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Race updates – 2026 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore – Flinders Islet Race

Home 2026 Race updates – 2026 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore – Flinders Islet Race

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Read on for chronological updates about the fleet.

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Saturday 26 September 2026 – 1900hrs (9 hours after the start)

Out with the northerly, in with the southerly. All but one of the 33-strong fleet have now rounded Flinders Islet, with Marguerite (Aaron Zhou) the last still to make the turn, and the change has the fleet flying home to Sydney.

Rob Appleyard’s Moneypenny continues to lead the charge and is just off Bondi Beach. Clocking 19kts of boat speed, it’s safe to assume the southerly has reached Sydney’s eastern suburbs too. With just five nautical miles to go, it would take something extraordinary to deny the Reichel/Pugh 69 Line Honours finish.

Ten nautical miles astern, a pack is surfing north off Cronulla, having just cleared the Royal National Park. Smuggler (Seb Bohm), Sticky (Richard Harris), Gusto (Lee Hawksley), Back 2 Black (Sean Langman) and Ambition (Chris Dare) are tightly bunched, with Back 2 Black leading the charge amongst the 40 footers. All are racing the clock to overturn the smaller boats’ grip on the IRC Overall standings.

credit: CYCA | Ashley Dart

Close behind is Pretty Woman, skippered by Richard Hudson. A seasoned Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore campaigner, Hudson currently leads IRC Division 1 and features on several other leaderboards, including the Wild Rose IRC.

Meanwhile, the battle of the three Class 40s is truly neck and neck. Elizabeth Tucker and Angus Clarke’s First Light (DH) is sitting slightly further offshore than her rivals, Vixen Racing and Yeah Baby Boatec Australia (DH).

Our pre-race preview asked whether the forecast and this short, sharp style of offshore racing would play into the hands of the smaller boats. So far, the answer seems to be 100%, yes.

The provisional IRC Overall standings have held largely steady, with one notable change at the top. Jules Hall and Jan Scholten’s Disko Trooper (DH) has had to give up the lead to Chris O’Neill’s J/99 Blue Planet (DH), with Borderline (DH) holding third.

Blue Planet is having quite the day. It also leads PHS, from Crowded Haus (DH) and Western Morning, as well as IRC Corinthian, Double-Handed IRC and Double-Handed PHS.

credit: CYCA | Ashley Dart

With the southerly now powering the fleet, every boat is making excellent time back to the finish.

Stop back tomorrow morning for a full race update.

Saturday 26 September 2026 – 1600hrs (6 hours after the start)

26 of the fleet’s 33 entrants have rounded Flinders Islet and are on the journey back to Sydney and the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia – and they’re all chasing Moneypenny.

The Rob Appleyard 69 footer was first around Flinders Islet and started punching back into the northerly wind. Moneypenny is currently 29nm from the finish.

Second to make the turn was Back 2 Black (Sean Langman), followed by Smuggler (Seb Bohm), but those positions were reversed soon after the turn and still stand. Porco Rosso, Gusto, Sticky and Ambition are next.

credit: CYCA | Ashley Dart

The other boats to have made the turn include Minerva, Yeah Baby Boatec Australia (first double-hander around), Caol Ila, Pretty Woman, Vixen Racing, First Light (DH), Kanreki, Calibre 12, Llama II, Ariel, Ragtime, Magic (DH), Tenacity, Luna Blue, Borderline (DH), Disko Trooper (DH), Le Tiroflan, Crowded Haus (DH) and Supernova.

The battle for the Overall title is starting to take shape but there is still a long, long way to deciding this one.

Double-Handers Disko Trooper (Jules Hall/Jan Scholten) and Borderline (Andy Offord/ Stephen Prince) are just edging Calibre 12, Richard Williams’ Cookson 12 and a third DH entrant, Crowded Haus (Jason Neuhaus/Graeme Dunlop).

credit: CYCA | Ashley Dart

Yeah Baby Boatec Australia is another contender at this stage of the race in both IRC Overall and Double-Handed IRC and co-skipper Lindsay Stead, sailing with Francesca Leverkus in the absence of owner Louis Ryckmans, gave an update from the water before the turn.

“First Light is behind and inside us (and) they are very strong in that position and are much faster in the lighter VMG running,” Stead said.

“Average wind speeds 12-15kn from the NE. Vixen Racing is due east and also much faster in the lighter VMG running.”

In the provisional PHS standings, Llama II (Jon Linton), Luna Blue (David Watson, John Turnbull & Steve Kellaway) and Crowded Haus hold the top three spots provisionally.

Kanreki, Tenacity and Ragtime lead the way in the Wild Rose IRC.

Saturday 26 September 2026 – 1300hrs (3 hours after the start)

Three hours after the start and Rob Appleyard’s Moneypenny has the ascendancy in the race for Line Honours as they passed Thirroul heading south, 4.6 nautical miles ahead of Smuggler (Seb Bohm), with Sean Langman’s 42-footer Back 2 Black taking a line closer to the coast, a further 0.2nm back.

Moneypenny’s position is 12nm from the halfway mark.

While it’s still early days in the race for the Overall title, Back 2 Black leads the IRC standings from Moneypenny, Smuggler and Sticky.

credit: CYCA | Ashley Dart

In the Line Honours battle between the seven double-handed entrants, Elizabeth Tucker and Angus Clarke’s First Light was a clear leader, but it was Disko Trooper (Jules Hall and Jan Scholten) who lead Crowded Haus (Jason Neuhaus/Graeme Dunlop) and Borderline (Andy Offord/Stephen Prince).

Disko Trooper was second Overall in the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast race, winning the DH category.

In the PHS, Western Morning (Mark Ayto) has an early advantage from Llama II (Jon Linton) and Wild Oats (Gordon Smith).

At the back end of the fleet, Marguerite (Aaron Zhou) and Wots Next (Charles Cupit) were staging a race of their own, albeit more than 18nm behind frontrunner Moneypenny.

 

Saturday 26 September 2026 – The Start

Race 2 of the 2026 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore (ACSBWPS) – the 88 nautical mile Flinders Islet Race down to Port Kembla in Wollongong and back – began at 1000 hours this morning on a stunning Sydney spring day.

Seb Bohm’s Smuggler got the best of start of the 33 boat fleet and immediately headed towards Bradley’s Head on the harbour’s western foreshore, edged along by a 6 knot north easterly.

Credit: CYCA | Ashley Dart

It didn’t take long for Robert Appleyard’s Moneypenny to join the fray, and the pair staged a tacking duel up the harbour, shadowed 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, had of course, won the Overall title in the opening round of the ACSBWPS from Sydney to the Gold Coast in July.

Reichel Pugh 69 Moneypenny was the first out of the heads in 21:03, just two boat lengths ahead of the TP52 Smuggler before the pair came to an almost complete stop as the wind swung ESE and the offshore and inshore breezes compressed.

Gusto and Porco Rosso were next, followed by Sticky (Richard Harris), Back 2 Black and Walter Carpenter’s beautiful Marten 67, Caol Ila.

Credit: CYCA | Ashley Dart

Behind them as the breeze disappeared the fleet stacked up like it was a Bondi Junction carpark.

As they bobbed seaward, Moneypenny was the first to hoist their spinnaker and get going again, followed a little later by Smuggler, but in that hot minute the lead grew to over a mile.

Meanwhile, Jules Hall and Jan Scholten aboard Hall’s J/99 Disko Trooper were the first Double-Handed crew to exit the Heads, with Elizabeth Tucker and Angus Clarke’s First Light and the Borderline combination of Andy Offord and Stephen Prince not far behind.

Stop back for more updates throughout the race.