NSW Championship- Race 2

Sunday, 16 November 2008

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Sydney Harbour

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The most experienced crew in the fleet showed their class today when Yandoo took out Race 2 of the NSW 18ft Skiff Championship on Sydney Harbour.

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Skipper John Winning and his crew of Andrew Hay and David Gibson gave a polished exhibition of boat handling in the 18-knot South East breeze to record a comfortable win.

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James Francis skippered Pure Blonde into second place 1min 40secs behind Yandoo, while John Winning Jr. was a further 24secs back in third place in appliancesonline.

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The results are provisional at this time as there are numerous protests resulting from incidents at the end of the first spinnaker run.

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Four top teams Gotta Love It 7 (Seve Jarvin), Rag & Famish Hotel (John Harris), Kinder Caring Home Nursing (Brett Van Munster) and Smeg (Daniel Phillips) were all forced to retire with various gear damage and each is now protesting in the hope of being awarded average points for the race.

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After one general recall, Matthew Searle and his crew outsailed the fleet to the windward mark in Active Air-2UE where they established a 25secs lead.

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Kinder Caring was second, followed by Pure Blonde, CST Composites (David O'Connor), Gotta Love It 7 and Smeg.

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Following the bottom mark collisions, Active Air-2UE maintained their 25secs lead at the next windward mark but now it was Yandoo that had moved into second place.

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Active Air-2UE was in control on the reach/spinnaker run from Clarke Island to Chowder Bay but ran foul of the Manly Ferry and other craft which caused a capsize as the crew attempted to set their spinnaker.

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This left Yandoo in the lead, a position from which the team were never likely to surrender.

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A highlight of the race was the performance of some of the new, young teams.

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Ian Henderson finished sixth (and took handicap honours) in Me while David O'Connor was 9th in CST Composites after an early capsize.

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Each boat in the fleet carried a black ribbon today as a mark of respect to Peter Wenner (19) who died recently when the 18ft Skiff he was crewing on capsized two miles off Waikiki.

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Peter became tangled in the boat's rigging and was trapped under water for 5-10 minutes before being freed.

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A copy of today's result sheet is attached.

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Frank Quealey

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Australian 18 Footers League

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