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2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race

Wishing all our participating members the best of luck during this year’s Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race.

With 28 entrants including one multihull and seven two-handed entrants the race is set to start on Friday 22 March at 1300hrs.

Our participating yachts are:

• Antipodes – Geoff Hill
• Blue Planet (TH) – Chris O’Neill
• Highway Patrol – Michael Blaxell
• Tempo – Michael Smith
• Whisper – David Griffith
• Wot’s Next – Charles Cupit

Blue Planet

Highway Patrol

Wot’s Next

Inity skippered by Andrea Davey

Participating for the first time in the Two-Handed division is our Sailing Office’s very own Andrea Davey, skippering on the Figaro 3, Inity.

Make sure to follow the race tracker here and the full list of entries can be found here .

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Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race 2024

Early entries start ball rolling for 2024 pittwater to coffs harbour yacht race.

Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (RPAYC) has opened entries to eligible monohull, multihull and two-handed boats for the 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race to start at 1pm on Friday 22 March.

Two-handed entries for the 38th running of the race are expected to be popular again, after Rupert Henry and Greg O’Shea won the 2023 race overall with Henry’s Lombard 34, Mistral. Two-handers also claimed second (Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth), fourth, sixth and seventh places.

Two-handers also nabbed the top five places overall under ORC, with Jules Hall’s Disko-Trooper_Contender Sailcloth, co-skippered by Jan Scholten, taking the top place from Chris O’Neill’s Blue Planet, co-skippered by Ian Smith and Shane Connelly’s Rum Rebellion, co-skippered by Tony Sutton.

Martin and John Cross led the overall standings for a time last year but ultimately placed sixth overall and fourth in the two-handed division.

“We’ve done the race a few times before. We won all the two-handed divisions the first year we did it,” Cross recalled of he and son John’s victory on Transcendence Crento.

“Obviously the competition increased last year and that’s a good thing. It was high quality with Mistral and Disko Trooper. Both have won the Sydney Hobart two-handed division.

“It was a small boat race last year, so it wasn’t surprising to see them do well. No matter what, you have to go hard, because everyone else is sailing to their capabilities.”

Cross said he and John will be on the start line again this year: “We’ll be there. The father and son thing is something we enjoy,” he said.

Marc Depret has entered his Beneteau Figaro 3, Intiy, in the two-handed division after placing 17th under ORC for eighth in the two-handed division in 2023.

On the fully crewed front, Queenslander Geoff Tomlins has entered Flat White, a Radford 12.2 owned by Jen Linkova. It will be Flat White’s first tilt at the race. It is also a first for Tomlins and his entire crew.

“None of the crew have done the race before. There’ll be six of us. Four are from Queensland and one each from Wollongong (NSW) and Geelong (Vic),” Tomlins said.

“We’re excited about doing the Pittwater to Coffs. It’s a different sort of race for us. We’ll be spending a couple of days in Coffs before heading off to do the other major races in our program.”

Richard Hudson is another regular entrant with the modified IC45, Pretty Woman. The local sailor’s crew will again feature youths from RPAYC.

“We’re getting back into short course racing with the  Pittwater Regatta  first. It will help polish our crew work before the Pittwater to Coffs,” said Hudson, who along with his crew, scored a divisional second and won the IRC Corinthian Trophy in December’s Rolex Sydney Hobart.

“I enjoy the Coffs Race and it’s a good destination. There’s lots for crews and family to do in Coffs,” he said.

Both multihull and monohull records are on the line in 2024. Rex, the ORMA 60 skippered by Dale Mitchell (Qld), broke the multihull record in 2023, set by another ORMA 60 in 2014. Rex clipped just 5 seconds off that record in the time of 17 hours 3 minutes, despite weather indicating a slower race.

However, the monohull record set by Peter Harburg’s 100 foot Black Jack (Qld) in 2022 of 17hrs 10mins 31secs remained safe, as Andoo Comanche’s wide hull was not suited to the softer conditions.

Notice of Race and entry can be found on the official website:  www.pittwatertocoffs.com.au  with entries closing at 1700 hours on 8 March.

