Prescott cleans up at Bruny

CHAMPION Hobart yachtsman and offshore racing veteran Greg Prescott and his modified Farr 40, 2Unlimited, have made a clean sweep of all four handicap divisions of the historic Bruny Island Race sailed over the weekend.

In a rare outcome to the 89-nautical mile race that started on Saturday morning and finished in the early hours yesterday, 2Unlimited took out top honours under IRC, ORCI-O, AMS and PHS scoring systems.

Prescott bought the former Farr 40 one-design yacht two years go and converted it to offshore racing, winning IRC Division B of the recent Australian Yachting Championships and finishing second in class in the 75th Rolex Sydney Hobart.

The light to moderate conditions of the Bruny Island Race suited 2Unlimited with Prescott and his crew sailing an excellent tactical race in what winning line honours skipper Duncan Hine (Alive) described as “flukey and frustrating”.

2Unlimited finished third in fleet in the JJ Richards Bruny Island Race astern of Alive and Mike Pritchard’s Oskana and dominated overall handicap results.

Under PHS scoring, the Farr 40 won by just 43 seconds on corrected time from Oskana and the classic Travessa, with John Muir flying down from Queensland to skipper the yacht designed by his father, the famous Jock Muir. Under AMS, 2Unlimited beat John Dryden’s Jazz Player, the best performer small boat, and Drew Latham’s Whistler.

The strongly contested IRC division saw 2Unlimited win from Alive and Oskana with one of the favoured boats, Midnight Rambler forced to retire with backstay problems.

The newly added ORCI-O division attracted six entries, all recent Sydney Hobart and Australian Yachting Championship contestants, with 2Unimited beating Alive by just five minutes with Oskana third.