Sydney (AUS) – After three days of racing both inshore and offshore in Sydney Lisa and Martin Hill’s Estate Master have won the 2009 Rolex Trophy. The Rolex Trophy, hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, is an Australian Farr 40 class circuit event each year.
Estate Master led the Farr 40 three day series from Day 1, but as Martin Hill said it wasn’t as easy as it sounds. “We had to fight every inch of the way, especially today”, commented Hill after racing.
The fleet raced
nine races in three different locations starting with harbour racing on Friday
then moving to the
Manly Circle
offshore on Saturday and finishing up the event on the
Macquarie Circle on Sunday. The class will return for this event next year
as a precursor to the 2011 Rolex Farr 40 Worlds.
Reigning Australian
Farr 40 Champion Guido Belgiorno Nettis returned to the helm of his boat Transfusion after having his boat
skippered by Matt Allen for the last two Australian circuit events. This is Belgiorno-Nettis’s first event back
in the class since he raced at the 2009 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship in
Porto Cervo in June.
Estate Master won Boat of the Day on all three days of
the event, but their win came down to the last race of the series to decide if they
would be the Rolex Trophy 2009 winners.
Lang Walker’s
Kokomo
challenged Estate Master every step
of the way and
Kokomo won the first two races on Sunday
which made for an interesting final race.
Each of the nine
races during the regatta provided close tactical racing and all the teams will
be back for the final three events for the 2009-2010 Australian circuit with
the next event being the annual Sprint Series in February 2010.
