a cocktail party for skippers to mark the 60th anniversary of the Adelaide-Lincoln race.

The racing was seriously good as well as sociably friendly. Two of the newest Reichel/Pugh designs to be built in Australia, the R/P 51 Secret Men’s Business 3.5 from Adelaide and R/P 52 Scarlet Runner from Melbourne, both less than a year old and strongly campaigned, duelled closely at the head of the fleet.

Robert Date’s Scarlet Runner, which had a downwind edge, took both line and handicap honours in the Adelaide-Lincoln race. Secret Men’s Business 3.5, which had proven her all-rounder class by winning IRC overall against a strong fleet at the Victoria Week regatta, won the IRC division in the six-race Lincoln Week regatta by nine points from Scarlet Runner with the IRC Rolex Sydney-Hobart race winner Two True, Andrew Saies’ Beneteau First 40, third, another 2.5 points behind.

Adelaide-Lincoln

Robert Date, who formerly owned a Sydney 38, commissioned Scarlet Runner from Reichel/Pugh as a cruiser/racer to rate well under the IRC rule. Composite Constructions built her in Melbourne. Launched in June 2009, she won IRC division one in the Sydney-Gold Coast race, was third on IRC overall in Airlie Beach Race Week and fifth in Hamilton Island Race Week.

Following Victoria Week, in which Scarlet Runner placed tenth in IRC division one, Date took weight out of the boat, fitted her with an inboard set of jib tracks and recruited new crewmen for Lexus Adelaide-Lincoln and Lincoln Week; among them Adelaide 470 Olympian Chris Tillett as tactician. Only three of the crew had sailed on Scarlet Runner before, including sailmaker Dave Eichmeyer on mainsail trim.

Secret Men’s Business 3.5, a near-complete rebuild by Hart Marine of Geoff Boettcher’s previous disappointing R/P design Secret Men’s Business 3, was sailing with Boettcher’s settled, experienced crew, including Port Lincoln locals Andy Dyer and Steve Kemp sharing the tactical duties.

SMB 3.5 held the advantage off the starting line, with the fleet all tacking off soon afterwards on port, in the 8-10 knot sou’-wester to head for Marion Reef, the first rounding mark 40 nm away.

Scarlet Runner set a Code Zero and staysail shortly after the start and sailing low and fast, anticipating the swing in the breeze to the south-east, soon took the race lead from SMB 3.5, under a similar sail plan. By Marion Reef, Scarlet Runner had her corrected time saved on SMB 3.5.

During the night the breeze, which remained light, squared to the northeast. Secret Men’s in trying to run deeper closer to the shore, across the bottom of the Yorke Peninsula between the Gulf of St Vincent and Spencer Gulf, fell into very light conditions. By Dangerous Reef, last major rounding mark of the course 15 nm from the finish, Scarlet Runner was about three and a-half miles ahead.

Scarlet Runner finished at 0917, nearly an hour ahead of Secret Men’s, which was further slowed when the wind died almost right out in Boston Bay after Scarlet Runner finished. Third to finish was Boettcher’s previous Secret Men’s Business, a Reichel/Pugh 47 Shamrock, skippered by Tony Donnellan from the Mornington YC.

Scarlet Runner’s owner-skipper Rob Date said his crew of 13 had changed through every downwind sail they had on board to handle the variations in wind speed and direction. “I think we would have changed spinnakers ten times during the night,” he said. “Every time we dropped them, we had to re-wool them, so it was a lot of work. I don’t think that any of us would have had more than an hour or so sleep.”

On corrected time, Scarlet Runner beat Secret Men’s Business 3.5 by the big margin of 50 minutes. Third, another 31 minutes behind, was Port Lincoln sailor Kym Clarke’s Sydney 47 Fresh, the former Sydney-owned Balance, with a strong crew recruited from the now defunct Port Lincoln Sydney 32 fleet and Tacka Thompson, from Sydney Yachts, who negotiated the sale.

