Consistency pays for Richardson

Defending Farr 40 World Champions slide into first after day two of the Hamilton Island Farr 40 Aussie Championship

Day two in the Hamilton Island Farr 40 Australian Championship had the fleet start the day in a steady northeast breeze which dropped out during race five. Top breeze of the day was 15 knots and the swell that caused a number of wipe-outs in the fleet yesterday dropped off. The 23 boats racing in the fleet enjoyed a great first race after eventually getting away having had two general recalls.

Overnight leader Richard Perini finished race four in the series in fourth after pulling back seven boats. Current World Champion Jim Richardson, who led the fleet round the track, took the gun ahead of Steve and Fred Howe’s Warpath. Hasso Plattner’s Morning Glory and David Urry’s War Games had to make penalty turns at the top mark during the first race.

Race two had the breeze drop out and the race committee had to shorten the course to accommodate the shift. Warpath had led the fleet around the track until they miscalculated a manoeuvre which allowed New Zealand’s Venom skippered by Brett Neill to get past them and win the race from Barking Mad.

Barking Mad’s first and third places today has moved them into first place overall with the Italian team of Nerone, being skippered by Mark Heeley for this regatta, maintaining their second place. Perini’s Evolution slipped back to third after a fourth and twelfth places today. "We managed to pull Warpath back and the second has helped our cause," commented Richardson.

After waiting to see what the conditions would provide the race committee decided to abandon racing for the day and sent the fleet home. The committee had been advised of a severe weather warning and the breeze had become unpredictable.

Results:

Pos	Yacht	Sail	Owner	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Tot
1	Barking Mad	USA 50995	Jim Richardson	12	5	2	1	2	30
2	Nerone	ITA 1972	Mezzaroma/sodo Migliori	1	3	9	3	7	40
3	Evolution	AUS 6422	Richard Perini	6	1	1	4	12	43
4	TWT	ITA13711	Marco Rodolfi	4	6	3	6	11	51
5	War Path	USA69	Steve and Fred Howe	9	2	11	2	16	52
6	Ichi Ban	6038	Matt Allen	5	7	10	8	13	55
7	Team Shockwave	5077	Neville Crichton	8	12	20	5	6	55
8	Sputnik	6040	Ivan Wheen	17	8	6	16	5	58
9	Emotional Hooligan	615	Marcus Blackmore	13	4	7	10	21	58
9	Morning Glory	GR40101	Hasso Plattner	15	13	12	11	4	59
11	Pegasus	81818	Philippe Kahn	11	14	8	7	18	62
11	Mascalzone Latino	ITA 1	Vincenzo Onorato	7	20	13	15	3	71
13	Southern Star	AUS 1770	John Calvert-Jones	3	10	4	22	20	75
14	Kokomo	8883	Lang Walker	2	9	5	23	23	77
15	Venom	USA 40063	Brett Neill/Peter Taylor	21	18	19	12	1	77
16	Panther	AUS 8001	Steve O'Rourke	22	11	16	19	7	79
17	Fiamma	GBR 25R	Alessandro Barnaba	23	16	14	9	15	87
17	War Games	YC 222	David Urry	10	22	15	21	9	87
19	Belle Property	AUS 470	Chris Meehan	18	15	18	14	14	88
20	Bobby’s Girl	NZL 40010	John Melville	14	17	24	13	19	107
20	Brighton Star	B2000	David Gotze	16	19	17	18	17	0
22	Solution	USA 4040	John Thomson	19	21	21	17	10	0
23	Short Shipped	40021	Matthew Short	20	23	22	20	22	0