Follow the Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Race on social media:

• www.facebook.com/royalprincealfredyachtclub
• www.instagram.com/rpayc

by Di Pearson / RPAYC

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Race is on to win 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race

Over 30 boats will be on the start line for the 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race this Friday when monohulls, a multihull and two-handed entries will share the start line off Barrenjoey Headland for the 1pm start.

Respected sailor, Theresa Michell, has joined forces with Paul Beath and his J/99, Verite, for their first major two-handed race together. Newcomers to the Pittwater Coffs, Beath did the 2023 Rolex Sydney Hobart in two-handed mode with another co-skipper. He and Michell’s first two-handed training session was a four-day return trip from Hobart.

“It was all upwind. Not particularly pleasant,” Beath remembered. “One of the reasons she is doing this race with me is because she sailed with me fully crewed in the Sydney Gold Coast race and the rest of the Blue Water Pointscore last year and we get on well.

“And this race is at a nice time of year,” the Novocastrian said of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s (RPAYC) 226 nautical mile race.

Although she halted racing at the end of the 1990s to raise a family, Michell’s credentials are outstanding in both two-handed and fully-crewed sailing, as a skipper, navigator and crew.

She contested the 5500 nautical mile two-handed Melbourne to Osaka race in 1999 on an Adams 10 that she also skippered in the 1998 Double-Handed Trans-Tasman Challenge from Sydney to New Plymouth in New Zealand. She has sailed on the international scene, done Sydney Hobarts and sailed an Olympic class dinghy.

“This is a new team in a new race and we think it’s a good distance. We’ll get our systems together and get organised,” Beath commented.

“It will be a demanding race because of the currents and fluctuating conditions.”

The pair are expected to be competitive against all-comers, including other two-handed entries such as Chris O’Neill, who returns with Blue Planet after finishing the race seventh overall last year.

“We also won PHS and were second in ORC – and these results were exactly the same in the two-handed division,” he said.

This time he will be co-skippered by Tom Johnston, who helped him to sixth in the two-handed division of the 2023 Sydney Hobart.

“It’s a fun race and a good location in Coffs, it’s not too strenuous and importantly, there’s been sufficient time between this race and the Sydney Hobart – I’ve forgotten all the pain,” O’Neill said wryly.

Among the latest fully crewed entries for the 38 th ‘Pittwater to Coffs’ is David Griffith’s record breaking JV62 Whisper, which will likely battle Geoff Hill’s Santa Cruz 72, Antipodes, for line honours. Whisper is also a favourite for the overall win, but due to the many weather vagaries at this time of year, the race really is wide open in all classifications.

On his quarry, Whisper’s owner says: “With her long waterline length, if Antipodes gets reaching conditions, she is quick, she will take off. We’re in pretty good shape though and the boat’s in perfect order.”

Griffith says his crew will also hold them in good stead. Among them are Rear Admiral Lee Goddard, Michael Coxon, Dougie McGain, Michael Fountain and Brett Van Munster.  

“Either way, it’s a wonderful race and the Alfreds do a great job,” Griffith said. “Everyone loves a destination race and Coffs Harbour is a great destination with lots to do.”

Others chasing overall glory are regular DK46 rivals Khaleesi (Sandy Farquharson/Rob Aldis) and LCE Old School Racing (Mark Griffith). At the Nautilus Marine Insurance Sydney Harbour Regatta in early March, the latter placed second in the Open division, while Khaleesi was third. Another DK46, Nine Dragons, was declared the winner. 

Pierre Gal has entered the Asia catamaran Stealth 12.60 named Fez. The French expat, who lives on the NSW north coast, is a name locally and internationally, competing in the America’s Cup for France and has Australian victories too.

Incidentally, Gal won Division 4 of the 2019 Sydney Gold Coast race with Mistral, the same Lombard 34 that won the 2023 Pittwater Coffs race for two-handed sailors, Rupert Henry and Greg O’Shea last year.

Follow the fleet on the race tracker at: https://yb.tl/pittwater2024

For all information go to: www.pittwatertocoffs.com.au

Di Pearson/RPAYC media

Written by Media RPAYC

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Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race

16 Mitala Street, Newport NSW 2106

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Please check with the event organiser for the most up-to-date times.

