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Festival of Sails in Australia - Day 2

by Festival of Sails Media 25 Jan 2013 09:43 GMT 24-28 January 2013

Sportsboats

Sailors fell overboard, boats capsized and sails blew-up among the Sports Boats and Melges 24 fleets in challenging conditions on day two of the Festival of Sails today.

South-west winds gusting more than 30 knots proved a more formidable foe than actual competitors for some on the Corio Bay courses.

Reigning Melges 24 national champion Bandit was looking to make amends from an out-of-character first day when they finished sixth in the overall tally.

Owner/skipper Warwick Rooklyn is on the hunt for a national title hat-trick, and today came a step closer by winning all three races.

"The quality of the fleet has risen enormously in the past 12 months," Rooklyn said. "We didn't have it our own way, OK, the score line was three wins, but these guys were really quick today, it wasn't easy."

Northshore Marine is in second place on count-back in the Parks Victoria Melges 24 National Championships. Skipper Chris Links said it's been tough one-design racing.

"It was actually harder sailing upwind today than it was sailing downwind," he said. "We had the crew totally underwater on maybe four or five occasions today, you literally couldn't see a thing.

"It's going to take a lot of effort to unseat Warwick, we've got to stay consistent. It's not down to the wire yet and we just have to get the best results we can."

Bandit and Northshore Marine both have 12 points, with Accru in third place on 18 points.

For Bundaberg Rum Sports Boats race winner, Circus School crew, it was as much an achievement to finish as it was to win, crossing the line ahead of Monkey Business in second place and Vivace in third.

The Viper 640's rig started to slacken just 30 minutes into the near 18 nautical mile race. Bowman Tom Brewer saved the day by replacing a popped-pin with a screwdriver.

"I got a couple of big mouthful of salt water,'' said the young hero. "We were sailing away from the course while we were fixing it, so I wanted to be quick. We did lose quite a bit of ground but just managed to make it up."

Skipper Mark Griffith was ecstatic with the result, having only made the move from racing a Sydney 38 two months ago.

"They're a lot of hard work, but they're rewarding,'' he said. "We hit 16 knots today, you don't see speeds like that in a Sydney 38. We've got a lot more to learn, so lots of room for improvement too."

Overall, Foamfast is leading the Sports Boat series on six points, followed by Monkey Business on eight and Game On three points behind on 11.

Passage Race

It was an action packed start to day two of the Festival Of Sails for those classes starting the Melbourne to Geelong passage race.

The passage start was postponed twice, delaying up to 250 impatient and eager crews by nearly two hours while the race committee monitored a forecast strong south westerly front.

Royal Yacht Club of Victoria historian Ruth Plummer said that to her knowledge the start has never been postponed or cancelled.

Sails were eventually hoisted just before 11am as the fleet made their way to the two starting lines off Point Ormond at Elwood on the western shore of Port Phillip Bay.

The race committee went into the start sequence at 11.40am and racing began at 11.45am, some boats individually recalled. The omission of the Sandringham mark was the only amendment to the course.

Royal Geelong Yacht Club Commodore Andrew Neilson explained the reason for the delay was due to a gale warning issued by the Bureau of Meteorology, "We predicted this might happen. Safety is paramount; we love the fleet and we try to get them down to Geelong in a safe manner".

The promised south-west front came in shortly after the passage race start, delivering difficult conditions even for the most seasoned skippers. Winds peaked at 30 knots from the south, then settled in at 22-25 knots.

Line honours and first place went to Gusto a MBD Open 66 from Cruising division B. Skipper Brian Pattinson was pleased with the result, "We've never won line honours in the Geelong race before, so it's pretty great".

Gusto's official finish time was 3.48pm giving them an elapsed time of four hours and three minutes for the amended 30 mile course. Gusto's crew recorded a top wind speed of 40 knots on the dial and a top boat speed of 19.5 knots.

There were a number of incidents in today's passage race including broken gear and three confirmed dismastings; Rising Sun, an Elliot 7.4, Freestyle 1, a Cavalier 37, and Champion, a Van De Stadt Pion. This afternoon the race committee has confirmed at least 20 retirements, a number likely to increase.

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