Sail Brisbane at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Overall

by Suellen Hurling 2 Dec 2008 06:54 GMT 27-30 November 2008

The four days of racing for Sail Brisbane 2009 saw an array of conditions for the 143 entrants. Competing on the waters of both Waterloo and Moreton Bays from host club Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron the competitors dealt with torrential rain, freak afternoon storms with winds reaching 35 knots and shifty westerly winds varying from 0 to 6 knots. Sunday afternoon did see some relief with a consistent North/East sea breeze finalising the racing for this year’s regatta.

Most of the competitors will now travel to Sydney and then onto Melbourne for the additional Sail Down Under Series regattas organised by Yachting Australia.

The International Laser sailors who arrived in Brisbane just five days ago said that Sail Brisbane was a fantastic training regatta prior to the other events.

“Sail Brisbane has provided us excellent training before the next event. It gives us an advantage over others before Sydney,” said Matias Del Solar of Chile. Del Solar finished second in the Laser Standard fleet behind Matt Coutts of New Zealand who won the regatta on 12 points.

Gabrielle King from Northern NSW was the clear champion of the Laser Radial fleet taking out all the divisions she was eligible for. The current ISAF World Youth Champion finished five points clear of former Radial Masters World Champion Greg Adams. Adams did play with the idea of retiring from the regatta after Day 1 however pushed through the pain to finish in second position.

It came down to the final race in the 420 fleet with Byron White and Jay Griffin from the CYCA and Sean Ott and Adam Lahey of Southport Yacht Club finishing on equal points. After count back it was White and Griffin who took the gold medal in the competitive fleet.

Andrew Torpelund from Far North Queensland dominated in the Laser 4.7 fleet winning seven of the 10 races. Torpelund finished ten points clear of Laser 4.7 newcomer Ella Evans.

The SB3 fleet raced their Queensland Championship in conjunction with Sail Brisbane with Warwick Heath taking his four-up crew to eventual victory. The challenging conditions saw mixed results throughout their regatta. Heath’s crew member Gray Pritchard took the microphone during the presentation saying the regatta was fantastic with the racing close and intense.

RQYS sailor Louise Evans was the clear winner in the Optimist fleet finishing on nine points. It was a battle for second with Charlie Wyatt taking out the silver medal on count back ahead of Katie Deakin-Sharpe. The strong Sabot fleet saw the lead change after almost every race during the regatta. Felix Grech and Matt Graham from NSW finished the regatta on 15 points apiece, but it was Grech who secured the win and overall regatta success.

“It was a tough regatta but it was heaps of fun,” said Grech who was proudly wearing his gold medal after the presentation on Sunday afternoon. Grech, together with the rest of the Sail Brisbane Sabot fleet will travel to Airlie Beach to race in their Australia Championships over the Christmas/New Year period.

Kieran Searle from NSW teamed up with Sam Phillips from RQYS to sail to victory in the 29er fleet ahead of locals Angus Rankin and James Dahl.

The Hobie 16 fleet joined Sail Brisbane on the third day of racing. The strong fleet completed 10 races over a two-day period in mixed conditions. Peter and Juliet Bates claimed the regatta with five wins. The Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron will host Sail Brisbane in 2009 with dates to be confirmed.

More information on the event website with full results and more photos.