Man overboard!

Some energetic sailing led to a couple of mishaps at the Australian Match Racing Championship

Young Royal Perth Yacht Club sailor Torvar Mirsky threw out a strong challenge to his Sydney rivals, headed by Michael Dunstan from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron, on the opening day of the Wotif.com 2006 Australian Match Racing Championship on Sydney Harbour.

Mirsky, 20, notched up six impressive wins in seven flights, as did Dunstan, 24, the defending Australian champion.

Both teams showed aggressive tactics and excellent boat handling techniques in a day of intense rivalry and hard sailing in Elliott 6 sports boats.

However, two other skippers had five wins each – Evan Walker and Robert Gibbs, from the Cruising Yacht Club, while two others are on four each – Stuart Pollard from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and the sole woman skipper, Katie Spithill from the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club.

Give-no-quarter match racing tactics and energetic crewing highlighted today’s racing, sailed in a true north-easterly sea breeze after Principal Race Officer Doug Talty had delayed the start.

In a couple of instances the energy of the crew went too far, with mainsheet hand Ted Hackney falling overboard from the CYCA boat skippered by Evan Walker and James Ward, the bowman for Michah Shuwalow from Melbourne’s Sandringham Yacht Club, doing spectacular backward flips. Both were quickly recovered by fellow crewmembers.

Hackney’s MOB, as his boat rounded the leeward mark, proved costly as helmsman Walker had recovered well against Michael Dunstan after a penalty and was within a boat length at the mark.

The match, between Dunstan, the defending Australian Match Racing Champion and Walker, the 2006 Australian Youth Sailor of the Year, was a highlight of the opening round-robin.

Mirsky is one of Australia’s up-and-coming young match racing helmsmen and tacticians and is already the top Australian-based sailor in the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) world match racing rankings, competing in this National event.

This year he has won the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Youth Match Racing Series, finished third in the Knickerbocker Cup in the USA and third in the Rhur Euro Cup in Germany.

His performance today was all the more impressive as he and his crew of Nick Davis and Graeme Spence had to fly overnight from Perth to Sydney as they were unable to gain early flights because of heavy airline bookings for the West Coast Eagles – Sydney AFL Grand Final.

Dunstan, a three-times Hardy Cup winner and his crew of Ben Lamb and Sam Newton showed their experience and aggressive tactics in their six wins which included beating leading opponents Torvar Mirsky, Evan Walker and Katie Spithill.

Ten teams representing yacht clubs in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia are contesting the championship, a fleet described as ‘the best of best’ in Australian match racing.

The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia is conducting the Championship on Sydney Harbour in the CYCA Youth Academy’s fleet of Elliott 6 ten sports boats equipped with new spinnakers and jibs.

On-line hotel booking company Wotif.com’s CEO Graeme Wood has joined with the CYCA to ensure that this premier match racing event is an outstanding success.

Each team has been allocated a specific boat for the series and their own spinnaker colour to enable spectators and competitors to easily identify each team. However, racing had to be abandoned late this afternoon as too many spinnakers had been ripped in a day of hard sailing in the freshening nor’easter.

The final photo in this series is on the next page.