75TH BUNBURY & RETURN OCEAN RACE RACE RECORD FALLS

YACHTS SAILED OUT TO THE START AREA for the 75th Bunbury and Return Ocean Race on the morning of Saturday 11 February. With a moderate southerly wind, flat water and sunny conditions it was a comfortable beginning to the 170 nautical mile race.

At the race briefing, Paul Eldrid had provided his weather predictions for the race and was calling ideal conditions for the larger boats to break the race record. The current holder of the title was Craig Carter’s Indian who completed the race in 17 hours, 42 minutes and 9 seconds and Paul was part of the team. They had held this title since 2016 but were expecting David Davenport’s yacht Crush, a J/V TP52 to challenge this race record time.

As the fleet began their journey south, it was looking like a slow trip to Bunbury but it would definitely be a quick run back. The turning point was again a yacht from Koombana Bay Sailing Club, Phil Truman and Danielle Parkers Courtesan They anchored on station at the coordinates in Bunbury in the mid afternoon and reported in that the conditions were great, sunny and

Results

DIVISION ONE – IRC warm with a south westerly wind reaching 20 knots.

Crush pulled out ahead of the pack early, Rob Appleyard’s Secret Weapon (Fast 40+) followed with the rest of the fleet in tow. A few boats managed a more direct route on the trip south. There were several including Roric Smith’s Surfer Rosa, Alan Stein’s Fat Bottom Girl and Dan Cannon’s Cannonball who hugged the coast more than the others and put in a few tacks before Port Bouvard.

David Davenport’s team had great timing to reach the Bunbury turn at 7:25pm with quite a direct route south. The rest of the fleet experienced more of the change in wind direction and had to tack a lot more to get to Bunbury.

Crush absolutely flew back to the finish at speeds of over 20 knots. They crushed the race record by

1ST CRUSH DAVID DAVENPORT

2ND CHECKMATE GEOFF BISHOP

3RD SIRENE BILL HENSON

DIVISION TWO – IRC

1ST CANNONBALL DAN CANNON

2ND FOURTH DIMENSION LYN POWELL & IAN WHITEHEAD

3RD SAGACIOUS IV CHRIS HIND

DIVISION ONE – PHS

1ST CRUSH DAVID DAVENPORT

2ND SIRENE BILL HENSON

3RD CHECKMATE GEOFF BISHOP

DIVISION TWO – PHS

1ST CANNONBALL DAN CANNON

2ND SAGACIOUS IV CHRIS HIND

3RD FOURTH DIMENSION LYN POWELL & IAN WHITEHEAD finishing in 16 hours, 26 minutes and 21 seconds. This was a goal that they had after the 2022 race and they were ecstatic to achieve it. From the team, Ben Durham said ‘The 75th Bunbury Return marked a year for team Crush racing in the WA offshore blue waters, so it was fantastic to win IRC, PHS and break the race record. Was great to be able to use so many of the lessons we took from the Sydney to Hobart in our preparation and boat performance and achieve such a great result with the team.’

As well as taking the record the Division One boat placed first overall on corrected time in the combined fleet using IRC and PHS handicap and in their division.

In Division Two Cannonball took the win with both IRC and PHS handicap.