Festival of Sails - Day 4
by Danielle McKay & Lisa Ratcliff 26 Jan 2014 09:15 GMT
21-27 January 2014
Star rises at the Melges 24 Australian Open Nationals
Harry Melges is the new Australian Open National Melges 24 Champion, the lake sailor from central USA right at home on Geelong's Corio Bay with his crew of the Melges 24 Star.
"For us the venue is awesome, we love shifty conditions and lake-style sailing on flat water," said Melges. "We are pretty used to it, and comfortable. Every day we learnt more about how the wind acts and every day was very different which made it so interesting."
Second on the leaderboard was Flavio Favini's Swiss entry Blu Moon with 26 points. Favini and Melges are old rivals on the racetrack with Melges now one-up by nine points in this Australian double-header of open nationals followed by the world title.
Third was Canada's Zarko Draganic and Chris Larson's Melges 24 Cavillino/McLube with 39 points.
On Australia's national day, January 26th, the foreigners flexed their muscles and held the locals out of the top five in the 8-10 knot nor'easter breeze.
Nathan Wilmot's Melges – Asia Kaito finished sixth from 23 starters and Australian class president Warwick Rooklyn finished eighth with Bandit. Cameron Miles' Melges, Roger That, completed the top ten.
The Melges 24 Open Nationals was a four-day tune up for the majority of teams backing up next week for the 2014 Gill Melges 24 World Championship, Wednesday 29th – Sunday 2nd February, 2014.
More hot prospects from overseas will join those who have had the benefit of time on the water this week. All up organisers are expecting 26 one design boats to lead off the starting blocks next Wednesday.
"The worlds will be really tough; it will be a whole new regatta," added Melges, the 2002 class world champion.
In the coming days the Star crew will do a little bit of boat work, sail checks and measurement, head back out for some more training and relax and enjoy Geelong. "We don't want to wear ourselves out," Melges added.
Heath Walters, jib trimmer on Kaito says they are happy being the top placed Australian team.
"Between here and the worlds we have a new jib that will hopefully help our speed and height in the lighter stuff. We also need to keep out of trouble; we did a few circles [penalty turns] today. We need to keep out of our own way.
"The level of competition here is fantastic. It's so great to see all the Europeans and Americans on the course, we are learning all the time," added Walters.
For the worlds the pressure cooker is starting to heat up. Crew have hauled their boats out to polish the bottom and do repairs and will be back out on Tuesday for the scheduled afternoon practice race.
Four days of hard slog takes its toll on the body and physical fitness is a major factor in sports boat racing, especially when the wind's on and crew are hiking out. "Most of the guys put the work in before they got here," explained Walters.
"Fitness is a big factor especially when it blows. You've got to look after your crew so they don't break down or suffer muscle injuries."
With just one day's rest tomorrow then straight into Tuesday's practice event, stamina will be put to the test.
Hank Stuart, International Melges 24 Association championship coordinator and Principal Race Officer for the open nationals and world championship, travels the world conducting high-end regattas. He says Geelong is a fantastic venue and uses the analogy of a golf course to explain a unique Corio Bay.
"It's like a golf course with several holes all with different characteristics under the one facility."
"Coming down here and having the nationals as a tune-up for the worlds and as part of the Festival of Sails was terrific. The general vibe has been great."
The same race management team will assemble for the opening bout of the Gill World Championship next Wednesday, Stuart declaring "I'm as comfortable as I've ever felt getting ready for a worlds from a race management side because our team is all put together."
From the talk on the dock Stuart says the pressure is starting to ramp up. "The intensity is starting to come alive. You've got some fantastic sailors here. It's going to be anybody's regatta."
For this evening's trophy presentation at the Royal Geelong Yacht Club for the new open national champion Stuart jokes he has his iPhone ready with both the Australian and American national anthem loaded, so he can play either when Harry Melges and his crew collect the trophy.
"Happy Australia Day to everybody," Stuart added.
Best dressed Melges crew on Australia Day went to No Comment who sailed the final two races dressed in red, white and blue onesies. They even had a Matilda on board though she's Finnish and didn't really appreciate the significance.
Tomorrow Harry Melges, Flavio Favini and the IMCA chairman Riccardo Simoneschi will host a clinic for the entire fleet so the gurus can share their vast knowledge.
Most divisions will wrap up their Festival of Sails tonight, Sunday 26th January 2014, with a final twilight race.
Tomorrow the Racing Series divisions will head back out for a last points grab and the remainder of the trophies awarded, bringing to an end the 171st running of the long standing
sailing regatta.
Raptor Strike
The Maui Jim Sports Boat series, one of 14 divisions at the Festival of Sails catering for a plethora of sailing predilections, wrapped up on Corio Bay with the final two races of a 10 race series today.
