Longevity shines in 182nd Melbourne to Geelong Passage Race
by Festival of Sails 25 Jan 21:53 NZDT
25-27 January 2025
The 182nd Nautica House Festival of Sails Passage Race from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria to the Royal Geelong Yacht Club started under the cannon of the STS Young Endeavour. More than 240 boats and 1100 sailors set off in the oldest continual sporting event in the Southern Hemisphere, but it was the 46-time veteran of the race, Bruce Taylor and his team on Chutzpah who won on line honours.
At sunrise, hot air balloons drifted through Port Melbourne, however, the breeze filled in just in time for the competitors to cleanly get away, framed by the city skyline.
The fleet made its way down Port Phillip towards Corio Bay, with the high-performance 40 foot-range boats leading the way. It was Bruce Taylor's Caprice 40, Chutzpah who stole line honours from the newer boats including Rob Date's Scarlet Runner, and Ray Roberts' Team Hollywood. This gave the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria team the honours of the "Knot a Bull's Roar" Perpetual Trophy for the overall fastest boat.
The team cheered as they crossed the line, and crew were heard saying, "we need a 70ft Chutzpah". Obviously not the case when they have managed to take line honours on a forty footer. "Good wasn't it," Bruce Taylor, spoke through his smile. "Experience pays"!
And he isn't joking, with 46 races now under his belt.
"We've been coming down here every year since 1979. We haven't missed a year," he exclaimed.
"It's a lovely place to come, fantastic club and a lovely place to sail".
"We've never got line honours before, and given the boats that were around us, we were not unhappy". Said Taylor.
The team got the perfect boat end start and played the right hand side all day to stay out of the tide, which started running out about an hour after the start.
On the calibre of boats, some that are half the weight of his, as well as the professional teams sharing Division 1 with Chutzpah, he was humble as always, not admitting that they were by any means good, but that the team was "lucky".
After corrected time Chutzpah are second overall in Passage Rating Division 1 on ORC, AMS and IRC. Just beating them into first place for the Lou Abrahams Memorial Trophy for first overall leaderboard for all classes of handicap in Division 1 is Phoenix 3 skippered by Royal Geelong Yacht Club local, Brenton Carnell.
"It's a little bit too good," Carnell joked. "I think we did what everybody didn't do, off the start line, we backed off at the start, and then we punched out to the right, everybody went left and we had clear air and it was amazing" he finished clearly happy with his team's performance.
The Super 40 handicap in Passage RatingDivision 1 is led by Mojo co-skippered by Nick Maddison and James Billson.
Co-skippers of Ginan, Nigel Jones and Cam McKenzie, lead Passage Rating Division 2 on ORC and AMS with Clockwork skippered by fellow co-skippers Andrew Lloyd and Mary Ann Harvey leading on IRC for Division 2.
In Passage Rating Division 3 Executive Decision skippered by William Sheers leads in ORC. However, the team fell into second on AMS, overtaken by Arch De Triomphe skippered by John Neville who currently lead overall in that handicap.
The overall leaders in Passage Rating Division 4 in both ORC and AMS goes to Watermark II co-skippered by David Suda and Herschel Landes.
In the Passage Spinnaker Series across EHC, David Morrell's Just Chillin leads in Division 1 and Andy Allsep's Rebecca IV hold first place in Division 2. In Division 3 Caledonia co-skippered by Paul Jenkins and Andrew Merrett leads with Dan Kennedy's Hanini taking pole position in Division 4.
Pronto skippered by Stephen Blackburn are a Geelong local boat leading on EHC in the Non-Spinnaker Series. Another fellow Geelong local, Marie Louise III skippered by Scott Taylor is leading on EHC in the Classic Boat Series.
In the Double-Handed Series, Surprise skippered by James Russell lead on both EHC and ORC AP with co-skippers Peter Williams and Matt Turner's The Muppet Show taking first place in AMS 2HD.
In the two One Design divisions Catherine Thornton-Rofe's Kaotic leads the J24 Series over. In the S80 Series Skipjack skippered collectively by 'The Defectors' took first over the line for their division but it was Manfred Herzer's Jack Tar taking pole position on EHC.
The Mornington Peninsula Passage Series saw Nine Lives skippered by Wayne Mercer take first place on EHC.
Two Geelong local boats took first place to round out the list of series. In the Multihull Series Dave Ruffin's Kavala landed in first place on OMR. In the Passage Mini Series Ed Featherston's FFolly came into first place on EHC.
Festival of Sails continues Sunday 26 and Monday 27 January from the Royal Geelong Yacht Club. Live racing is shown on stage from 10:30am, with family entertainment and activities on stages throughout the Geelong Waterfront Precinct.
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