Admiral's Cup champion wins 'Boss Hog' trophy

Ian Grant reports from Hog’s Breath Race Week

Popular Sydney Ocean racing skipper Colin O’Neil added another major trophy to his impressive career when he steered Aftershock to a runway win in the 2004 Hog’s Breath Race Week IRC class championship on a windy Whitsunday Passage today.

Aftershock now rated as a ‘pocket rocket’ following a keel upgrade produced a turbocharged performance in a mixed range of winds to win the 8 race series by the widest margin in the 15 year history of international yacht racing series.

Colin O’Neil winner of the 2002 Hog’s Breath Race Week championship and the 2003 Admiral's Cup clearly showed that Aftershock now has the all angle sailing speed to out sail her 1.332 IRC handicap rating.

The Aftershock crew sailed like the champion team they are by winning the line honours title with a perfect score while also producing the required corrected handicap course times to win the championship with a race to spare.

But they elected to contest the 30 n/ml passage race winning that too by another comfortable margin as they enjoyed an exhilarating spinnaker ride surfing the waves in the 20-25 knot southeast breeze to win line honours by 25 seconds from Seriously Ten (John Woodruff) with Matt Allen’s Ich Ban third.

Results of this nature are only achieved with positive tactical racing strategy and while skipper O’Neil is admired for his personal sailing skill this result was made possible by the sustained skill of navigator Adrienne Cahalan, principal helmsman Stephen McConaghy, mainsheet trimmer Richie Allanson and several other equally talented sailors who are proud to race in the official Aftershock team shirt.

They had a good chance to kick up their heels and celebrate in Airlie Beach last night but it was business as usual with Aftershock again leaving the fleet to follow her white water wake to decide the minor corrected time places in the prestigious championship series.

Results: 2004 Hog’s Breath Race Week IRC C’ship Mt Gay Trophy:

Final Points:
1. Aftershock (Colin O’Neil, NSW) 10pts
2. Ichi Ban (Matt Allen, NSW) 20pts
3. Game Set (Tony Kirby, NSW) 21pts
4. Rouseabout 3 (John Rouse, Vic) 23pts
5. Enigma (Stewart Lewis, Qld) 36pts
6. Amity (Ian Griffiths, Qld) 40