Heat 2 of the Metro series was held at the Royal Perth Yacht Club, racing for the Max Hayes memorial trophy. Elusive, and Itinerant exchanged the lead early on, with Seahawk and Farrlap also close behind. Elusive came home first to take out the Trophy, with The Black Smoke first on handicap.
Kicking off the 2021-2022 sailing season, heat one of the Farr 9.2 Swan River Metro series had the fleet sailing out of Royal Perth Yacht Club, in a decent westerly. Unlike previous years, the heat was not held as part of the RPYC opening day events, but instead the following week – this meant for a longer race, with a number of upwind legs. Itinerant took an early lead, and managed to keep ahead over the finish line, with Lionheart winning first on handicap.
Handicaps will be carried over from the previous Metro season results and sailing instructions, courses and any supplemental information will be emailed to skippers prior to each Heat.
Another season is upon us! Our latest Farr 9.2 report includes results of the last season, events over winter, and our new plans for 2021-2022 events.
Over the winter, the 9.2s have been keeping active in Wednesday afternoon racing, with almost all of the fleet sailing regularly, within division B. Itinerant (Mark Hansen) has taken first place in mini series one, and at the time of writing, Farrlap (Andrew Hossen) is only a handful of points away from the lead for mini series two. While the frostbites races have been a little quieter, well done to Itinerant and Farr Far Away (James Baker) for braving the weather and getting out there, with spinnakers flying, in the winter cold.
Despite a couple of pandemic-related delays, the fleet managed to get together for our salubrious prize night event, this year held at the RPYC Fremantle Annex. Our esteemed trophy winners on the night were:
Farr 9.2 State Championships 2021 – championship:
1st: Itinerant (Mark Hansen)
2nd: Farrlap (Andrew Hossen)
3rd: Lionheart (Warren Westaway)
Farr 9.2 State Championships 2021 – consistency:
1st: The Black Smoke (Jeremy Kerr)
2nd: Elusive (Richard Brisbane-Cohen)
3rd: Seahawk (Pat Jones)
Farr 9.2 Swan River Metro Series – championship:
1st: Seahawk (Pat Jones)
2nd: Itinerant (Mark Hansen)
3rd: Elusive (Richard Brisbane-Cohen)
Farr 9.2 Swan River Metro Series – consistency:
1st: Farrlap (Andrew Hossen)
2nd: The Black Smoke (Jeremy Kerr)
3rd: Lionheart (Warren Westaway)
Farr 9.2 Lady Skipper Trophy – championship:
1st: The Black Smoke (Jen Leen)
2nd: Farr Fetched (Sarah Liddiard)
3rd: Itinerant (Fiona Laing)
Congratulations to all skippers and crew throughout the fleet, for a great season of competitive racing.
For the next season’s racing calendar, we have planned an exciting fleet-racing series over the summer, consisting of nine races at various clubs around the river – Royal Perth Yacht Club, Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club, and South of Perth Yacht Club. We’ve introduced a set of windward-leeward races too, to test out the teams in different race formats. This schedule gives us a variety of courses, and an opportunity to join in with other clubs’ results presentations (and sample their post-race chips!). Our State Championships event this year is scheduled for the March long weekend, along with the S80 and S97 fleets at Owen Anchorage, with post-race social events at the RPYC Annex. Planning is still in progress, but it’s looking to be a great regatta.
In boat-related news, we’ve heard that Dragonheart has recently changed hands – previous owner John Da Silva has sold to new joint owners Tarla Elward and Kevin Schroeder. They tell us that they’ll be setting up a cruisy configuration, for regular summer twilights and trips out to Rottnest. Sounds ideal!
The Farr 9.2 fleet are always keen to welcome newcomers – both for competitive fleet racing and not-so-serious social events. If you’d like to join one of our boats, a few teams are looking for new crew; email the Association on secretary@farr92.asn.au to get in touch.
The Farr 9.2 Association held its annual Prize Night on Saturday the 4th of September at the Fremantle Annexe of The Royal Perth Yacht Club.
Final results and trophies were presented for the 2021 State Championship, the 2020-2021 Metro Series overall results and also for the various special races we have throughout the season.
The overall results for the Metro series are as follows:
Heat 8 for the Farr 9.2 Swan River Metro Series was held on the 17th of April, 2021, at Royal Perth Yacht Club. This was the last race of the series, and also our all-important Allan Coutts Memorial Trophy race; in honour of Allan and his lasting impression on the fleet.
The Farr 9.2 State Championships for 2021 were held in Rockingham over the last weekend of March. With last year’s event cancelled due to Covid, it was great to be back racing in the sound. The conditions kept everyone thinking, with shifts, lulls and a drop in wind on Sunday.
Several competitors were looking to be in contention over the weekend, with some very close photo finishes. The final Championship winner was Itinerant, followed by Farrlap in second and Lionheart third.
