18ft Skiff 2014 JJ Giltinan Championship - Overall
by Frank Quealey 9 Mar 2014 09:55 GMT
1-9 March 2014
Proudly presented by Sydney City Marine
Today's race sponsored by The Kitchen Maker
The Gotta Love It 7 team of Seve Jarvin, Sam Newton and Scott Babbage officially became the 2014 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff champions today after a magnificent regatta performance which saw the team score five wins and one second place from the six races which count towards the final points.
The win gave skipper Seve Jarvin his sixth victory as a skipper in the championship, equaling the record of Iain Murray (1977-1982, inclusive), who is now team manager for Gotta Love It 7.
In today's Race 7 of the 2014 championship, proudly presented by Sydney City Marine, Gotta Love It 7 failed to register a perfect score by just 12s when the Asko Appliances team of Marcus Ashley-Jones, James Dorron and Jeronimo Harrison took the honours after a long battle with '7' and third placed Yamaha, from New Zealand, which was only 7s behind '7'.
Mojo Wine (Chris Nicholson) finished fourth today, ahead of Pure Blonde (Nick Daly) and C-Tech (Alex Vallings, NZ).
Gotta Love It 7 finished on 7 points for a comprehensive victory.
Although only 11th today, Thurlow Fisher Lawyers (Michael Coxon, Dave O'Connor, Trent Barnabas) was runner-up overall on 24 points followed by Mojo Wine (Chris Nicholson, Mike McKensey, Ricky Bridge) on 28, C-Tech on 30, Yamaha 35 and Asko Appliances on 41.
Today, the three placegetters put on a great contest in the light ENE breeze for the entire course and only 19s separated the three teams at the finish.
Yamaha (David Mc Diarmid, Andrew Archbald, Mark Overington) took the lead soon after the start but Gotta Love It 7 was making a move and soon had pressure on the leader.
The Kiwi boat had good boat speed and sailed a great course as she held off '7' to lead by 17s at the windward mark.
Asko Appliances was about another 1 min. behind the leader at that stage.
Yamaha extended the lead on the spinnaker run back to the bottom mark after electing to sail a totally different course to Gotta Love It 7.
Asko was also fast and joined '7' as the pair turned for the next windward leg.
Another good leg upwind and Asko Appliances took the lead, while Gotta Love It 7 took Yamaha which seemed to suffer from a lack of local knowledge.
As the leaders headed for home Gotta Love It 7 had once again taken the lead late in a race and seemed a likely winner.
With only a few hundred metres from the finish Gotta Love It 7 still led but a brilliant finish by Asko Appliances grabbed a victory in the dying stages.
For full details on the championship, Race Reports, Results, Points and video coverage go to www.18footers.com.au and "click here" on the home page.