Hobson and Johnston ahead

Aussies take an early lead at the 12 Foot Skiff Interdomion Championship in Brisbane

Australian 12 Foot Skiff Garde sailed by Brett Hobson and Alex Johnston have taken an early lead in the 49th 12 Foot Skiff Interdomion Championship held at RQYS Brisbane. The boys took two bullets setting them up with a solid start to the ten heat regatta.

Waterloo Bay turned out perfect racing conditions with a steady 15-18 knot nor-easter which slowly built during the afternoon. New Zealand Skiff Nuplex , Alex Vallings & Jeremy Smith were the only skiff to opt for their big rig and sailed incredibly well to secure 2nd place in Heat 1 despite being over-rigged. Gizmo sailed by Michael Bochner & Tim Barraclough were third.

In race 2, Gemmell Sails , Murray Press & Ben Gemmell were second followed by the ever consistent Gizmo in third.

Team points are also going Australia's way at this early stage in the regatta. After two race the Aussies have a decent lead with 349 points, the Kiwi's are on 269.

NZ boat Frankenskiff , Tim Bartlett & Adam Miller were impressive in both races however they finished to find they had two OCSes. There were plenty of spills and breakages. Contenders Nick Press & Brad Yabsley on Yabba Dabba - Dimension Polyant broke their forestay early in race 1. The miners contest was taken out by Karoshi , Ben Austin & Dave Cleworth, who snapped their rudder (for the second day running) making for an impressive high speed crash.

1 January is a lay day, racing will re-commence on Friday January 2nd.