Sun shines for the Grant Thornton Short Haul and Short Ocean race

Sailors awoke to a stunning spring day, casting aside the chilly, windy and rainy conditions of yesterday, to compete in the second Grant Thornton Short Ocean Pointscore race and fourth Short Haul race.

One More No More (Ian and Shane Guanaria's Beneteau First 35) scored her second consecutive IRC win in the Grant Thornton Short Haul Pointscore series, from Quatre Quart (Rob and Sue Segeart's Beneteau 44.7) with MRX (Jon Short and Miles Bastick's Farr 34) third.

"We had a great day - it was a bit lighter than I thought it would be," Ian Guanaria said. "We got a clean start at the pin end of the line and made our way nicely out of the Heads.

"It was a reach over and reach back. We did struggle against the bigger boats in the fleet but we had a good race with Lady Ann (John Kirkjian) and Trim (Shaaron Walsh). All three of us finished within a couple of boat lengths.

"There also wasn't as much swell as I thought there would've been but there was enough to play the waves.

"We haven't done the Short Haul series before but I'm enjoying it so far, having secured three IRC wins and a fourth place. We've got some new crew and it's good non-spinnaker racing to train them up," Guanaria added.

For Patrick Easton and his crew, today was their second PHS division win of the season. "It was pretty good conditions for us today," Easton said of his Beneteau Oceanis 50 InCahoots.

"We had some really good racing with Wax Lyrical and Quatre Quart- we were trailing them around the course. We managed to hold on to them." Wax Lyrical took line honours in the SHPS division from Quatre Quart by a margin of 40 seconds with InCahoots third.

"Being a heavier boat, it made getting through the Heads okay. I thought the swell was going to be a lot worse offshore - the sea state wasn't as confused I thought it would be. We were able to ride the waves on the way back in," Easton added.

"There was good concentration from the crew and there weren't any mistakes. We'll just have to keep up all the good work for the rest of the season." Katinka (Paul O'Connell's Cole 35) finished second to InCahoots with Elusive (Paul Billingham and Pete McGee's Bavaria 42 Match) third.

It was another double for Bob Steel - taking line honours and the IRC Division 1 win with his TP52 Quest, for the second time in as many races.

The team on AFR Midnight Rambler (Psaltis, Bencsik and Thomas) were relegated to second
again with 1min and 6sec separating the two on corrected time. Rob Reynolds' DK46
Exile, from Middle Harbour Yacht Club, was third.

For Grant Dawson, and the team on board his Ker 11.3 Kerisma, he was happy with how they performed in the race to come away with the PHS Division 1 win. "I'm pleased to do well under PHS, but I was hoping to do better under IRC.

"The pressure dropped as the afternoon wore on - we had around 15 knots most of the time but it dropped to 1o knots on the last two works. We lost a bit of ground in the last run and work. We managed quite well out of the Heads - most of the boats were on port tack but we stayed on starboard and got a good lift, which gave us an advantage," Dawson added.

"We did well in our first two works and managed to hang onto the two DK46s (Exile and Nine Dragons) as well as positioning ourselves against AFR. They managed to get away from us on the last run."

Exile finished second behind Kerisma in PHS Division 1 with David Forbes' Kaiko 52 Merlin third.

"It was a pretty standard SOPS race - a pleasant day on the Harbour after yesterday's rain," commented Race Officer Steve Tucker from Middle Harbour Yacht Club, who was conducting the race on behalf of the combined fleet.

Racing commenced on time and the fleet of 46 headed to the offshore mark, off Macquarie Lighthouse, on a bearing of 150 degrees. The south easterly breeze held in for most of the afternoon between 10 - 15 knots and only started to drop off late in the afternoon as the Division 2 boats were heading home.

Click here to view the race results and provisional series pointscore.

By Jennifer Crooks, CYCA Media