Welcome to our first Farr 9.2 fleet report for 2022! We’re now just over half-way through the season, as well as the Farr 9.2 Metro Series, with five of the nine heats sailed so far.
Our last report covered heat one, where Itinerant (Mark Hansen) finished first across the line, and establishing a lead in the series. Heat two had the fleet sailing in the Max Hayes memorial trophy race, again at Royal Perth Yacht Club. Elusive (Richard Brisbane-Cohen) and Itinerant both headed out early to lead the fleet, exchanging places during the race. Elusive managed to keep their lead over the line, finishing a handful of seconds in front. Handicap results for heat two had The Black Smoke (Jeremy Kerr) first, Farrlap (Andrew Hossen) second and Lionheart (Warren Westaway) third.
In November, heat four of the series took the 9.2s over to South of Perth Yacht Club as part of their Saturday racing series. Conditions made for some tricky sailing, with a north easterly breeze that refused to settle to anything consistent to set sails against. After rounding the day buoy and setting spinnakers, each of the boats had a turn out front, to be soon overtaken by another boat that had found a lucky, but fleeting, puff of their own. Itinerant made an early call to head far out east, into what seemed to be a dire lack of wind out near Nedlands – but either by genius tactics or bare luck, they were rewarded with what seemed to be the only consistent winds on the river, steaming into the leeward mark ahead of the rest of the fleet. Keeping the lead through the rest of the race, they finished first across the line by a decent margin. Local SoPYC knowledge from team Igawa (David Atkinson) seemed to have helped too, bringing them across the finish line second. Handicap results had Farr Fetched (Bruce Meakins) first, Frenzy (Murray Rowe) second and Igawa third.
Newly introduced in the 2021/2022 series, heats four and five were a set of windward/leeward races hosted by RPYC, later on a Saturday afternoon, in conjunction with the Etchell, BW8, S80 and S97 fleets. The racing was hotly contested, in fresh summer south-westerly winds. In the first race of the day, heat four, Itinerant finished first across the line, as well as first on handicap, with Seahawk (Pat Jones) second and Lionheart third. Observant racers may have seen Elusive sailing downwind with an unusual sail plan – instead of a spinnaker, they’d decided to hoist a crew member to the top of the mast, presumable for mid-race repairs during heat four. Obviously effective, they finished at the front of the fleet in heat five, as well as second on handicap. Close behind on the line, Farr Far Away (James Baker) was second on handicap, and Seahawk third.
We’d like to extend a special thanks to the race management and support crew for hosting the windward/leeward racing events – it must have been a long day on the water, having run both the regular Saturday fleet races plus these extra heats.
Just after Christmas, four of the Farr 9.2 fleet sailed south to join in the Cockburn Sound Regatta – we had Farrouk (Des Riley, HYC), Dragonheart (Tarla Elward and Kevin Schroeder), and The Black Smoke sailing in the jib and main 2 fleet, plus Igawa refusing to give their spinnaker a holiday, sailing in division two. The delivery race from Fremantle to Cockburn sound was a consistent beam reach to the last few TCYC club marks, up until the afternoon heat set in and the wind dropped right out, resulting in a slow drift across the finish line. Like previous years, sailing conditions were ideal over the five days of racing, but unusually hot temperatures had most of the crews in for a post-race swim once back at their moorings. In overall results, Dragonheart took first place in the JaM 2 division – very well done for their first regatta as new owners!
As for future events: our racing calendar continues into 2022, with heat 6 in January at Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, and heat seven back at South of Perth Yacht Club in February. We’ll then be heading out to Owen Anchorage for our State Championships event in March. Keep updated on this site for full results and updates as we go.