High speed snakes and ladders

A report from the final day of racing for the International 14s at Sail Melbourne

Race 5. 20-25 knots

After again losing two days racing to the fickle weather of Melbourne in January, Lindsay Irwin and Andrew Perry won the fifth race of the Sail Melbourne International 14 South Pacific and Australian National Championships at Black Rock Yacht Club.

In a strong and cool northwest wind the portion of the fleet that managed to get off the beach successfully got away at 10:30am start. Those who didn?t make it off the beach included David Alexander in Jet who was grounded after breaking his rudder box while launching in the waves that were rolling into Black Rocks usually protected bay. With one point between Irwin Sails and Grant Geddes in Snatch the stakes were high in the deciding heats of the National Championships.

The fleet started with Grant Geddes and Dan Wilsdon over a minute late for the start line as they miss judged the difficulty in maneuvering the boats in the strong winds and steep short waves. Coming of the line the fleet went left and then tacked to starboard on a left shift at the lay line. Geddes realising that his best opportunity was to head right to the opposite corner found himself back into the fray when the breeze swung hard right as the fleet came back on port to the top mark.

At the top mark it was Greg Coutts in More Grunt followed by Craig Padman in Ocean Graphics that lead the fleet around the clearance buoy as Irwin Sails and David Hayter and Alan Pollit in Passion Fingers had to tack to make the clearance mark.

Down the first run More Grunt led to the right until after the first gybe when the crew Brett Taylor jumped out to two wire to make height back to the mark only to find himself trailing behind the boat at high speed by the spinnaker sheet. Irwin Sails had gybed inside Coutts and soon found themselves in trouble as with a wind shift and pressure off the shore found that they too were overlaid on the leeward marks. As they went for the drop at the lead of the pack a gust and nose dive soon found them rolling into briny.

Passion Fingers led around the leeward mark from what was too be Mark Krstic and Rob Oshlack in second but after crashing into the mark as Oshlack to got washed off the boat and into the mark, the were required to do a 720 to exonerate themselves. Consequently second around was Geddes from a recovering Irwin - Game On.

The next work saw the leaders hold station until Hayter in Passion Fingers retired after pulling the trapeze wires out of the mast. The order at the rounding was Geddes from Irwin and Coutts. The first reach saw the boats two sail reaching high of the mark before setting kites to get down to the wing buoy and dropping kites not long after rounding.

The next windward mark saw Geddes still in front by half a boat length as he and Irwin rounded together, both set kites Irwin choosing to two wire and Geddes single wiring down the run. Geddes was first to gybe to port and covered the inside of the track. At the leeward mark Geddes was caught out twice as the wind angle shifted to leave them above the leeward marks each time the gybed. At the rounding it was Geddes overlapped on the outside of Irwin who had snagged a knot in the halyard on the drop and was slow around.

Up the last work Irwin split left leading Geddes to the left. The wind shifted left and Geddes traveling lower than Irwin was forced to tack off for the right side of the course. This wasn't enough to retain the lead as Irwin and Perry came back to the right inside and above Geddes, crossing well in front and leading across the finish with Geddes in second and Coutts in third. Mark Krstic and Rob Oshlack crossed the line in fourth.

The race for the overall championship now sees Geddes and Irwin on equal points after a drop and the winner to be decided in the afternoon's sixth and final heat.

Race 6. SW 10-13 knots

Grant Geddes and crew Dan Wilsdon regained the Australian national I14 championship after a crossing the finish line in third place four boats lengths in front of Lindsay Irwin and Andrew Perry in a tight fought battle of the deciding race.

With the start delayed by an hour while the race management waited for the nor'wester to die and the sea breeze to fill in from the southwest, the fleet set off in the final race in a 10-12 knot breeze. With a sea still rolling from the northwest after the morning race and the breeze swinging left the fleet favored the left side up the first work.

Jason Beebe and Chris Turner lead out of the left side with David Alexander and Tony Barrett in Jet, Irwin Sails, Jason King Marine and Mark Elsworth in Scapa Flow in the lead bunch. Geddes after getting rolled by boats out of the start went right and found pressure and a right shift to be back in the hunt at the first rounding. The order at the first windward mark was Beebe from Krstic, Geddes, Irwin and Alexander.

The first run saw the fleet gybe to favor the left side of the run. No real changes in order and at the bottom of the run the running order change with Alexander passing Irwin. The next work saw the fleet working both sides with once again the right paying as the bands of pressure came from that side. The breeze was still a soft two wires.

The order at the next windward mark saw Krstic move into first and lead down the reaches from Beebe, Geddes, Alexander and Irwin. The second reach was very tight with the leaders having to drop kites. Irwin made ground by carrying the kite to the bottom passing Alexander and gaining on the lead pack.

Geddes after rounding the right hand leeward mark tacked to the right and fell out of the boat, bending his tiller extension at right angles over the gunnel. Continuing on with a bent tiller they tracked inside there major opposition for the title rounding the mark in third place. Up the next work the pack closed from the right with Hayter gaining two places into fourth place.

