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Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore Tollgate Islands Race – the perfect offshore training run

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  • 21 Oct, 2025 10:15:00 AM
Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore Tollgate Islands Race – the perfect offshore training run

Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore Tollgate Islands Race – the perfect offshore training run

It was another epic race start for another Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore race.

The Tollgate Islands Race (260 nautical miles) kicked off in spectacular fashion on Friday 17 October at 1900 hours after a two-hour postponement due to forecasted thunderstorms.

Anthony and David Johnston’s Reichel Pugh Maxi 72 URM Group and Rob Appleyard’s Reichel Pugh 69 Moneypenny led the fleet of 22 out of Sydney Heads at a cracking pace.

Breeze on for Smuggler, URM Group and Moneypenny - Ashley Dart/CYCA pic.

Conditions

The fleet dealt with a feisty southerly in the early hours of the race, with gusts of up to 40-knots. The wind calmed down and shifted to the south east by 2200 hours later that night. At 0600 hours on Saturday 19 October, the breeze further dropped to 7-10 knots.

The top end of the fleet was lucky to experience south-south east conditions for most of the ride home from Tollgate Islands off the coast of Bateman’s Bay. URM Group Moneypenny recorded speeds of around nine-12 knots on the way back up the coast. Meanwhile, the middle and back-end of the fleet experienced upwind conditions in a nor’easter en route to the finish.

URM Group claims Line Honours… again!

The URM Group crew backed up their Flinders Islet Race Line Honours win in September to cross the finish line at 2217 hours on Saturday 18 October after one day, three hours 17 minutes and 56 seconds at sea.

What a start. URM Group and Moneypenny match race their way out of Sydney Harbour. Vito Feremans/CYCA pic.

Moneypenny arrived 20-minutes later, while Mark Spring’s TP52 Highly Sprung crossed the line in third on Sunday 19 October at 0650 hours.

The Double Handed yacht Blue Planet (Chris O’Neill) was the final boat across the line at 01:52 hours Monday 20 October.

Overall winner – Moneypenny is in it to win it

The Moneypenny crew proved their Flinders Islet Race Overall win was more than beginner’s luck. The crew, who mostly hail from Western Australia, have caused a stir with impressive results so far this season. The Reichel Pugh 69 claimed two titles, the Overall win on IRC and Overall win on PHS.

Top speeds for Moneypenny at the race start - Vito Feremans/CYCA pic.   

Divisional winners

IRC Division 2

The JPK 11.80 Bacchanal (owned by Ronald Epstein, who was not on board for the race) had a wobbly start after the crew hoisted a spinnaker in gusts well above 25 knots.

KD1 and Bacchanal - Ashley Dart/CYCA pic.

Boat captain Kieran Searle shared explained the outcome of the kite hoist.

“Ron [the owner] told me to try to win the race, so we put the kite up in the Harbour,” Searle said with a laugh. “As we were dropping it, we broached and tore it in a gust, we should have dropped it 10 seconds earlier.”

Bacchanal recovered to claim the win on IRC Division 2.

PHS Division 2

Double Handed yacht Verite, co-skippered by Paul Beath and Massimiliano Fonzo, beat out its fully-crewed competitors to claim the win on PHS Division 2.

Verite had a faultless race - Ashley Dart/CYCA pic.

The J99 had a faultless race. The co-skippers also claimed the Overall win on IRC and PHS in the Double Handed Division following a tight tussle with fellow Double Handed competitors Blue Planet, Jupiter and The Gaffer.

IRC Corinthian & Wild Rose

Michael Rowe and Ben Martin’s Cookson 12 Kanreki finished at around 1500 hours on Sunday afternoon, in time for the crew to enjoy beverages at the Club to celebrate their win on IRC Corinthian. They also won on Wild Rose IRC (the crew is comprised of a minimum 25 per-cent women crew).

Storm sails up! Ashley Dart/CYCA pic.

Bird Island Race

The 2025/26 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore continues on Saturday 15 November with the 83 nautical mile Bird Island Race.

Click here for the full results.

 

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