Mercedes III,
designed by Ted
Kaufman and Ben
Miller, still in top
racing nick todaysome Kiwis chartered three 1950s Morgan Giles boats in
Panerai British Classic Week (CB340). It was in late
2015 that the idea of an anniversary regatta first came to
Martin, but it was only six months later when he
discussed the idea with Philip Brown – another of the
2016 Solent visitors and crucially a member of two
Sydney clubs, Sydney Amateur Sailing Club (locally
known as the Amateurs) and the Royal Sydney Yacht
Squadron (RSYS) – that the idea began to gain
momentum. A committee of six was formed – all of
them, as it would turn out, owners or skippers of boats
that would take part in the regatta, with David
Champtaloup, who has owned Caprice of Huon since
1999, in the chair – and eventually three clubs agreed to
be involved: the Amateurs would be the Organising
Authority for two races and the CYCA for the other one;
and the RSYS would host a gala dinner.
It was decided to open the event to all Australian
Admiral’s Cup trialists and, at the discretion of the
organising committee, any boat that had a special
connection to the history of the Cup.
There were 21 entries including 10 Cup boats and
nine trialists. The two ‘special connection’ boats were
Philip Brown’s Anitra V, built in 1956 by the Halvorsen
brothers who raced her with great success (including
victory in the 1957 Sydney-Hobart race) and who,
significantly, also built the 1965 Cup boat Freya which is
now in Jamaica; and Lorita Maria, built by Norman
Rydge who was instrumental in Australia’s initial
Admiral’s Cup challenge and who took Lorita Maria to
England in 1965 as an unofficial reserve boat.
The most significant boat not to take part was
Balandra, the third 1967 winner, but for the best of
reasons: she is in Hobart having an extensive refit which
her owner was unwilling to rush.
As three different handicap/measurement systems –
RORC, IOR and IRC – were used during the years
that the participating boats competed, for this
regatta a special system would be devised by the
Amateurs’ handicapper.GETTING TO THE REGATTA
Mercedes III nearly met the same fate that might have
befallen her and her team mates in 1967: not actually
getting to the regatta. Bad weather held up her delivery
crew from Melbourne for 10 days, until a fellow
regatta participant, the 1973 trialist Kingurra,
suggested a race: no rules, the first to Sydney wins.
Martin later told the regatta prize-giving: “So we put
her on a truck and won by four days.”