9:55 AM Sat 14 Nov 2009 GMT
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'M F Albert’s Rawhiti which won the Morna Cup outright in the RSYS season of 1927-28. From the watercolour by John Allcot in the possession of the RSYS'
Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron
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The Morna Cup is one of three short ocean races conducted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron each season; this season changing it to a one-race event rather than over a weekend with races to and from Sydney to Pittwater. The Cup dates back to 1913 and is named after the famous racing yacht Morna.
Long Reef used to be a regular course in a nor'-easter for the Cruising Yacht Club Australia's Short Ocean Pointscore fleet, but had not been used for many seasons until revived today by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron for its annual Morna Cup.
The race from Watsons Bay and up the coast to a mark four nautical miles off Long Reef and return provided what competitors described as a 'perfect' course in the 10-15 knot nor'easter - a good beat to windward and an exhilarating spinnaker run back through the Heads.
For today's Morna Cup winner Alan Husband in his Bavaria 41, Limelight, a well-raced cruiser with good sails, the conditions could not have been better. 'She is a cruising boat but we enjoy racing her and today's steady breeze and ocean conditions were ideal.we carried a No 1 headsail all day and had a great spinnaker run home.a gybing duel with Allegro for most of the way to the finish line.'
Limelight, sailing for the Squadron, won the Morna Cup as the yacht with the lowest PHS corrected time in the fleet, winning Division 3 from Cruising Yacht Club of Australia entrant Eye Appeal (Michael Delane John) and Allegro (John Taylor) also from the RSYS.
The Morna Cup race was also part of the CYCA's Grant Thornton Short Ocean Pointscore, with Paul Clitheroe Beneteau 45 Balance taking out Division 1 under both PHS and IRC ratings.
In an impressive lead-up to their Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race campaign, Clitheroe and his amateur crew provisionally won both divisions with Balance from another Hobart contender, Annette and Robin Hawthorn's Beneteau 47.7 Imagination. CYCA Vice-Commodore Howard Piggot's Flying Cloud placed third in the PHS division, while under IRC third place went to Matthew Short's Shortwave, also heading for Hobart on Boxing Day.
IRC Division 3 went to Eye Appeal from Allegro, third place to Crosshaven (S Rahilly and J Pelly) with only three seconds between first and second on corrected time.
The Grant Thornton Short Haul fleet headed further north to Pittwater, racing for the Paul Royle Memorial Trophy, with John and Ann Kirkjian's Lady Ann inflicting the first IRC division defeat of the season on David Champtaloup's classic yacht Caprice of Huon. Third place in IRC went to M (Steve and Michel Hatch).
John and Kim Clinton's Oceanis 50, Holy Cow!, an entrant in the Cruising Division for this year's Rolex Sydney Hobart, took out the PHS division from Lady Ann and Robert Hunt's Attitude.
by Peter Campbell
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6000, WA
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