10:51 AM Sat 24 Oct 2009 GMT
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'Magic, winner of the inaugural race for the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron's Gascoigne Cup, in 1886.'
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The Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron's historic Gascoigne Cup sailed into its second century today with victory going to prominent yachtsman Tim Cox in his J35 Soundtrack, with son Edward on the helm.
Tim Cox, a retired senior RAN officer, is well known as chairman of the Race Committee for the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia's Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and also is a member of the Sailing Committee of the RSYS.
This was the 101st Gascoigne Cup conducted by the RSYS, although today's race marked 124 years since it was first presented to the RSYS in 1886, when Magic won the first race. It was not contested during the war years. Many famous yachts have won this iconic short ocean race off Sydney Heads,
The winner of the Gascoigne Cup is the yacht in the combined Divisions 1 and 3 with the lowest corrected time under Performance Handicaps, with Soundtrack winning by a comfortable 2 minutes 39 seconds on corrected time from two other Division 3 boats, Zephyer (James Connell & Alex Brandron) from Balmain Sailing Club and Lisdillon (Desmond Fagan). Only 21 seconds separated second and third.
The race started in a light but steady south-easterly breeze of 8-10 knots, with RSYS race officer David Reid setting a short course of 14 nautical miles in view of the expected continuation of light winds during the afternoon.
Two boats broke the start but quickly returned and re-started, with the fleet heading out through the Heads from the Watson Bay start line on a course of 140 degrees.
Leslie Green's Swan Ginger led the fleet around the windmark for the first time, followed closely by Matthew Short's Shortwave. Then came Broomstick and Edake, with Jackpot, AFR Midnight Rambler and Balance in a close bunch
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Ginger held her lead throughout the race to take line honours from Shortwave, Michael Cranitch's Broomstick and Jeff Carter's Farr 40 Edake. Soundtrack finished 17th in the fleet of 28 yachts.
Under IRC ratings for Divisions 1 and 3, provisional first place went to Ray Entwistle's consistent Jackpot from Jeff Carter's Farr 40 Edake with Ginger third and Soundtrack fourth.
The Gascoigne Cup was also the third race in the CYCA's Greg Thornton Short Ocean Pointscore with Jackpot winning IRC Division 1 from Edake and Ginger. Jackpot's win will provisionally lift her to the top of the leader board in the SOPS, displacing AFR Midnight Rambler, which placed on 7th today.
Soundtrack won IRC Division 3 from Zephyr and John Taylor's Allegro, which also lifts the J35 to equal first in the SOPS pointscore with Crosshaven (S Rahilly and J Pelly).
Under PHS results for the Greg Thornton SOPS, Edake won Division1 from Jackpot from Ian MacDiarmid's Hell Razor while Division 3 saw another victory for Soundtrack. Zephyr again took second place, third going to Desmond Fagan's Lisdillon.
by Peter Campbell
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Troughton Island, WA
