10 December 2022 – The Tyrell and Russo Trophies
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From our PRO Alistair Sutherland.
Saturday 10th December 2022 saw the annual Christmas races at DBSC for the Tyrell and Russo trophies. A festive fleet of about 30 boats gathered, many in Santa hats, all eager for that most important prize: to get their name on a DBSC honours board.
The race team of Tim Heath, Trev Pots, Scott Finlayson, and Ben Byford found an East/South Easterly at 8 to 10 knots and duly laid a course between Point Piper and Shark Island. As the Cloud Cover burnt off and the land heated, the Sea Breeze tried its best to form from the North East, but it never really got going due to the SE gradient. All of which left us with massive left shifts, large variations in pressure, and an equal chance of making both massive gains and massive losses on each leg.
The Tyrell race is unique at DBSC as it is run as a pursuit race. Participants are assigned a starting time based on their performance over the season, with many openly questioning the sanity of the handicapper and his dodgy abacus/algorithm. The 4.7s started at their allotted times shortly after the Race Officers start gun, with scratch boat Rob Vann waiting a very patient 13 and a half minutes before peeling off on port at the Pin End to chase down the fleet. But it was definitely a day to start early as proved by Julien Van Aalst and Ian Tudball who got away from the pack and tussled for line honours. Julien used every bit of his many decades of knowledge of the DBSC race track to stay in front, but Ian eventually ground him down to take his first major honours at Double Bay. A son married, a grandkid born, and his name on the board at DBSC; what a great year!! The rest of the fleet all condensed around the final leeward mark, proving just how accurate the handicapper’s bit of IP is, and left the Race Team scrambling to record sail numbers as 25 plus boats all approached the finish line together.
Ian Tudball was stoked with his win! Photo: Peter Collie
Competitors took a few minutes to compose themselves and reset while the Race Team squared the start line for the Russo race. The Russo is a massed start with Full Rigs, Radials, and 4.7s all starting together, leaving the handicapper to apply a yardstick to figure out the best performer on the day. A healthy outgoing tide, and a PRO already in full festive cheer, ensured the fleet got away cleanly with the Pin end being the place to be as another one of those huge left shifts swung in. Rod Barnes dropped the hammer to take an early lead and despite several challenges at the top end of the fleet, managed to hold on to deservedly take the gun. However, with Ian Tudball taking a gun for first Radial only a minute or so later, it looked like Ian was on for a very rare double name on board victory to set himself up for a wonderful Christmas. But wait, what's this, a third gun? That's right, the 4.7 fleet at Double Bay continues to go from strength to strength, and after an awesome piece of sailing Sara Bruce was quite rightly awarded the trophy once the 4.7 handicap yardstick was applied. With excellent close racing between the three different fleets, it is great to note that there was a 4.7, Radial, and full rig all in the top 5 finishes demonstrating the strength in depth across DBSC sailors. After the success of the Women's Regatta last week, it was great to see Sara flying the flag for both the girl and youth sailors.
Sara Bruce is the first 4.7 to win the Russo trophy.
