Sheep Station Trophy Race 1 (BPYC Race 4)

Once more, the BPYC and our friends at the Sydney Amateurs are joining forces for the 2022 BPYC-SASC Sheep Station Trophy. This popular inter-club mini-series kicked off with Race 1 on Saturday 29 November 2022. This year the results of the Sheep Station Trophy races also count towards the BPYC season so our regular entries Blue Sky, G-Whizz, and Starfire all competed for glory in both series> Conquista meanwhile copped a DNS due an electrical fault in her engine.

Standard BPYC races get under way with a staggered handicap start, the Sheep Station races however use a high adrenaline fleet start, which together with the unfamiliar large number of competitors (10 in total) and a nearby CYCA start line caused some initial confusion. But not for long and the yachts soon beat their way upwind from Shark Island towards Kirribilli. The duel of the day was between Blue Sky and its SASC nemesis Clueless, a stripped Farr 30 race boat. The ever capricious Sydney wind gusted at 20kts in this early part of the race, leading Blue Sky to opt for their aptly named chicken chute, a smaller asymmetrical spinnaker, for the downwind leg. Unfortunately the direction of the dying down breeze handed an advantage to boats with large symmetrical spinnakers, so race Blue Sky now had to come from behind. With clever tactics and precisely executed manoeuvres she not only managed catch Clueless but in fact overtook the entire fleet to claim line honours on the day. G-Whizz equally sailed a superb race finishing only 7 minutes behind Blue Sky and deservedly won the race on handicap. The normally intrepid Starfire however sadly did not have the most successful of afternoons, finishing 8th over the line and 10th on handicap. The sail choices of a Nr 2 Genoa left her a little underpowered up-wind while the asymmetrical spinnaker forced her to take unfortunate angles on the downwind leg, flying the kite shy and causing some tricky situations for the crew.

In the end everyone agreed that it was yet another cracking day of racing on Sydney Harbour in the company of great boats from the SASC, and some post-race hospitality – we can’t wait for the next Sheep Station race.

The next BPYC race (Ladies Day and Spring Race 6) will be Sunday 13 November 2022 from 1pm.