Vintage Red crowned winner in 2022 Cockburn Sound Regatta

Vintage Red has been crowned overall champion of the four-day Cockburn Sound Regatta competition held between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve. The event was held on the beautiful and protected waters of Mangles Bay off Rockingham in perfect conditions, with a variety of winds providing some interesting racing results. The overall regatta champion is determined by a formula taking into account a boat’s gross points score and the total number of boats starting in each race in each division. With this approach it was always possible that the winner might be a boat that hadn’t won its own division and that’s exactly what happened for the first time this year. Vintage Red, skippered by former local skipper Lindsay Kenworthy, was declared the overall regatta champion. Malcolm Thompson’s Archambault 35 Moneypenny won the Kwinana Industries Council Race, beating 16 other yachts in the highly anticipated race. 45 boats competed in the annual regatta’s two spinnaker divisions, three jib and main classes and a sportsboat fleet. The trimaran Beatrix joined the Division 1 fleet, which made for some interesting viewing for the spectators as she tended to clear out upwind but then get mown down off the breeze, notably by The Bus, Murray Smith’s MC 31. Beatrix continued to have gear problems and in the end The Bus went on to beat Jolie Breeze in the last race, forcing a tie in the overall result. David Hepburn’s S97 had done enough with two wins to one to take out the prize on a countback. Division 2 was a race between between three smaller boats. The consistent SS22 Wildfire, skippered by Bruce Uren, had the whip hand leading into the last race. She led her bigger sister, the SS27 King Canute skippered by Matt Rose, and won the race. Local boat Lady Irene skippered by Sam Threlfall was third overall. The jib and main entrants were divided into three fleets. In JAM 1, Deckchairs Overboard skippered by Wendy Harrison recorded a better time than last year and took out the win by two points ahead of Jason Poutsma’s Stimulus Package. James Pattison’s Surcouf and local boat Vintage Red slugged it out until the pointy end of the JAM 2 fleet. Surcouf took home the win, followed by Lindsay Kenworthy in second place and Kevin Schroeder’s Farr 9.2 Dragonheart in third. In JAM 3, Ross Davidson brought his Peterson 30 Legend up from Mandurah to triumph over the smallest boat in the bay, the trailable Castle 650 Alcazar, by just one point. David Darn’s Alcazar won the last race but unfortunately for her Ross Davidson’s Legend did enough by coming in second. Indulgence II, skippered by Basil Collins, came in third at just two points behind. Alcazar provided a highlight for spectators by crossing the fleet on a port tack start in one of the races and going on to record a first and fastest. Five boats lined up for the sports boat series but unfortunately breakages to local R8s No Etiquette and Parabellum early on left only three boats to battle it out. The Fremantle 8 Make No Mistake, skippered by Kevin Phillips, won, followed by Tiger in second place and Pretty Woman in third. Phillips will be hoping to replicate his success in the Yvonne Australian Championship being hosted by the yacht club straight after the regatta in the New Year.