Down the next run the order remained the same with Alan Vickery in WAM closing on the lead group. With the title lost at this point Irwin broke ranks with the pack and headed for the right lay line and greater pressure. Geddes tacked to come with them to the right cascading tacks saw the lead four protecting there positions with the exception of Hayter who chose to continue left. At the right layline the gap had closed but not enough to make the difference and Krstic lead across the line for his first win of the regatta from Beebe, then Geddes with Irwin four boat lengths back.

Geddes wins the Sail Melbourne International 14 South Pacific and Australian National Championships at Black Rock Yacht Club by one point over Lindsay Irwin in Irwin Sails after a tense and tight struggle throughout the week.

Third was Mark Krstic in Scorn of the Women, from Jason Beebe and Chris Turner in Donkey on the Edge in fourth, Mark Elsworth and Tim Moorhouse in Scapa Flow fifth and Greg Coutts and Brett Taylor in More Grunt in sixth.

Presentation night went off well with the infamous two gallon bucket of rum doing the rounds to ensure all were well lubricated and refreshed after a long day on the water.

Results

Pos	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Crew	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Tot
1	AUS345	Extreme Makeover	David McGeoch	Geoff Tomamichel	3	-12	9	1	1	1	15
2	AUS620	Ocean Graphics	Craig Padman	Tim Berg	7	2	-19	7.5	17	7	41
3	AUS52	Target	Ray Hancock	Matt Balmer	10	8	-26	17	8	8	51
4	AUS353	Queereye for the St.	Stephen Edmunds	Michael Woodroffe	6	6	-16	14	13	13	52
5	AUS553	Cool as Cucumber	Alex Newman	Matt Turner	12	1	22	-25	2	16	53
6	AUS626	Snatch	Grant Geddes	Dan Wilsdon	(33.00O)	5	8	11	5	24	53
7	AUS623	Scorn of the Woman	Mark Krstic	Rob Oshlack	20	9	-24	12	7	5.5	54
8	AUS342	Longbow	Sean Stevens	Brian Long	2	16	3	9	26.00S	(35.00C)	56
9	AUS628	Donkey on the Edge	Jason Beebe	Chris Turner	19	4	-27	21.5	12	4	61
10	AUS577	Scapa Flow	Mark Elsworth	Tim Moorhouse	13	10.5	5	-28	11	21	61
11	AUS616	Irwin Sails	Lindsay Irwin	Andrew Perry	21	14	13.5	10	4	-22	63
12	AUS612	More Grunt	Greg Coutts	Brett Taylor	-28	15	17	7.5	6	18	64
13	AUS622	Jason King Marine	James McDonald	Jason King	24	30	(33.00O)	3	3	11	71
14	AUS624	Jet	David Alexander	Tony Barrett	25	17	4	6	(35.00C)	20	72
15	AUS343	Scream	Brent Frankcombe	Wayne Frankcombe	5	(35.00C)	1	4	35.00C	29.00F	74
16	AUS608	b. Snappy.Com	Warren Sare	Rob Murdoch	26	7	(33.00O)	19	10	12	74
17	AUS602	The Pest	Roger Blasse	Andrew Gilligan	22	-29	28	2	9	15	76
18	AUS610	Carbon Concepts	Robert Vickery	Chris Vaughan	14	13	15	(33.00F)	15	19	76
19	AUS621	Slime	Andrew Low	James Marshall	-30	19	13.5	21.5	18	5.5	78
20	AUS364	Great Leap Forward	Richard Ekberg	Don Hart	11	3	23	15	26.00F	(35.00C)	78
21	AUS617	October Sky	Alan Vickery	Andrew Wilson	23	10.5	-25	23	14	10	81
22	AUS609	Argo	Stewart Vickery	Tim Whittal	16	23	18	-27	16	9	82
23	AUS400	Paddy Wagon	Matt Low	Derek Layfield	4	20	20	16	(26.00S)	23	83
24	AUS619	Rescue Me	Craig Macaulay	Keith Lockey	8	-28	6	18	26.00F	26	84
25	AUS605	Jungle Fire	Anthony Anderson	David Hughes	18	-26	10	13	26.00F	17	84
26	AUS357	Floreat Pica	Phil Harris	Justin Walford	17	22	11	-26	26.00S	14	90
27	AUS347	Lovebone	Stuart Sloss	Dave Mooney	29	18	7	5	(35.00C)	35.00C	94
28	AUS309	Magic	Philip Strong	Jeffre Klemm	1	27	33.00F	(35.00C)	35.00C	3	99
29	AUS630	Sliver	Brec Mitton	Russell Keal	27	24	12	20	(35.00C)	25	108
30	AUS615	Kids Overboard	John Taylor	Martyn Tribe	31	25	2	29	26.00S	(35.00C)	113
31	AUS10	Carbon Comet	Luke Devine	Darryl Everett	15	32.00F	21	24	(35.00C)	35.00C	127
32	AUS601	W.O.W.	Graeme Everett	Gary Sloss	9	21	33.00F	30	(35.00C)	35.00C	128
33	AUS625	Passion Fingers	David Hayter	Alan Pollitt	(35.00C)	35.00C	35.00C	35.00C	35.00C	2	142
34	AUS629	Living Fabrics	Rick De Jong	Darren Upton	(35.00C)	35.00C	35.00C	33.00F	35.00C	29.00F	167