The Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300 Toucan on the podium in the recent Pittwater to Coffs Harbour Yacht Race hosted by Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. A race report from owner and co-skipper Edward Curry-Hyde.
This race marked the start of Toucan‘s second Doubled Handed Sydney Hobart campaign. Toucan (because “two can” do this) is a Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300. She was launch at the end of 2023 and has been configured to be a highly sailable double handed offshore racer.
When Scott, my co-skipper last year, and I did the last Coffs race we parked at Seal Rocks for over 12 hours and, after 25 or more boats had retired, and with slowly approaching rocks and rapidly approaching darkness, we decided to retire as well. This year, with Lincoln Dews as co-skipper, my goal was to get beyond Seal Rocks.
At the briefing, the night before the start, the major question on everyone’s lips was: “do we go out”. Staying close to shore looked particularly challenging with a dying NE breeze, and a wide area of very confused light winds from Newcastle to Seal Rocks. Adding to the challenge was that the current was remarkably close to shore. The models all screamed “go east, there’s a steady light breeze over them currents” and so that was our plan. Except for one concern, the high sea temperatures associated with the south-bound current seemed to extent much further out to sea than the 12-14nm our models were predicting.
After a great start we took our place in the procession of yachts beating into a light NE breeze and slowing worked our way offshore. As night fell, we were still hedging our bets, not yet fully committed to going offshore. The evening weather update suggested that the holes previously forecast in the Stockton Bight would be further north and we could expect some fresher southerly winds in the bight. We also noticed that the bigger boats were being pushed south by the current as they headed out and this effect went beyond the 14nm our models suggested we had to go to get over the strong current. So, with the hope of some breeze developing on the coast that would deliver us into a large hole further north, some wishful thinking that we would find a way through the hole, and the knowledge that there was little gold to be found across the current, we decided to ignore our first route plan and stay close to rhumb line.
A 1-hour watch cycle was set as we expected the conditions to change quickly, and so the pattern of the race took shape, wind change, sail change, Light patch, sail change, wind change, sail change, light patch, sail change. The changes seldom respected the 1-hour watch cycle. It was clear the others offshore were battling strong current. Closer inshore we were still facing currents of over 2kts against us of ridiculous warm 28C water. At times when the winds died, we went backwards.
By morning, off Point Stephens, it became clear that Verite, a J99, had also decided to come inshore after a bit of dabble with going offshore. What was also clear was that unless we made excellent use of any conditions that suited the Sun Fast 3300 better than the J99, we were going to struggle to get away from them in these light conditions, and with their low handicap compared to ours. The other J99 we were interested in, Veloce, committed to the offshore route so it was harder to tell how we were going relative to them.
Conditions continued to vary constantly with the wind swinging from W to S, to SE, to SW, E through the morning and early afternoon as we head north past Port Stephens and Seal Rocks. A 4nm gap to Verite at Seal Rocks at midday had narrowed to 0.5nm by 18:30.
We reached the unsettle weather just as night fell. What we could just make out in the fading light was dark heavy rain squalls moving rapidly inshore, across our path. There was no way to avoid the weather system so all we could do was to try to dodge through the gaps between the squalls, taking advantage of the down drafts coming from them. The last thing we wanted was to be caught in the middle with no wind. As we skirted the squalls, the wind would change strength and direction, requiring rapid changes between Jib and J0 to get the most from the wind. A bright half moon, dark squall clouds and clear star lit skies between them made for a very atmospheric and occasionally wet night.
Sunday morning arrived as we approached Smoky Cape. For a fleeting period, we got overly excited thinking that the easterly that was meant to come in from offshore had finally arrived. But that was not to be. It was also clear that both of us were exhausted. Lincoln, usually full of positive thinking about the next phase to expect as he briefed me for my watch, simply pointed at the monitor and said “135deg, see you in an hour”. We had lost count of how many sail changes we had made by then.
Through the night we had been able to open up a 4.5nm gap to Verite, and Veloce, a little further back, had joined us in-shore. With the A1 up we reached comfortably past Smoky Cape, and started to think this was our “get away from the J99’s” card. The weather had other ideas and varied wildly from 10kt SW to nothing, to 10kt SW, to nothing, to 15kt SE, to nothing and in so doing kept us on edge.
It seemed clear we were at the interface between competing wind systems and each change set us debating whether to go further offshore, or further in-shore. That was until we saw another competitor offshore from us doing 360s and not going anywhere. Staying where we were and making the most out of the short bursts of fresh breeze seemed like the best course of action. And so, with periods of fast reaching we increased our gap to Verite to 7.5nm by the time we passed Nambucca Heads and 8.5nm by the time we had finished and Veloce a little further back.
The result, we had got past Seal Rocks and, on corrected time, came 5th overall, 1st in the IRC Division 2 and 1st in the Double Handed division. It was a hard-fought race by all, that required enormous effort to win small gains. We had some lucky breaks that allowed us to escape from the J99s. I do not expect that luck will always fall our way but what I do know is that this next season with Lincoln is going to be exciting.
Race details and results here…
Go racing on your own Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300. This other Jeanneau Sun Fast 3300 that PBS has available has been optioned for both the Rolex Sydney Hobart and other forms of short-handed racing, but can just as easily be raced with a larger compliment of crew. All the best of gear with North 3Di sails including a new unused offshore mainsail and both assy and symetric spinnakers, full B&G H5000 and a current Cat 3+ safety certificate. It has the Axxon Carbon mast option and water-ballast system. Details here…