Good start for Perini

Local favourite takes early lead in Hamilton Island Farr 40 Austrialian Championship

There was plenty of action on the race track on the first day of racing in the Hamilton Island Farr 40 Australian Championship. A steady Nor’ East breeze that topped 20 knots, had the 23 boat fleet looking like a surfing carnival as they surfed and wiped out in the swell off South Head.

Racing was extremely close during the three races with the 23 boats finishing within three minutes of each other in the first race. Keen to get going again there were two general recalls for race two with the fleet then starting under a black flag.

The Italian teams are making their presence felt with Nerone and TWT placed second and third behind Australia’s Richard Perini. TWT made an impressive recovery after blowing a spinnaker to finish well in the second race. Lang Walker’s Kokomo is in fourth place after three races.

Highest placed of the USA teams is Jim Richardson’s Barking Mad in sixth. "We really enjoyed the challenging conditions today, was definitely bumpy" remarked Richardson. Defending Australian Champion John Calvert Jones is in fifth right on the heels of Barking Mad.

Perini didn’t want to show his form too early in race one but it was a different story in race two and three where he manoeuvred to the lead early in these races and took the gun in both. "We had a good day in the office" commented Perini.

Vasco Vascotto, tactician on Nerone remarked: "The crew (Nerone) enjoy a great day with plenty of wind, sun and waves, a perfect day. The Australian Perini is very good but we are happy with our results today."

Warpath skippered by Steve Howe from San Diego has Paul Cayard calling tactics and finished an impressive second in race two. Warpath finished third overall in the 2004 San Francisco Rolex Farr 40 World Championship.

				R1	R2	R3	Total
1	Evolution	AUS 6422	Richard Perini	6	1	1	8
2	Nerone	ITA 1972	Mezzaroma/sodo Migliori	1	3	9	13
2	TWT	ITA13711	Marco Rodolfi	4	6	3	13
4	Kokomo	8883	Lang Walker	2	9	5	16
5	Southern Star	AUS 1770	John Calvert-Jones	3	10	4	17
6	Barking Mad	USA 50995	Jim Richardson	12	5	2	19
7	Ichi Ban	6038	Matt Allen	5	7	10	22
7	War Path	USA69	Steve and Fred Howe	9	2	11	22
9	Emotional Hooligan	615	Marcus Blackmore	13	4	7	24
10	Sputnik	6040	Ivan Wheen	17	8	6	31
11	Pegasus	81818	Philippe Kahn	11	14	8	33
12	Mascalzone Latino	ITA 1	Vincenzo Onorato	7	20	13	40
12	Team Shockwave	5077	Neville Crichton	8	12	20	40
12	Morning Glory	GR40101	Hasso Plattner	15	13	12	40
15	War Games	YC 222	David Urry	10	22	15	47
16	Panther	AUS 8001	Steve O'Rourke	22	11	16	49
17	Belle Property	AUS 470	Chris Meehan	18	15	18	51
18	Brighton Star	B2000	David Gotze	16	19	17	52
19	Fiamma	GBR 25R	Alessandro Barnaba	23	16	14	53
20	Bobby’s Girl	NZL 40010	John Melville	14	17	24	55
21	Venom	USA 40063	Brett Neill/Peter Taylor	21	18	19	58
22	Solution	USA 4040	John Thomson	19	21	21	61
23	Short Shipped	40021	Matthew Short	20	23	22	65