After two days and six races at the 2016 Rolex Farr 40 World Championship hosted by the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron in Sydney Australia, Alex Roeper’s Plenty from USA sits atop the leaderboard with a fragile one-point margin over fellow Americans Helmut and Evan Jahn’s Flash Gordon.
There have been five different race winners so far, and no one has shown signs of building a strong lead. With two days remaining and a possible five further races there remains plenty to play for in this typically tightly contested series.
Physically testing
This is the third time the world championship has been held in Sydney and it has always proved an excellent venue. Conditions and excitement on the racecourse fulfil expectations, and in this 2016 is proving no exception. Day 1 (Tuesday, 16 February) saw the fleet racing outside the entrance to the iconic harbour. A big swell from the south was capped with steep-sided waves as a southerly air flow confronted an opposing current. It was a brutal bruising day for the crews, who faced a mounting challenge as the wind freshened from 16 knots to 18-22 knots that had the Farr 40s surfing spectacularly downwind at speeds of up to 18 knots. Plenty did not win a race but came out with a 5, 2, 2 score that gave her a four-point lead over German entrant Struntje Light and 2012 Rolex Farr 40 World Champions Flash Gordon – who each won a race along with Corinthian entry Edake from Australia. The next three boats in the standings were all sitting a further point behind, testament to the intensely competitive contest unfolding.
Mentally testing
Conditions were in complete contrast to the previous day’s offering: flat water – albeit churned by the traffic in this busy port – and lighter winds that topped out at around 17 knots, still from the south, and gradually softened. Sydney Harbour is one of world’s truly great nautical locations and it lived up to its reputation serving up a different but still testing day for the 12 crews. Three more races, three different winners – two of them new. Revelling in a kinder playing field, playing the intricacies of current and shifting breeze, the crews put on another exceptional show of high intensity sailing. Plenty may be leading, but her closest pursuers Flash Gordon and Transfusion were joint boat of the day posting identically impressive score-lines that comprised 1, 2, 3 finishes. An 11-point gap has opened to the next group of contenders, proof positive of the heights which the front-runners have attained...so far.
Star attraction
After 19 years of hard-fought competition the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds has a richly deserved status within sailing mythology. Some of yachting’s most respected campaigners have won the title, including Vincenzo Onorato (Italy), Ernesto Bertarelli (Switzerland), John Calvert-Jones (Australia) and John Kilroy (USA). The winning professional tacticians’ roster is equally a who’s who of the sport’s superstars: Russell Coutts, John Kostecki, Terry Hutchinson, Adrian Stead, Hamish Pepper, Grant Simmer, Vasco Vascotto, Mark Reynolds. The caché that comes with simply participating appears to be as strong as ever in 2016, with a fleet marked by three recent world championship owners – Guido Belgiorno Nettis (2011), Helmut Jahn (2012) and Alex Roepers (2014), and a raft of exceptional international professional talent that includes Hutchinson, Pepper, Kostecki, and for the first time, former ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year and America’s Cup winning helm, Ed Baird, the tactician on Flash Gordon.
A long time Farr 40 aficionado, Baird has kept a close eye on the class over the years: “It has done a really nice job of keeping the boats and teams close, and the racing exciting. It’s interesting and it’s hard, and when it’s hard people keep coming back to try to get better.”
Baird’s experience in within Grand Prix sailing events is at the highest level, so his views carry weight. He is delighted to finally get to compete at the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds, the pinnacle event for the class, and recognises the privilege of doing so with Helmut and Evan Jahn: “I appreciate being invited to come and do this, especially with such a great team. Stepping into new shoes comes with its challenges. You have to learn the right way to communicate with the group so they understand what you are trying to accomplish and you have to have agreement on how that is going to work. They have to buy into my style, I have to buy into theirs and we have to blend.” Baird is quick to recognise it is easy to win when you are in front, but that the critical moments are when you are in the middle or at the back: “That’s the time real teamwork shows.” So far so good for Flash Gordon.
Core strengths
Class stalwart Wolfgang Schafer, owner of Struntje Light and lying in fourth position after two days of highs and lows, believes that for a one design boat of this size to have successfully held its world championship over 19 years is exceptional. He feels there are clear reasons that it remains so popular: “The Rolex Farr 40 Worlds is special kind of grand prix sailing. There is an incredibly high level of skill within the owners and crew. When I first saw the boat racing I knew I had to be involved.” Schafer has even firmer views on the core strength of the class: “We have a strong group of owners, impressive characters off the water with little to prove. On the boat it is hard. They have to prove everything and because of that they stay, they continue to learn and they enjoy.” Schafer himself thoroughly enjoyed the first day’s tough conditions despite them taking a personal physical toll. Today’s racing was curtailed depressingly early when an incident with another boat not involved in the racing brought his day to a premature close during the third race.
Shafer’s sentiments about the class are echoed by the current event leader, Alex Roepers, who has proved emphatically that consistency pays dividends, scoring a total of nine points on each day of racing so far: “Competing at the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds is a commitment. Sailing in a class like this defines people in the same way as their family and work. It is a huge third leg of one’s personality. As owners we have a duty to run the class well and commit to each other. We have great management; we have great sponsorship and we sail in great locations. It all works. Look at who’s here!” If the first two days are anything to go by, the next two days promise to be enthralling.
Racing at the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds continues tomorrow (Thursday 18 February) and finishes on Friday (19 February) when the winner will be awarded the world championship trophy and a Rolex Yacht-Master timepiece. True reward for greatness.
TOP 5 PROVISIONAL RESULTS AFTER DAY 2
Position/Sail No/Boat Name/Owner/R1/R2/R3/R4/R5/R6/Total
USA 60059 Plenty Alex Roepers 5/2/2/1/5/3/18.0
USA 60002 Flash Gordon 6 Helmut & Evan Jahn 1/7/5/3/1/2/19.0
AUS 6422 Transfusion Guido Belgiorno-Nettis 3/4/7/2/3/1/20.0
GER 40 Struntje Light Wolfgang Schaefer 8/1/4/11/2/5.2(RDG)/31.2
AUS 007 Edake Jeff Carter 4/9/1/6/8/7/35.00