Fresh, becalmed off Dangerous Reef for two hours, reached Boston Bay as the first gusts of a strong nor’-wester swept through. It reached 35-40 knots at times and ended the handicap chances of the smaller boats.

Performance handicap winner for the second year in a row was Peter Young’s self-designed 39-footer Hanson Monkey Puzzle from the Port Fairy Yacht Club, by the big margin of 29min 31sec from the Sydney CR39 Kaesler (Colin Fraser, RSAYS). “Unlike some of the boats behind us, we didn’t stop at any stage,” said Young.

Young and most of his crew built Hanson Monkey Puzzle themselves three years ago, over an 18-month period, from E-glass covered by C-glass and some carbon fibre over a balsa core.

The boat, the second Monkey Young has built, has a lifting/canting keel, which helps it access the Port Fairy YC on the Moyne River. Young has a new boat on the drawing board for next season.

History recalled

The trophy presentation and lunch the following day was held at the Port Lincoln YC clubhouse on the town’s foreshore in Boston Bay, the official finishing destination for the Adelaide-Lincoln fleet until the move to the Lincoln Cove Marina on Porter Bay in the late 1980s.

While the keelboat activities these days are centred on the marina, the club’s strong dinghy-racing program is still conducted from the clubhouse. A sit-down lunch upstairs and a more informal “Quiet Little Drink” gathering in the dinghy shed downstairs followed the presentation ceremony.

This year, to mark the 60th anniversary of the race, the club invited Mrs Nan Verco, the wife of Brian Verco who was Commodore in 1950, to present the race’s principal trophy, the Verco tray, to Rob Date.

She recalled the race’s beginnings: “The Port Lincoln Yacht Club was in abeyance during the war years and when it was reformed in 1948, Brian was elected the first Commodore. His father Frank had given a donation to the original club and Brian wanted his name to be perpetuated.

“The first race had five entrants. The second year it only had three entrants. Brian was very upset. But Jim Taylor, one of the entrants and commodore of the South Australian Yacht Squadron said to Brian, ‘Don’t worry. This will become the most popular race in South Australia’ and how right he was.”

Mrs Verco also recalled how her husband persuaded the owners of the land on which the clubhouse stands to donate it to the club. “For the original races and also opening days, our home became the headquarters and many happy times were spent with the yachtsmen being wined and dined. They also showered there.

“You have a lot to thank Brian for. I can well remember the afternoon and evening he convinced Rene and Harold Charlton to donate the land. The Charltons had recently purchased this block of land with the intention of building their retirement home on it. Brian said, ‘That isn’t suitable for a home, let the club have it.’”

Lincoln Week

Robert Date and his newly-assembled crew did not hang around for the drinking and eating after the presentation ceremony but spent the afternoon out sailing, working on their round-the-buoys skills.

The training looked to have paid off in the first of the two short-course races that opened the regatta the following day. In an 8-13 knot sou’-wester, Scarlet Runner recovered from a poor start to win the IRC division by eight seconds from Fresh with another five seconds to Secret Men’s.

However with the sou’-wester freshening to 21 knots and gusts over 25 for race two, both Fresh and Scarlet Runner suffered costly mishaps in this no-discard series. Fresh sailed on for some distance before realising she had been recalled for a premature start.

Secret Men’s lost an early lead in retrieving crewman Matt Solomon. He was pulling up the headsail on the approach to the second leeward mark when it filled and the sheet flicked him over the rail.

Scarlet Runner struck serious trouble at the end of the third run. She had blown out her A4 chute at the bottom of the second run, but under the Code Zero still held the lead.

On the drop, the furled Code Zero unfurled and partially set again. Scarlet Runner bore off to try and retrieve it, with little room left to Boston Island. The Code Zero went underwater and tore in half.

The crew cut the sheets, halyard and tack line to drag the pieces aboard over the stern and started the engine. But one of the spinnaker lines wrapped around the prop, preventing Scarlet Runner motoring clear of the fast-approaching lee shore. So Scarlet Runner sailed on to finish, slowly, for tenth place. Secret Men’s won from Shamrock, with Two True third.

Hanson Monkey Puzzle was a non-finisher in race two after a crash tack caught her with the keel angled the wrong way and pinned her flat. Another boat picked up a crewman separated from the boat in the knockdown so Hanson Monkey Puzzle, facing disqualification, retired.   

Long race

Secret Men’s the following day won the long race of the regatta over a 35 nm course. The fleet set off in a 12-15 knot sou’-easter on the windward beat to South Entrance Beacon. Once outside Boston Bay, the yachts were able to ease sheets for a one-leg port tack lay to Taylors Island, had a spinnaker reach back to Donnington Rock at
the entrance to Boston Bay, then a run down the bay to the finish.

Secret Men’s worked the wind shifts well to take the race lead in the first ten minutes of the race. Four miles from Taylors Island Scarlet Runner, sailing slightly faster with sheets sprung, passed Secret Men’s and established a handy lead. On the reach back, Secret Men’s roared up fast on a 17-knot gust to be only two boat-lengths behind at Donnington Rock.

Scarlet Runner, faster on the run down Boston Bay under her A2 asymmetrical spinnaker, finished 2min 52sec ahead, but Secret Men’s won by 14 seconds on corrected time with Fresh third, another 9min 34sec behind.

Megga’s Barbecue race

Secret Men’s took a nine-point series lead with her third win, in Megga’s Barbecue 10 nm race on Boston Bay after another close tussle with Scarlet Runner at the head of the fleet.

The course took the fleet over a windward-return leg in Boston Bay before proceeding to finish off Spaulding Cove, where the yachts anchored and crews went ashore for the traditional barbecue lunch named after its founder, the legendary yacht delivery skipper and Port Lincoln YC stalwart supporter Geoff (“Megga”) Bascombe, who died last year while delivering a yacht from Queensland to South-East Asia.

The race started in a 10-12 knot sou’-easter that freshened to 13-15 knots for the final short beat into Spalding Cove. Secret Men’s led around the South Entrance Beacon windward mark in Boston Bay.

Scarlet Runner gained the lead two-thirds of the way down the run to the Sub buoy and led for the rest of the race but had to defend against a fast-finishing Secret Men’s on the last short windward beat from the Bickers Islands mark to the finish in Spalding Cove. Scarlet Runner was first to finish, by 20 seconds from Secret Men’s, which won by 52sec on corrected time with Fresh third, another 10sec behind.

Last day

Secret Men’s began the last day of two short windward-leeward races with a mistake at the start of race five. Trying for a boat-end start she got pushed over early in a group of boats with the same idea and had to wait for the traffic around her to subside to re-start.

That handed Scarlet Runner a long early race lead. Secret Men’s made some upwind gains to finish 1min 8sec behind Scarlet Runner. Scarlet Runner won by just two seconds from Secret Men’s, with Two True third, another 29 seconds behind.

Two True, with veteran Dick Fidock (who introduced Andrew Saies to offshore racing in the 1980s) steering some legs, from a good mid-line start won the last race on IRC corrected time by 40 seconds from Secret Men’s with another 24 seconds to Scarlet Runner.

Secret Men’s and Scarlet Runner from conservative starts had a close race-long duel, which Scarlet Runner eventually taking finishing line honours by 28secs. Conditions for racing were ideal, with an easterly breeze of 10-12 knots for the first race building to 12-14 for the second.

Secret Men’s, with the very consistent 3-1-1-1-2-2 scoreline, won overall with ten points from Scarlet Runner 19 and Two True 21.5

Andrew Corletto’s Sydney 38 Shining Sea from the Cruising Yacht Club of South Australia won the performance handicap division from Scarlet Runner with Fresh third.

David Knight’s Austral Clubman 8.5 White Knight, from the CYCSA, won the trailables/Etchells division from Aussie Blue (Philip Kelly), a Noelex 25 from the PLYC and Bohica (Todd Bartlett), a Boatspeed 23 from the Victor Harbour YC.

