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Matt Allen reflects on the Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore - Tollgate Islands Race

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  • 19 Oct, 2024 05:35:00 PM
Matt Allen reflects on the Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore - Tollgate Islands Race
2024 Tollgate Islands Race start. Image: David Hislop

Matt Allen reflects on the Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore - Tollgate Islands Race

Comanche claimed a commanding line honours victory in her first race under new charterers Matt Allen and James Mayo in the 2024/25 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore’s Tollgate Islands Race. The 100-footer dominated the fleet on Line Honours from start to finish.

Matt Allen reflected on the race, saying, “It was a really interesting race with a variety of conditions, and we are really pleased with the outcome.

At the start, as we turned south out the heads we saw the squall coming and shortened sail in anticipation of stronger winds, which was a great call. When it hit, it was even more intense than we expected, windy, wet and squally. We thought the wind would settle as the squall passed us but the dissipation took longer than anticipated.

As we rounded the island, the wind had started shifting slightly to the south, giving us the opportunity to head offshore into stronger winds. We had the plan from the start to look for an angle to head offshore, we don't mind covering more miles as long as there is good wind when you are covering them. We sailed to the east to take advantage of the stronger offshore breeze, though it made the course longer.

The ride up the coast was fantastic, we were consistenly hitting speeds of 20 to 25 knots, steering about 30 degrees, that is just 20 to 30 degrees east of the course, so when you are doing great speeds that is okay. We only hit the lighter air as we gybed into Sydney Heads.

The crew did a terrific job managing everything, during our first race out.”

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