Metros Manly YC Wrap

Sylvie Stannage leads in the ILCA 6 fleet – Photo by Marg’s Yacht Photos

The Metros were run on the Sound Sydney Harbour by Manly Yacht Club over the weekend 14-15 March. There were 80 boats competing with 30 staging from Manly YC and Little Manly Beach with the majority sailing over from harbour clubs MHASC, DBSC, WSC and VYC.

Saturday saw light conditions with the ESE to E wind never above 8 knots however it was stable enough in direction to allow RO Andrew McLachlan and the Manly YC team to get the three scheduled races run albeit after a long day on the race track and in transit.  Sunday presented perfect sailing conditions with 15-18 NE breeze all day. The harbour as always was quite lumpy with a moderate swell across the heads.

The Sound is the best sailing water on Sydney Harbour with enough room for our traditional trapezoid course and (just) enough room to allow a transit gap for power boats in and out of Middle Harbour. The regular Manly Ferries were very accommodating varying their route to avoid our fleets. An outbound Manly Fast Ferry actually stopped for 3 or 4 minutes to allow our largest fleet to round a mark unimpeded on Sunday a courtesy much appreciated by the sailors. Even the giant cruise ship Carnival Splendour transited the course on Saturday without incident.

There were three fleets in the event with 40 boats in the ILCA 6, 26 ICLA 7s and 14 ILCA 4s. In the ILCA 4s Under 16 promising HHSC sailor Ethan Wilkinson dominated counting four first and a second. Ruben Steel from RPAYC was second posting a win three seconds and a third with Amelia Thorne from GSC third and first girl.

The ILCA 6s were dominated by Sylvie Stannage HHSC/WSC who won every race. Second was GM Bruce Savage MHASC and third promising Under 17 sailor Zac Howell from HHSC.

The podium places were tightly shared around the top three in the ILCA 7s but Julian Taylor was too good and after dropping a 10th in race 3 he counted four wins and a second to take top spot from Finnish sailor now sailing at WSC Fredrik Westman and Alexander Bijkerk RPAYC/DBSC.

Thanks to Manly YC and their large enthusiastic team of volunteers who worked tirelessly with our RO Andrew McLachlan to deliver a great event for us at this iconic location. Special thanks to ILCA Captain Ian Saunders for setting up the arrangements for the event.

Fleet and age category winners Here.

The full final results are Here.

The are some great photos by Marg’s Yacht Photos. Scan the QR or click the link Here to see and download these. A big t hanks to Marg Frazer Martin for the photos.

Close at the top of the ILCA 7 Fleet – Photo by Marg’s Yacht Photos