Cruising division was won by the Nicholson 45 Old Nick (Craig Thomas, CYCSA) from the Van De Stadt 34 Red Jam (Gary Sinton) on a placings countback from Peer Gynt (Douglas Gladman), Port Adelaide SC.

RESULT

60th Lexus Adelaide-Lincoln race

IRC: 1, Scarlet Runner (Robert Date, Sandringham YC), Reichel/Pugh 52, corrected time, 01day 00hr 45min 23sec; 2, Secret Men’s Business 3.5 (Geoff Boettcher, Cruising YC South Australia), Reichel/Pugh 51, 01:01:35:18; 3, Fresh (Kym Clarke, Port Lincoln YC), Sydney 47, 01:02:06:51; 4, Shamrock (Tony Donnellan, Mornington YC), Reichel/Pugh 47, 01:02:20:21; 5, Kaesler (Colin Fraser, Royal South Australian YS), Sydney CR39, 01:02:47:02; 6, Two True (Andrew Saies, CYCSA), Beneteau First 40, 01:02:57:29; 7, Shining Sea (Andrew Corletto, CYCSA), Sydney 38, 01:02:59.30.

Line honours: 1, Scarlet Runner, elapsed time 18hr 17min 02sec; 2, Secret Men’s Business 3.5, 19:08:19; 3, Shamrock, 20:35:37.

PHS: 1, Hanson Monkey Puzzle (Peter Young, Port Fairy YC), Young 39, 22:09:16; 2, Kaesler (Colin Fraser, RSYAYS), Sydney CR39, 22:38:47; 3, Shining Sea (Andrew Corletto, CYCSA), Sydney 38, 22:44:11.

PHS division 1: 1, Hanson Monkey Puzzle; 2, Kaesler; 3, Shining Sea.

PHS division 2: 1, Daystar; 2, War & Peace (Stefan Marcel, CYCSA), Beneteau 305, 22:49:03; 3, Carioca (Craig Hutton, CYCSA), 23:22:54.

Cruising division: 1, Caitlyn (Kym Woolford, PLYC), Catalina 34, 01:04:42:36; 2, Rhythm II (David Lewis, PLYC), Spencer 40, 01:04:51:40;

3, Shilo (Wayne Smith, PLYC), Catalina 320, 01:05:05:11.

Multihull division: 1, Aquila (Mark Johns, CYCSA), Pescott Whitehaven 10.95m, 22:58:33; 2, Tearaway (Geoff Kneebone, RSAYS), Farrier F9a, 23:15:08; 3, Hasta la Vista (Gerald Valk, RSAYS), Crowther Hemlock 11m, 01:01:02:10.

Lexus Lincoln Week

IRC: 1, Secret Men’s Business 3.5, 3-1-1-1-2-2, 10 points; 2, Scarlet Runner, 1-10-2-2-1-3, 19; 3, Two True, 5-3-5.5-4-3-1, 21.5; 4, Fresh, 2-9-3-3-6-6, 29; 5, Shamrock, 4-2-4-6-5-8, 29.

PHS: 1, Shining Sea, 9-5-2-11-1-2, 30; 2, Scarlet Runner, 3-12-1-2-7-6, 31; 3, Fresh, 2-10-4-1-10-7, 34.

Performance Cruising: 1, Old Nick (Craig Thomas, CYCSA), Nicholson 45, 2-5-2-2, 11; 2, Red Jam (Gary Sinton, CYCSA), Young 88, 1-1-7-4, 13; 3, Peer Gynt (Douglas Gladman, Port Adelaide SC), Van de Stadt 34, 4-2-4-3, 13.

Trailables/Etchells: 1, White Knight (David Knights, CYCSA), Austral Clubman, 2-2-2-1.5-2-2, 11.5; 2, Aussie Blue (Philip Kelly, PLYC), Noelex 25, 1-1-3-3-4-5, 17; 3, Bohica (Todd Bartlett, Victor Harbour YC), Boatspeed 23, dnf-dnc-1-1.5-1-1, 24.5.