J/99 DISKO TROOPER Wins Flinders Islet Race Overall & Doublehanded
(Sydney, NSW, Australia)- Over the past few weeks, the springtime sailing “Down Under” has been increasing in frequency. A popular event for Sydney’s best offshore sailors is the AUDI Sydney Blue Water Offshore Pointscore Series. It’s a series of five races that lead up to the famously challenging ROLEX Sydney Hobart Race:
Sep 26- Flinders Islet Race
Oct 16- Tollgate Islands Race
Nov 14- Bird Island Race
Dec 4- Cabbage Tree Island Race
Dec 26- ROLEX Sydney Hobart Race
The 88-nautical-mile Flinders Islet Race down to Port Kembla in Wollongong and back began last Saturday morning on a stunning Sydney spring day. Basically, it’s a “sprint” to a rocky island off Port Kembla; it’s short by offshore racing standards, but not necessarily simple. After the start, the fleet threads out through the famous Sydney Heads promontory and turns south. They sail past the cliffs of the Royal National Park and the escarpment above Wollongong, round Flinders Islet a mile east of Port Kembla, then race home to Sydney Harbour.
The forecast- a potential dream run?
Every model agreed on the start. A light north to north-easterly of 5–9 knots in the Harbour and along Sydney’s shore. It then builds through the morning to 13–19 knots, with more pressure the further offshore you go. That meant kites up, and a VMG run south.
North to South
The question was what comes up the coast to meet them. An infamous “southerly buster” was pushing north, and the models disagreed on when it reached the turning mark (Flinders Islet). The earliest models had it arriving around 1700 hrs, and others ran later.
That set up a potential dream scenario. A boat that reaches Flinders Islet just as the southerly arrives could run downwind the whole way down, round the island, and run downwind the whole way home!! LOL. Arrive early, and you’re beating home north to the finish into the northerly until the change finds you. Or you arrive late and beat south into the southerly buster, “beating your brains out” just to reach the mark.
The Sydney “bookmakers” were laying odds that no matter what the scenario, it would be a small-boat race! Here is how it all went down.
Overall Honors
Jules Hall has been sailing his well-known J/99 DISKO TROOPER Contender Sailcloth for years, and his experience includes the huge, dramatic ROLEX Sydney Hobart Race win in the Doublehanded Division. Jules and his friend Jan Scholten are campaigning the boat for this series. Here is Jule’s commentary on their Flinders Islet Race experience winning both Overall and Doublehanded Honors:
“We got exactly the forecast we thought we were going to get,” he said. “The leg down was champagne sailing all the way. It got quite windy actually. The log files recorded a 32-knot gust on the way down.
We got off the line well and made good gains tacking down the western Sydney Harbour shore. Then, we sailed into a full park-up and restart at the Sydney Heads! Luckily, we wriggled out first of the double-handed boats, with the Sunfast 3300 Borderline in hot pursuit.
After a soft and tricky rounding at Flinders Islet, the real test arrived.
We came out on port tack going upwind in the old breeze. After about 20 to 30 minutes, I saw this line of breeze. It just smashed into us at 40 knots. It lasted about five minutes, went really calm, and then it came in from the southwest and the winds just built and built. The wind strength for the return leg was around 30 to 38 knots, and the peak we recorded was 49.6 kts. Our top boat speed was 23.8 knots, which is a bit too fast for a J/99!
We sailed the next 43.0nm in gale-force winds. The coastline pushed the TWA to nearer 130 degrees during that stretch, so it was a screaming reach. Max boat speed was 23.8 kts under J4 and single-reef main. But it wasn’t fast enough; Borderline, who had wriggled to 0.3nm lead, took off, putting 1.5nm on us.
We had one last chance to get them after the small bear away at Malabar. We were discussing the S-6 spinnaker. Then, another 40 kt gust kicked through. So, we went back to the poled-out J4 jib! We sailed a shorter distance than Borderline on the final leg to South Head, gained back some of what we lost, and we snagged the win by 7 minutes corrected with Borderline in 2nd!!
We had an epic tussle in some pretty fresh conditions. The whole fleet sailed massively well, especially Andy and Paul on Borderline, who pushed us hard.
For more AUDI Sydney Blue Water Offshore Points Series information
https://bwps.cycaracing.com/
For more J/99 shorthanded speedster sailing information
https://www.jboats.com/j-99-new