• 22 March 2024
• 23 March 2024
• 24 March 2024
• 11 April 2025
• 12 April 2025
• 13 April 2025
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Black Jack ploughs through the seaway - Andrea Francolini pic

Black Jack leads fleet in Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race

As expected, Peter Harburg’s super maxi Black Jack made the best of the start in Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s (RPAYC) Club Marine Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race this afternoon.

Due to start at 1pm off Barrenjoey Headland, signalling the start of the chase for line and overall honours, the fleet was recalled when too many yachts were over the line early.

General Recall out of the way, it was a clean start the second time around, with 2021 Rolex Sydney Hobart line honours victor, Black Jack, leading the way. Behind the 100-footer representing Yacht Club de Monaco, was David Griffith’s JV62, Whisper and 2021 Sydney Hobart winner Ichi Ban (Matt Allen).

Two-handed entry, Speedwell, was around 15 minutes late to the start. Campbell Geeves and Olly Gill have work to do to catch up to their contemporaries.

A messy and lumpy sea in a 15-18 knot east/nor-easterly wind will have some wishing they hadn’t had lunch.

Black Jack, skippered by Mark Bradford, is loaded with talent, including America’s Cup sailors, Adam Beashel and Dean Phipps from New Zealand. Harburg’s yacht was left to her own devices, as Christian Beck withdrew LawConnect from the race.

Before the race, David Griffith said from Whisper, “We’re ready,” referencing the start of the 36th edition of the 226 nautical mile race.

“We’re here to try and win. I’ve got the right people to help me do that; Iain Murray, Michael Coxon and Tom Braidwood are in my core crew,” he said.

Whisper is in fine form, having recently broken the Montague Island race record. She also placed fifth overall and fifth over the line in the 2021 Sydney Hobart.

The bane of his and others’ lives are the TP52s, in particular Ichi Ban (Matt Allen). In December, Ichi Ban became only the third yacht to win the Sydney Hobart three times and in February she won the Adelaide to Port Lincoln Yacht Race. The Pittwater to Coffs is one of the rare races Allen and his TP52 are yet to win.

Allen’s crew includes Mat Belcher, the most decorated Olympic 470 sailor in history, world-class navigator Will Oxley and the RPAYC’s own Alice Tarnawski, a product of the RPAYC Youth Development program.

Fifteen minutes before the start, Carl Crafoord, owner/navigator of Sail Exchange reported: “The rain’s stopped, the sun’s out and we are in a 15-17 knot east/north-easterly. It’s on the nose to get out of here and then it’s supposed to be a gradient easterly of 15 to 20 knots.

“It should be a good race for us. Unfortunately though, it will get light towards the end and that will favour the bigger boats, while it will be doughy and slow for us,” he said from the nav station of his Cookson 12.

The highly regarded navigator experienced unforeseen difficulties when he arrived at his yacht this morning: “We were doing last minute jobs we didn’t know about until we got on board. We had to change the alternator on the motor, fix the Wi-Fi and our computer screen. It was a bit of a rush,” the Middle Harbour Yacht Club member explained.

John Turnbull, owner of RPAYC entry, Luna Blue, was raring and ready to go. “They’ve forecast a pretty good easterly for the first 24 hours. It may shift a little to the north, so it’s straight on the rhumbline at good speed for us. The forecast suits us,” he said from his Beneteau First 45.

At the smaller end of the fleet are the likes of Highway Patrol, a Dubois 30 (9.14 metres) owned by Michael Blaxall, Shane Connolly’s 9.9 metre J/99 Rum Rebellion and Martin Cross’ 10 metre Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300, Transcendence Crento.

Among the notable double-handed entries is Speedwell (Campbell Geeves/Olly Gill), Rum Rebellion (Shane Connelly/Graeme Dunlop), Local Hero (Mark Ayto), Transcendence Crento (Martin and John Cross), Runaway (Tim Alexander/Mark Goode) and Intiy (Marc Depret/ Rouzbeh Katrahmani). Intiy is a radical downwind flyer, the first of the one-design Beneteau Figaro 3s to be launched in Australia.

