Wallis and Sprott fight back in 29er Australian Championship
by Oliver Hartas/Peter Campbell 7 Jan 2019 02:30 GMT
29er Australian Championship 2019 © Oliver Hartas
Hobart teenagers William Wallis and Fynn Sprott have fought back from a potentially calamitous start to yesterday's penultimate day of racing to retain their overall lead in the 29er Australian Championship on the River Derwent.
Wallis and Sprott, members of Sandy Bay Sailing Club, had a 'shocker' in the first race of the day, finished 10th. Their day got worse with a BFD (black flag) starting line disqualification.
However, they fought back in the late afternoon last race to score their fifth win of the regatta, going today's final races with a net 22 points, using the BFD as a drop race.
In second place overall are the junior crew of Archie Cropley and Max Paul from Sydney's Middle Harbour Yacht Club on a net 29 points, placing 2-2-7 yesterday.
Sandy Bay's 13-year-old Oscar O'Donoghue and 16-year-old crew Rupert Hamilton dropped to fourth, placing 7-8-31.
In the 49ers, Sam and Will Phillips from Victoria won their 13th consecutive race. Tasmanians Hugo Hamilton and Hugh Hickling finished a good third in race 12 and fourth overall.
Photographer Oliver Hartas was out on the water and files this report of the action on the 9er courses:
It was another exciting day in Hobart, with a dramatic first race of the 29er's getting away bang on time with the fleet racing off the line out to the right. Axel Fleet and Jack Luketina from WA had a glamour race, calling left shifts to build a tidy lead in lap one.
Soon after the leaders rounded the bottom mark, the southerly seabreeze started to creep up, resulting in a bit of mayhem as the majority of the fleet were caught between the north and south breezes, with some even briefly setting spinnakers on their upwind leg.
This didn't affect Axel and Jack however, who were far enough ahead to stay in the Northerly breeze on right hand shifts all the way up the second beat to round the top mark with a 1 minute and 12 second lead ahead of Archie and Max, increasing their lead on the downwind to finish just shy of two minutes ahead of the second boat.
It looked like fellow Western Australians Kieran Bucktin and Ben Walsh would join their mates on the podium as they gybe set in third place, but Kiwis Campbell Stanton and William Shapland edged them out to finish third in that race, before the northerly wavered again.
This caused a gap of almost five minutes between the first half of the fleet and the second, with a few back-fleet battlers just missing out on the time limit.
The podium for the 29er fleet has become much tighter, with locals William Wallis and Fynn Sprott having a shocker in the first race of the day to finish 10th followed by a BFD in the next race.
In race two, Wallis and Sprott started at the pin end in what looked to be great start, but it was a BFD, with left Hong Kong's Malo Kennish and Anatloe Martin the real leader
Jake and Zac Barnabas (2248) from Perth gybed back in earlier than the HKG crew and gained 100m to overtake, but HKG fought back and rounded inside 2248 at the bottom as lead boats headed hard right.
Halfway down final run it was the BFD's Tasmanians were well in front with MHYC's Lachlan Brewer and Flynn Twomey (Aus 2), Kieran Bucktin and Ben Walsh (23) from WA, Archie Cropley and Max Paul (2683) from Sydney and the Hong Kong crew in a close pack battling it out.
Cropley and Paul edged in front by a few lengths by the bottom mark, but was late dropping the kite, loosing out to Brewer AND Twomey (Aus 2) in the last dash across to the finish line.
Racing was no less tense for the second race of the 49er fleet, with two boats making huge gains on the left of the first beat. James Grogan and Charlie Dixon led Oliver Manton and Jack Lloyd around the first mark, 40 seconds ahead of the chasing pack, with overall leaders Will and Sam way back in 6th!
Oliver and Jack gybed early on to head to the right of the course, overtaking James and Charlie at the bottom mark. Here each boat rounded separate marks and split again, with James and Charlie heading out hard right whilst Ollie and Jack banked on the left paying again.
Amazingly, after rounding the top mark in a deep position and avoiding the congestion and mishaps, Will and Sam Phillips wound up the turbo and ripped downwind to round the right hand mark and join James and Charlie on the right side of the second beat, overtaking him to finish the final lap in first place.
The drama remained however, with the pack who went left on the second beat battling it out hard and mixing the fleet up again, with local Tasmanians Hugo Hamilton and Hugh Hickling sailing to a well-deserved third, with Tom Alexander and Sam Abel in fourth, pushing Ollie and Jack back to finish fifth.
But the biggest smiles were surely on the faces of Henry Larkings and Eleanor Grimshaw who, despite currently sit at the bottom of the 49erFX fleet, scored their first bullet in this very same race.
The final day of racing is today (Monday), and it looks to be another exciting day although the morning breeze on the Derwent is very light.