Mark McRae’s Sicarius secures maiden harbour course victory, FForever Young wins after start penalty

Division 2 yacht Sicarius, owned and crewed by Corrina Ridgway and skippered by Mark McRae, finally got it all together to win its first race over a harbour course flying start event on Saturday.

There were four yachts in the fleet, with Chris Oldham in Joker the early leader just ahead of Stephen Brown in Mary Maitland.

Sicarius was in third position, where it stayed for the rest of the race.

Neil Worrell trailed the fleet after a brilliant start with Zuri but stuck to it to finish against some quick opposition.

The steady 18-knot easterly proved frustrating for the crew on Sicarius on their first spinnaker run when the wayward kite wouldn’t set and valuable time was lost.

However, on the second long downwind leg the spinnaker set beautifully and the extra speed helped close the gap on the leaders.

Joker was well in front of Mary Maitland and looking a likely winner when the spinnaker pole broke away from the mast, enabling Brown to surge to the front.

However, Sicarius had done enough to take the race on corrected time in a mighty first win.

Brown with his skeleton crew on Mary Maitland scored second place with Joker, after a great first half, third.

The Flying Fifteens had a fleet of three in their flying start harbour course race, but Simon Lucas in FForever Young was a tad early at the start and was forced to restart.

That gave Wayne North in Frequent Flyer and Aileen Lucas in Crazy a chance to get away from the speed machine, but it was no avail.

The crew on FForever Young were very determined to make amends for their mistake and soon overhauled the leading two to take the lead, which they easily increased on every leg.

Wayne North had Frequent Flyer moving well and just ahead of Crazy, which was able to stay in touch.

Simon Lucas had already stamped his authority on this race and was under no threat from the others to win handsomely.

He crossed the line five minutes ahead of North and six minutes in front of Crazy in a powerful display to take first and fastest.

Crazy had done enough on handicap to snatch a close second, leaving North in third place after a good effort.