Fleet reversal again

James Boyd reports from the 18ft skiff's JJ Giltinan Trophy

Every day is a different day here on Sydney Harbour for the 18ft skiff's JJ Giltinan Trophy. Today the breeze was forecast to be from the northwest, but was largely from the northeast (the boats raced on the northeast course as they did on Saturday and Sunday) but on this occasion blew from 2-14 knots. This was odd as locals here say that the northeast course is the one where the breeze is usually the most stable.

Once again RMW Marine got off to the best start in 8-12 knot NNEerly and were leading quite comfortably at the weather mark. They continued to lead at Shark Island on the dogleg back to the leeward mark but off Shark Island they fell into a hole.

"Everyone got completely becalmed," recounted RMW's Rob Greenhalgh. "So we had the kites off and sat there in no wind. Everyone came into the big hole so the whole fleet squashed in."

Finally Anthony 'Jack' Young on Computer Associates who was one of the deepest at the time and closest to the shore got the breeze first, got his kite up and pulled into the lead. Young led for the next beat and at the second mark rounding before RMW Marine once again overhauled him on the second run (this time directly to the leeward mark, not rounding Shark Island). By this stage the wind had stabilised back into the northeast.

RMW Marine led up the third beat and down the run and looked set to repeat their victory of the first two days until they once again fell into a light patch off Shark Island.

"Coming round Shark the wind was doing funny things, so we had to take our spinnaker off and the tack line got twisted around the leeward wing wire in a big knot - it’ll never happen again, it was just one of those random thing," said Greenhalgh. As a result they were only able to half drop the kite. Brother Peter was dispatched over the side to unravelled the tack line from the wire between the wing and the end of the pole, but was unable to do so because it had looped itself round so tightly. "So we just hoisted it again and flew it 1720-style for the last leg down," continued Greenhalgh. As a result they were passed by several boats and were only able to put in a fifth place - their worst result of the series so far.

Generally it was not a good day for the 'form' boats with yesterday's winner Trevor Barnabas on Omega Smeg putted in a 12th, Hugh Stodart's normally consistent ASKO Appliances finishing 14th and John Winning on Yandoo a very disappointing 16th.

However today saw a return to form of Howie Hamlin's West Marine team who finished second, despite a shakey start.

"We decided to change the jib luff tension with about 6-8 minutes to go and had trouble getting it back on and had to flip the boat over and we ended up doing that in the starting sequence," said Hamlin. "By the time we got that done and righted we were at the weather end of the line starting - and somehow we managed to squeak a start out. But it didn’t work because the left side paid going into Bradley’s [the large point on the north side of the course]".

However being behind paid off handsomely on the first downwind leg. "We could see the top few boats going around Shark really getting into some light stuff and we gybed out again and we were basically the lowest boat coming into Shark," continued West Marine's Mike Martin. "So we gybed back to the outside, came back in really close to Shark and we were able to carry a puff all the way to the totem pole, which put us right with Jack [Computer Associates]."

This one move put them back into the top six and behind them there was a considerable gap as the remainder of the fleet struggled to get out of the hole. They slowly picked off boats by playing the puffs better and on the final run were into third and were able to overtake RMW when they experienced their tack line wrap. "It was a lot nicer than some of our finishes," said Martin.

Tomorrow looks set to be another big day on the water with a 25 knot southerly forecast which may see the boats sailing the big figure of 8 course around the harbour.

Results:

1	Computer Associates	Anthony Young	04:32:19
2	West Marine	Howie Hamblin	04:33:40
3	Avaya	Peter Morrison	04:35:05
4	Casio Seapathfinder	Michael Coxon	04:35:25
5	RMW Marine	Rob Greenhalgh	04:35:30
6	Fisher & Paykel	Grant Rollerson	04:35:50
7	Maytag	Tony Hannan	04:35:51
8	Nuplex	Phil Airey	04:36:00
9	Aristocrat	Patrick Whitmarsh	04:36:23
10	Sunrise	Clynton Wade-Lehman	04:36:45
11	Rag & Famish Hotel	John Harris	04:37:55
12	Omega Smeg	Trevor Barnabas	04:38:30
13	CST Composites	Chris Dixon	04:39:54
14	ASKO Appliances	Hugh Stodart	04:40:06
15	Churchills Sports Bar	Ben Austin	04:40:39
16	Yandoo	John Winning	04:40:58
17	Club Marine	Warwick Rooklyn	04:41:44
18	Panasonic	Jarrod Simpson	04:41:53
19	Aust 18 footers league	Chris Pomfret	04:41:54
20	Rosemount	Micah Lane	04:42:25
21	General Electric	Mike Keser	04:46:17
22	Canada	Fred Eaton	04:56:46

Overall results:

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Nat	D1	D2	D3	D4	Tot
1	RMW Marine	Rob Greenhalgh	GBR	1	1	2	5	9
2	ASKO Appliances	Hugh Stodart	Aus	3	2	3	14	22
3	Computer Associates	Anthony Young	Aus	6	3	13	1	23
4	Maytag	Tony Hannan	Aus	7	4	5	7	23
5	Casio Seapathfinder	Michael Coxon	Aus	8	6	11	4	29
6	Rag & Famish Hotel	John Harris	Aus	4	11	4	11	30
7	Yandoo	John Winning	Aus	2	5	7	16	30
8	West Marine	Howie Hamblin	USA	11	12	6	2	31
9	Fisher & Paykel	Grant Rollerson	Aus	5	15	14	6	40
10	Omega Smeg	Trevor Barnabas	Aus	10	DNF	1	12	46
11	Sunrise	Clynton Wade-Lehman	Aus	18	10	9	10	47
12	Nuplex	Phil Airey	NZ	12	8	21	8	49
13	Avaya	Peter Morrison	Aus	19	13	16	3	51
14	Churchills Sports Bar	Ben Austin	Aus	13	DNF	DNS	15	51
15	Club Marine	Warwick Rooklyn	Aus	14	9	12	17	52
16	Aristocrat	Patrick Whitmarsh	USA	17	7	20	9	53
17	CST Composites	Chris Dixon	Aus	15	DNF	8	13	59
18	Rosemount	Micah Lane	Aus	16	16	10	20	62
19	Panasonic	Jarrod Simpson	GBR	9	DNF	18	18	68
20	Team Canada	Fred Eaton	Can	22	14	15	22	73
21	Aust 18 footers league	Chris Pomfret	Aus	20	DNF	17	19	79
22	General Electric	Mike Keser	Germ	21	DNF	19	21	84