Thanks go out as always to The Cruising Yacht Club of Western Australia for hosting us as well as the numerous sponsors who helped make the weekend such a great success – they are, in no particular order:
Unfortunately, race 6 of the metro series was abandoned due to a snap lockdown, so we’re straight on to result for heat 7!
Like previous years, this heat was held at Claremont Yacht Club as part of their Commodore’s Cup event. With three laps around Freshwater Bay, the race is usually a test of solid crew coordination for quick sail changes, and managing shifty conditions around the bay.
Elusive did a fantastic job of working through the fleet, to finish first over the line after a steady series of overtakes! Well done to the team for some great racing.
The Farr 9.2 Association is pleased to announce the Notice of Race for the 2021 Farr 9.2 State Championships, to be held on the 27th and 28th of March 2021, at The Cruising Yacht Club (TCYC) in Cockburn Sound.
Racing will be held over two days, with plenty of social events happening at the club over the weekend.
Skippers have already been emailed registration details, but if you’d like to participate and haven’t been in touch, please email Jeremy at jk@ozlabs.org.
Some boats may be after additional crew, so feel free to email if you’re interested in joining the fleet.
We’d like to thank our sponsors for supporting this event: Jane Brook Estate, Doyle Sails, Yacht Grot, Yacht Rigging Solutions, North Sails, Matilda Bay Marine Boat Maintenance and UK Sailmakers.
Happy new year all! Since our last update in October, we’ve had a lot of competitive racing on the river, plus a couple of 9.2s escaping for a bit of holiday racing. Our prior report covered the completion of heat one of the Swan River Metro Series, with The Black Smoke (Jeremy Kerr) holding an initial lead in the championship results. Previous years’ series have shown that an early lead doesn’t guarantee anything, and this series has been no exception!
Heat two of the series had the fleet sailing at South of Perth Yacht Club (SoPYC), in their division two Saturday race. The weather brought us a classic Perth summer sea breeze, of 15-20 knots from the south-west. Seahawk (Pat Jones) had a cracking start, with Itinerant (Mark Hansen) chasing at speed. Not too far back, the rest of the fleet jostled for position throughout the race, chasing the slightly oscillating breeze in the upwind reaches.
The two leading boats—Seahawk and Itinerant—kept together throughout the race, Seahawk up front, taking line honours by a mere boat-length ahead after 2¾ hours of racing! Handicap results had Itinerant first, Seahawk second, and Farrlap (Andrew Hossen) third. Their win in heat two brings Seahawk into the lead of the progressive results.
Two weeks later, heat three of the metro series brought us back to SoPYC, running the same course as the previous race, but with a little more west in the breeze this time. Making the spinnaker runs a little less square, this kept the teams on their toes for the kite runs, with big gains to be had by keeping the kites up, and well-trimmed, in these shy angles. Doing so magnificently, Farrlap stole the initial lead from Itinerant, crossing first across the line at SoPYC’s Coffee Point finish. Handicap results for heat three had Farrlap first, Itinerant second, and Lionheart (Warren Westaway) third.
With their run of podium results across all of the series so far, Itinerant now takes the championship lead from Seahawk. Three different leaders from three races so far!
Back at Royal Perth Yacht Club, heat four again saw the fleet sailing with a slightly-more-westerly-than-usual breeze, but with larger variations in wind speed over the afternoon. A few of the fleet took advantage of the shifted wind angle to coordinate some spectacular bear-away kite raises at the top mark, gaining a significant advantage by taking off quickly downwind. Sailing well all afternoon, Seahawk crossed the line ahead of the fleet to secure their second fastest of the season. Elusive (Richard Brisbane-Cohen) found their stride again, winning first on handicap, with Seahawk second and Farrlap third.
After these four heats so far, Itinerant still leads the championship series results, but only by a single point over Seahawk. The next race of the series, heat five back at RPYC, is sure to be a nail-biter! We publish progressive results on our website at https://farr92.asn.au, if you’d like to follow along from home.
Meanwhile, the majority of the Farr 9.2s are still sailing regularly in the Hyatt Regency Wednesday racing series, and have featured well in the results so far – on completion of the first mini-series, Itinerant took first place and Farrlap second. Well done to both.
With the club racing events quietening down over the Christmas/New Year’s break, two of the 9.2 fleet sailed out past the bridges and south to The Cruising Yacht Club on Rockingham Beach, for the 2020 Cockburn Sound Regatta. Igawa (David Atkinson, SoPYC) sailed in division two, and The Black Smoke took a more relaxed approach in the jib and main category. Unlike previous years, the usual south-westerly only appeared infrequently, so the fleets had greater variation in courses over the four days of racing. Overall results had Igawa and The Black Smoke both finish third in their respective divisions.
