Roulette into first

Racing continues at the Audi Australian Etchells Nationals

Mark Johnson (NSW) and his crew Nick Burfoot and David Edwards won heat two of the Audi Etchells Nationals on Roulette to take the lead of the series sailed from Royal Brighton Yacht Club today.

Johnson, from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron Etchells fleet, finished fifth in the opening heat of the Sail Melbourne series yesterday and an eleventh place in heat three this afternoon was enough to give him the series lead.

“It was a bit light and lumpy this morning – no big corners and just small shifts. Our win was a clean and comfortable one (one second short of a minute). We were fourth at the top mark and just kept chipping away,” Johnson explained.

Their win came after a general recall and out came the Black Flag. “We were all well back for that. We started at the boat end and got away well. We did the same in the second race, in a lot more breeze – it was around 18 knots on steep sharp seas and finished eleventh. But I am thrilled with the way we are sailing,” Johnson said of the crew that came together just prior to the championship.

The Sydney sailor praised both Burfoot, a former Laser world champion and Edwards, who crewed for Nev Wittey at the Sydney 2000 Games.

Johnson said he bought the boat from the Late Jim Annand, a fellow RSYS member last year, explaining: “Jim was happy when we bought the boat, he was glad it went to sailors who would make the best of it. We started sailing and won the Spring Series this year.”

Since then, Johnson has spent time rebuilding the boat to make it capable of beating the fleet his says is “choca block with top sailors”

Mark Bulka with crew Stewart Nichols and Steven Young on Balanced A-Tac from Melbourne had a much tighter win in heat three from two of the pros; John Bertrand, Ian Johnson and Tim Ede (Triad) and Cameron Miles, Phil Smidmore and Dave Sampson (Free Advice) – the winning margin just 44 seconds, with Miles another 11 seconds behind.

“It was reasonably breezy – and we’re going well in the breeze. We’ve got Quantum sails and they seem to be doing well at this regatta,” Bulka said.

Bulka’s crew won the recent Victorian Etchells title and he won the 2004 Nationals – no easy feat in a class that features the best sailors on offer. He said conditions do not normally bother him, but they are having trouble in the light airs here. “We are working on that right now,” he said.

While Bertrand led the fleet to the top mark in heat three, Bulka and Miles were right there with him. “JB round first, then us, with Cameron right behind, going down the run we were side by side. We had a pretty good run, we worked the rig pretty hard and rounded the bottom mark first and opened our lead up from there,” Bulka said.

However, it wasn’t quite over, as Bertrand caught the Balanced A-Tac crew down the last run. Bulka went on to say it was a long, long beat to the finish, but we got there.”

Currently, Roulette leads with 17 points from Steam Packet VI (Rob Brown NSW) following his 2-13-6 results and Odyssey (Julian Plante, NSW) with 4-14-7 results.

Racing continues at the seven-race Audi Etchells Nationals tomorrow, with one race starting from 14.00hours.

Results:

Pos	Sail Number	Helm	R1	R2	R3	Tot
1	AUS1124	Mark Johnson	5	1	11	17
2	AUS1326	Robert Brown	2	13	6	21
3	AUS1321	John Bertrand	13	7	2	22
4	AUS1254	Julian Plant	4	14	7	25
5	AUS924	S. Cunnington/D. King	17	3	10	30
5	AUS1320	Rob Bird	10	5	15	30
7	AUS1244	Jake Gunther	9	18	5	32
7	AUS1143	Chris Pratt	8	16	8	32
9	AUS1011	Chris Jackson	1	30	4	35
10	AUS1277	Mark Bulka	16	20	1	37
11	AUS1273	Michael Coxon	7	10	21	38
12	AUS1317	Mark Bradford	23	8	12	43
13	AUS1121	Jason Farnell	22	2	24	48
13	AUS1131	David Clark	6	4	38	48
15	AUS867	David Rose	26	9	18	53
16	GBR1340	Nils Razmilovic	20	21	13	54
17	AUS1312	Robert Davis	15	24	17	56
18	AUS1079	Craig Cobbin	12	23	23	58
19	AUS1192	Mathew Chew	34	15	14	63
20	AUS415	Noel Paterson	24	22	20	66
21	AUS925	Rod Jones	43	11	16	70
22	AUS1290	Rob Weir	19	47	9	75
23	AUS1134	Matt Whitnall	33	19	26	78
24	AUS1025	Greg Mellody	11	39	29	79
25	AUS1335	Cameron Miles	61	17	3	81
26	AUS1136	David Royal	33	25	25	83
27	NZ1295	Barry Thom	28	29	27	84
28	AUS1213	Mark Griffith	3	31	51	85
29	AUS865	Bruce McBriar	61	6	19	86
30	AUS1319	Stephen O'Rourke	27	36	28	91
31	AUS1250	Jervis Tilly	31	33	30	94
31	AUS1293	Ian Crisp	25	34	35	94
33	AUS1274	Ross Lloyd	18	48	31	97
34	AUS1311	Paul Henshall	14	42	42	98
35	AUS949	Garrath James	39	26	37	102
36	AUS831	Mathew Mitchell	29	45	36	110
37	NZ1314	Lindsay Kennedy	30	35	49	114
38	AUS1030	Peter Ahern	38	55	22	115
39	AUS1026	Barry Fairley	32	52	32	116
40	AUS1048	David Atkinson	45	32	40	117
40	AUS1288	Steve Gunther	44	12	61	117
42	AUS826	David Healey	40	41	43	124
43	AUS1189	Clark Swan	49	27	50	126
44	AUS1334	David Morrell	42	44	44	130
44	AUS1257	David Lawrence	35	54	41	130
46	AUS913	Steve Moore	36	40	55	131
47	AUS1144	David Bull	41	37	54	132
48	AUS994	Brendan Garner	61	28	46	135
48	AUS1082	Mary Hanna	37	50	48	135
50	AUS872	Nick Knezic	61	43	33	137