Depret, who hails from the host club, remarked before the start, “The more south that’s in the breeze, the better it is for us. As soon as we get a chance to pop the Code Zero up, we will. It will be a chance to put distance on the rest.

“At the moment though, the predicted easterly isn’t ideal for us, but it’s OK. The wind will be in the lower range in the beginning. I think there will be squalls and rain clouds, but I don’t think we’ll be parked, we’ll be moving. The question is, in what direction? That is the general feeling at the moment,” he said.

On arrival in Coffs Harbour, crews will be welcomed at Coffs Harbour Yacht Club (CHYC) and the Club will have the barbecue and bar running on the weekend of 9 and 10 April.

The Club Marine Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race presentation will be held on Sunday 10 April at Coffs Harbour Yacht Club.

Follow the Club Marine Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race on the tracker at: http://yb.tl/pittwater2022

Leaderboard link: https://yb.tl/Leaderboard/pittwater2022

Please see today’s video highlights at: https://youtu.be/7NreiurSPyE

All information, including entries, on the official website: http://www.pittwatertocoffs.com.au

Di Pearson/RPAYC media

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The starting gun fires at 1pm on Friday 22 March at the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club (RPAYC).

The East Coast Classic 226-nautical mile, warm water race is open to monohulls, two-handed and multi-hulls.

“This race creates a great spirit of camaraderie and endeavour,” CHYC Commodore John Wait told News Of The Area.

“Sailors love the challenge of whatever the weather brings and getting the best out of it and their boat.

“Together, over many years of collaborations CHYC and RPAYC have created an anticipated and exciting event for sailors and the local community.”

After crossing the finish line race competitors are escorted into the harbour by CHYC sailing volunteers who are on a 24-hour watch.

“Volunteers escort the boats to berth or help crew,” Secretary CHYC Sailing Committee Moyra Mendham told NOTA.

“They also help crew exchange for the larger boats who are continuing on to the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race.

“They cannot enter Coffs now, as was possible in the past, due to the siltation of the harbour,” she said.

With all hands on deck managing the needs and necessities of the incoming crews, the camaraderie is tangible.

“One of the best bits is efforts being rewarded by the appreciation of tired and hungry sailors,” Moyra said.

Awards are presented on Sunday afternoon, by which time all competitors are expected to have crossed the finish line.

Club Members, guests and visitors are invited to the CHYC to share in the atmosphere.

“A special cocktail is being created for the weekend plus a Pittwater Platter to aid in the enjoyment of the sail race atmosphere,” Club Director Tammy Mills-Thom told NOTA.

A local CHYC competitor has further fuelled excitement for the local club, with well known and accomplished sail race contender Pierre Gal entering his newly imported catamaran ‘Fez’.

A race of this size means business for Coffs Harbour.

“Crews and support crews bring an influx to accommodation and restaurants of the city both before and after the race,” said Tammy.

“The race has become part of the Coffs Harbour community calendar.

“If it ever went away, it would be sorely missed.

“It really does showcase what we are about, a welcoming harbour city with spectacular opportunities for enjoyment of ocean water sports.”

By Andrea FERRARI

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38th Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race: Overview, Entrants, and Highlights

Interest is growing in the 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race, attracting a diverse fleet of seasoned offshore yachts and sailors from NSW. The race, spanning 226 nautical miles, is set to kick off on March 22, with entries from various boat sizes and crew configurations. Notable entries include Geoff Hill's 72-foot Antipodes and Michael Blaxell's 30-foot Highway Patrol. This year's competition promises to be challenging, with seasoned sailors aiming for top positions.

• 38th running of the 226 nautical mile Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race
• Entries from diverse boat sizes and crew configurations
• Race set to commence on March 22
• Diverse fleet representing seasoned sailors from NSW and other ports
• Notable entries include Geoff Hill's 72-foot Antipodes and Michael Blaxell's 30-foot Highway Patrol

The 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race is gearing up to be a competitive and diverse event, drawing interest from seasoned sailors and featuring entries from various boat sizes and crew configurations.

Read more at www.sail-world.com

The summary of the linked article was generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence technology from OpenAI

www.sail-world.com • Di Pearson/RPAYC media

Interest mounting in 2024 Pittwater to Coffs Race

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