It is not hard to see that the biggest growth in keel boat sailing around the world at the moment is short-handed racing, especially offshore race yachts around 30-36’, and the Sun Fast 3300 produced by the largest yacht manufacturer in the world – Jeanneau, hits that sweet spot in terms of price, size and performance.
So it was no wonder that the Sun Fast 3300 was well represented in the 2022 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race with five entries plus one entry in the 2022 Melbourne to Hobart Yacht Race, however we are also absolutely delighted to announce that ‘Sun Fast Racing’ and ‘Unprecedented’ ended up claiming 2nd overall in the double-handed divisions of the Sydney to Hobart and the Melbourne to Hobart respectively.
Both races started in a very pleasant northerly breeze, but by the time the double handed fleets got into Bass Strait, they experienced winds up to 35 knots and waves several meters high. All Sun Fast 3300’s performed without any major issues whatsoever and were able to record top speeds around 22 knots, however one team recorded a staggering 27 knots!
‘Sun Fast Racing’ owned by Lee Condell from NSW and co-skippered by Lincoln Dews said that their boat performed above expectations in the Sydney to Hobart, as a lot of time went into optimising the IRC rating and the performance in light upwind sailing by fitting a mast-head J0 and VMG running by adding a S2 spinnaker. More information about this can be found in the video below…
‘Unprecedented’ owned by Andrew McGrath from Victoria and co-skippered by Ben Thompson said that they were surprised about their result after Ben had knee surgery earlier this year and this was their first double-handed offshore race together. Nevertheless they never gave up despite rolling the boat a few times and changing sails multiple times, found themselves ahead of much bigger boats halfway through the race thanks to some amazing reaching speeds that they could achieved.
Condell’s ‘Sun Fast Racing’ was sold on arrival in Hobart, and will be relocated to its new home at Sandringham Yacht Club in Melbourne early January by the new owner Aidan Geysen.
2022 Rolex Sydney to Hobart – IRC Two-Handed Results :
2nd – ‘Sun Fast Racing’ (Sun Fast 3300) – Sydney – Lee Condell & Lincoln Dews
6th – ‘Hip-Nautic’ (Sun Fast 3300) – Hobart – Jean-Pierre Ravanet & Dew Meincke
7th – ‘Uprising’ (Sun Fast 36) – Newcastle – Andrew and son Harrison (18) Miller
8th – ‘Transcendance Crento’ (Sun Fast 3300) – Sydney – Martin and son John Cross
9th – ‘Kraken 111’ (Sun Fast 3300) – Hobart – Rob Gough & John Saul
13th – ‘Mister Lucky’ (Sun Fast 3600) – Brisbane – Rohan Wood & Todd Giraudo
With 12 Sun Fast 3300’s racing in Australia now, we are sure that there will be many more podium results to come, especially in races like 2023 Melbourne to Geelong Passage Race in January, 2023 Brisbane to Gladstone in April and the 2023 Brisbane to Hamilton Island Race in August.