– Nov 17th 2021
Matt Allen’s Botin 52 Ichi Ban is again shaping up as one of the favourites for the Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore. Following a solid performance in the Flinders Islet Race a week earlier, Ichi Ban claimed Fully-Crewed Overall honours (IRC and ORCi) in the 83 nautical mile Bird Island Race.
The two-time winner of the Tattersall Cup (2017 & 2019) is building momentum ahead of the 2021 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.
With a second place finish overall from Flinders Islet and a win from Bird Island, Ichi Ban is in good position after two of the four races in the Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore. She won back-to-back Pointscores in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Conditions were vastly different to the Flinders Islet Race, with a strong west nor’wester providing a physical challenge for the fleet.
“The Blue Water Pointscore is a really big thing for us. It’s one of the main focuses of the boat – that and the Rolex Sydney Hobart are intertwined” Allen said. “It was a really unusual race, I don’t think anyone has done a Bird Island Race like that. It was very unusual for the wind to be so much from the west and for it to be so windy. It was a pretty wet and furious race, especially with that much wind. I think we got a gust of 38-39 knots at one stage, so it was pretty much about holding on and trying to keep the salt out of the eyes. Luckily it was a short race in terms of time. [The first two races of the Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore] have given the fleet upwind racing, downwind racing and quite a lot of furious reaches. It’s good for the whole fleet to have that experience and time on the water. It helps with the crew work.”
