Estate Master wins Rolex Trophy 2009 Regatta

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.

 

Final Results: