Congratulations to the Johnston brothers & crew of the Reichel/Pugh 72 URM Group - Overall winners of the 2023 Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race & recipients of the Peter Rysdyk Memorial Trophy. She was also first IRC overall and IRC Div. 0 winner.
Cruising Yacht Club of Australia/Southport Yacht Club, Sydney-Australia, 384nm – Congratulations to the Johnston brothers & crew of the Reichel/Pugh 72 URM Group - Overall winners of the 2023 Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race & recipients of the Peter Rysdyk Memorial Trophy. She was also first IRC overall and IRC Div. 0 winner.
This is the first in the six-race Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore 2023/24. URM Group was 2nd Overall in final standings for the 2022-23 Audi Centre Sydney Blue Water Pointscore. Last year, Reichel/Pugh designs Black Jack 100, Wild Oats 100 and Moneypenny 69 were 2nd, 3rd, 4th on elapsed time, with Sean Langman’s Reichel/Pugh 69 Moneypenny crowned overall winner.
2022 Press
URM Group had five top 10 finishes within the pointscore, including an overall victory and new course record set in the 88nm Flinders Islet Race. Skippered by Marcus Ashley-Jones, URM Group beat Sean Langman's Reichel/Pugh 69 Moneypenny by just 39 seconds on corrected time in the Flinders Islet Race. URM Group took 43 minutes off the previous record set by David Griffith’s 62 Whisper in the 2021 race. URM took line honors and broke the course record at the 2021 83nm Bird Island Race. URM's time, at an average of 16 knots, smashed the previous records for the 85nm course. Comanche held an open record of 6:08:27 in 2018, and Reichel/Pugh's Loki set the conventionally ballasted record of 6:38:56 in 2011.
2018 Press
The two Reichel/Pugh designed and McConaghy Boats-built 100’ Canting Keel Super Maxis battled for Line Honours in the 33rd Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race with Peter Harburg’s Black Jack beating the Oatley family’s Wild Oats XI (a six-time Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race line honours winner) by just under two minutes. In the competition for corrected time honours, Bruce Taylor’s Reichel/Pugh designed 40’ Chutzpah, built by Hart Marine has been officially crowned the IRC Overall Winner.
About the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race
Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race Website and Fleet Tracker
Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race Facebook
R/P Design #210 URM Group was built by McConaghy Boats and originally launched in 2009 as Shockwave.
About the Blue Water Pointscore + 2023 Dates
Race 1 - Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race (384nm, 29 July)
Race 2 - Flinders Islet Race (88nm, 23 September)
Race 3 - Tollgate Islands Race (260nm, 13 October)
Race 4 - Bird Island Race (83nm, 11 November)
Race 5 - Cabbage Tree Island Race (172nm, 1 December)
Race 6 - Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race (628nm, 26 December)