The Sovereign Series is the culmination of the Christmas race programme for the Melbourne to Hobart boats. Three races make up the series, the Cock of the Bay race sponsored by Entire Fire Protection Systems, the Heemskirk Consolidated Ltd Melbourne to Hobart Ocean race and the Wrest Point King of the Derwent races. Trophies are awarded for the first place in each of IRC (Premier division), AMS and Performance Handicap divisions and the series winner must compete in all 3 races. Whilst some boats fared exceptionally well in individual races, their inability to compete in all three races made them ineligible for the Series. Final Point Scores are attached. In an tremendously close-fought battle Eddie Ragauskas and Martin Vaughan’s “A Crewed Interest” won the Sovereign Series in all three divisions but had to do so on a count back in both the premier division, IRC, and in the other measurement division, AMS. EQUAL FIRST PLACE in both divisions was shared with Matt Hannaford’s “No Fearr”, the Line Honours winner for the Heemskirk Consolidated Melbourne to Hobart Ocean Yacht race, however in a cruel twist the Notice of Race for the Series states that ties shall be broken in favour of the yacht with the highest corrected time placing in Race 2. “A Crewed Interest” won both of those divisions in the Heemskirk Consolidated Melbourne to Hobart. The series win underlined how crushing the victory was of Eddie, Martin and the crew. They won all three divisions (IRC, AMS and PHD) for the M2H and all three divisions for the Sovereign Series.
Eddie and Martin have campaigned the boat a lot over the last year and believe that they have slipped under most people’s radar a little. The accuracy of handicaps are often discussed by disgruntled yachties over the bar, but no one is arguing with Eddie and Martin’s deserved handicap win; IRC and AMS are measurement based divisions and the PHD win just reinforces their overwhelming success in this race.