Mark Buchback's Stealth 850 Raptor (QLD) and Noel Leigh-Smith's Viper 640 (QLD) stayed in touch for most of the four-day regatta, but today's made-to-order conditions kept Raptor out of striking range. The crew finished with 17 points to the runner up's 23.5 points.
Viper loves breeze while Raptor is better suited to light air sailing. Yesterday the Raptor crew managed to hold their own in the 15-20 south-southeast breeze and keep the boat from diving to finish with three very respectable results.
When Buchbach and his crew heard today's forecast they knew it would suit them to a T.
"We had two races in ideal conditions, flat water and eight to 10 knots which meant we were fully powered up and the others weren't quite planing."
Raptor is packed-up and on a trailer heading to Sydney for the NSW states then goes back to Queensland and in the shed for some secret modifications before the next round of events.
Noel Leigh-Smith is a sports boat stalwart who loves coming to the Festival of Sails. "It's a fantastic place to sail, great racing and facilities. That's why we keep coming to Geelong," he said.
"We knew Raptor would be fast in the light stuff today, and that this would be a problem for us. We had some mess-ups yesterday and that really cost us."
Leigh-Smith sails with his adult son Ben. "He does all the work and I just fly in and fly out, you can do that when you are 64," he laughed.
Cam Rae's Monkey Business finished third in division on 27 points. The Geelong boat with the eye-catching apple green paintwork was too eager in the first race of today and had to restart before cleverly clawing their way back to second on SMS handicap in that race.
Sailing hero inspires fourth successful national title
Even in his absence sailing hero Lou Abrahams has proven unbeatable, inspiring his Sydney 38 Challenge crew to their fourth national title win at the Festival of Sails.
Challenge claimed the nine-race Morris Finance Sydney 38 One Design Class Australian Championship with a 10 point lead over Brenton and Jen Carnel's Phoenix in second place and Zen, skippered by Gordon Ketelbey, in third place.
It was a hotly contested day on Geelong's Corio Bay, with just 45 seconds separating the top five Sydney 38s in race eight today and the top three positions shuffling right up until the end of the final race.
On top of that, Challenge skipper Chris Jackson had the pressure of driving Abrahams' yacht and also filling the shoes for the team's usual helmsman Mark Bulka, who yesterday was named the Contender dinghy world champion.
While all these factors made Jackson's victory sweet, he admits that winning it for Abrahams was most rewarding.
"We did this for Lou," Jackson said. "He has a presence on board even when he's not here. We spoke about his motivational talks before racing and then when we finished we called Lou and passed the phone around to every crewman, he said 'well done', and I think it lifted his spirits to know we'd had success."
It's the fourth national title for the team, with crewman Peter Milne, Ian Taylor, Rowan Simpson and Rowly Richardson crewing for each of the wins.
With the class nationals moving to Adelaide next year, the Royal Geelong Yacht Club Commodore Iain Murray, who skippered Cinquante to fourth place, said it's sure to be a battle royale.
"At one stage in this regatta the race official came on the radio and said 'there's a minute and five seconds between first and last at the top mark', it's just that close," Murray said.
"The one design is attracting a lot of experts, most crews have a paid sailor on board now, and it's really upped the ante."
Multihulls
Racing continues in several other divisions including the Fuso Trucks Multi-Hull Series, which has come down to the wire.
Malcolm Richardson's Nacra 36 Malice and Chris Williams' Sea Cart 30 Morticia were on equal points at the day's start, but it is Malice who will go into tonight's twilight race with a near unbeatable edge of four points.
Malice claimed its fourth win in race six today and hopes to continue that streak into the seventh and final race of the series tonight.
The battle for third place is just as close with Shaun Fishley's Frassld, a Corsair F31, holding just a two-point lead over its larger counterpart, Michael Du Vallon's Patronus, a Prescott Whitehaven 10.7.
Racing Series
The Optimum Time Racing Series Divisions 1, 2 and 3 will also continue racing, but they'll round out their series tomorrow.
Tony Kirby's Ker 46 Patrice has maintained its lead in Racing Series division 1 IRC, just a point and a half ahead of Gary McNally and Brian McMaster's GP42 Black Betty, which is also only a point and a half ahead of its closest counterpart, Matt Allen's Carkeek 60 Ichi Ban.
In Division 2 the Beneteau First 45s hold the podium spots, with Shining Sea skippered by Andrew Corletto on top on 10 points followed by Bruce McCracken's Ikon on 12 points and Alan Woodward's Reverie in third place with 21 points.
With five wins David Ellis' Archambault A31 Penfold Audi Sport leads division 3 IRC and looks likely to claim victory with just one race remaining. Jason Close's Beneteau First 35 White Noise is second, ahead of the Sydney 36 cr Wild Side, skippered by Martin Vaughan.
The final races of the 2014 Festival of Sails will start at 1025 on January 27. A northerly tending easterly and gusting between 10 to 15 knots is expected.
Full results can be found here.