Race two of the 2026 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore got under way this morning under blue skies, with 33 boats setting out on the 88 nautical mile Flinders Islet Race to Port Kembla and back.
Seb Bohm's Smuggler nailed the start, pushing out towards Bradleys Head on the harbour's western foreshore in a modest 6 knot north-easterly.
Robert Appleyard's Moneypenny wasn't far behind. The two boats traded tacks up the harbour in a proper duel, trailed by Sebastian Hultin's Cookson 50 Porco Rosso, Sean Langman's Reichel/Pugh GP42 Back 2 Black, and Lee Hawksley's TP52 Gusto.
Back 2 Black arrives with form, having won the Overall title in round one of the series, the Sydney to Gold Coast leg back in July.
Out at the Heads it was Moneypenny that emerged first, clocking through at 21:03, just two boat lengths clear of Smuggler. Then the wind swung east-south-easterly, squeezing the offshore and inshore air together until both boats all but stopped dead.
Gusto and Porco Rosso came through next, with Richard Harris's Sticky close behind, along with Back 2 Black and Walter Carpenter's Marten 67 Caol Ila.
Further back, the fleet piled up in the dying breeze, stacked up like it was a Bondi Junction carpark.
Moneypenny was quickest to react, hoisting the spinnaker and getting moving again while the pack behind sat parked. Smuggler followed soon after, but the delay had cost dearly, and the gap between the leaders and the rest had stretched to more than a mile.
Among the Double-Handed division, Jules Hall and Jan Scholten on Hall's J/99 Disko Trooper were first through the Heads. Elizabeth Tucker and Angus Clarke's First Light weren't far off the pace, and neither were Andy Offord and Stephen Prince aboard Borderline.
More updates will follow as the fleet works its way south towards Port Kembla.
