An Emotional Victory, Port Jackson Championship
An Emotional Victory
Manly skipper Daniel Turner likened the challenge of winning the famous Port Jackson Championship (PJC) to motor racing’s Bathurst 1000 after clinching an emotional victory on Saturday.
Turner and crew Angus Williams and Matt Stenta led the 60-strong strong fleet home aboard Buckingham Marine Services (BMS) to claim a second Port Jackson title in three years, dedicating the win to good friend – and fellow 16s sailor – Brett Davis and his late father Darby.
Darby, 92, died two days before the race but his spirit lived on via commemorative black ribbons flown on five handpicked boats.
Turner was honoured to be one of the chosen ones, adding an extra layer of motivation to a race that has quickly regained its status as a premier event on the 16s calendar after dropping off the schedule for six years.
“Brett bleeds Belmont but there is a fair bit of Manly in him as well and he was fairly emotional in the rigging park when he asked if we’d fly the ribbon and take his dad around one more lap of the harbour,” Turner explained.
“It was a great honour to do that for him and his family. You look up at the mainsail quite a bit and seeing that ribbon attached definitely gave us extra motivation to do well.”
The four other boats sporting the black ribbons, including Brett on Wichard, unfortunately retiring early with a broken halyard.
“The old man decided ‘Ruffy’ (Turner) was the golden child,” Brett laughed.
“Dad actually built ‘Ruffy’s first sabot (dinghy) and me and Ruffy go a long way back, so it meant a lot to me for him to win it.
“Manly is a big part of my heart and another family of mine and Dad felt the same way.”
BMS enjoyed a fairly relaxed preparation leading into the new season but know how to press the go button when the big races roll around.
They were the first to win the PJC when the Manly club relaunched the race in 2023 and have mapped out the perfect blueprint to negotiate its myriad challenges.
BMS finished 1min:21sec ahead of runner-up Balmain (Zoe Dransfield), with Shade to Order (Tom Burton), Bosker Build (Sarah Lee) and Quality Covers (Rebeca Hancock) the next home.
“It’s a full soldiers’ course. You look at the Bathurst 1000 racetrack and you break it up into all the different segments and this is the same,” Turner explained.
“You’ve got a work into the harbour, a leg across the harbour, back up the harbour and back out of the harbour.
“Then you’re down to Balmoral and out of Balmoral. There’s about five chapters to that race and you’ve got to pull them all apart.
“You push all these extra boundaries you don’t usually push in a normal race.
“But we’ve done it enough times and sailed together long enough that we know exactly what ammo we’ve got.
“Everyone knows how prestigious this race is and it’s great to win it again.”
Turner and his crew timed their win to perfection, with chief sponsor Mitch Buckingham looking on as part of a large contingent of backers on the sponsors’ boat.
Buckingham also sponsors the all-girl Manly crew on Buckingham Queens, another 16 from Belmont and a 13ft entrant at St George.
New sponsors Balmain, Sixt and Mac Marine also received a taste of the Manly 16s’ hospitality as they cheered on their boats from the spectator craft.
In the 13s, Tayla Lees & Ash Napper (Modern Concept Constructions) battled it out with Meg Bates & Joe Corbel (Harken) the entire race – only for one of them to be later told it was all in vain.
Lee came from behind in the final few hundred metres to claim the race over Harken, which was subsequently disqualified after being ruled to have broken the start line.
Words Adam Lucius
Images ashore Nathan Hopkins
Images afloat Michael Chittenden / SailMedia
