To the wire

Babbalaas versus Team Tonic showdown in final race of IRM Nationals

David McLean's Babbalaas, winner of the 2002 IRM National Championship

With Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie behind the wheel, David McLean’s IC45 Babbalaas secured the Royal Ocean Racing Club IRM National Championship this afternoon, beating the Farr 52 Team Tonic to the title in the last race of the three-day series.

After five windward/leeward races over Saturday and Sunday, the Babbalaas team held a one-point lead over Nick Hewson’s Farr design going into today's final two races off Portsmouth. The first race, to the east of the Forts, evened up the score and left the outcome of the championship hinged on the afternoons result. "We had a good first race but we were second to Team Tonic, which brought us level on points although it was hard to know that with the handicap system," explained Ainslie, who is usually a ‘first past the post’ one-design sailor.

While Ainslie got away cleanly, things didn’t go according to plan onboard Tonic, skippered by Jeremy Robinson. "We messed up the start and had to fight ourselves clear. When we caught Bear [of Britain] up we had to race against them," said Robinson, reffering to the second Farr 52, Kit Hobday’s Bear of Britain.

Team Tonic finished eighth on corrected time, while Babbalaas was fourth. The race was won by Robbie Cameron-Davies’ Ker 11.3 I-Site, with another Olympian, Tornado ace Hugh Styles, calling the shots.

"It was nice to go into the last race with a chance to win it but it wasn’t to be our day," added Robinson. He did however have the satisfaction of beating Bear by seven points even though this is the first event he has lost this season as skipper.

Babbalaas’ scoreline of 2,2,2,8,2,4 shows that with the right team behind him, Ainslie can match the consistency he became famed for in the Laser dinghy. "I had a great three days. The crew work was excellent and Mike Richards did an excellent job calling the shots," he said, shying away from any credit for their performance. "We gelled well as a team and apart from the [OCS] start yesterday, we didn’t make many mistakes."

Bear of Britain, helmed by young match racer Mark Campbell-James was third overall while I-Site beat the gathering of Farr 40s, Ker 11.3s, a single Mumm 30 and the Mills 50 design Mandrake for fourth place in the fourteen boat fleet.

Overall results:

Boat	Class	Owner	Points	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8
Babbalaas	IC 45	David McLean	14	1	2	2	2	8	2	2	4
Team Tonic	Farr 52	Nick Hewson	18	2	3	1	9	4	1	1	8
Bear of Britain	Farr 52	Kit Hobday/Tim Louis	25	3	1	3	7	7	3	4	7
I-Site	Ker 11.3	Robbie Cameron-Davies	26	4	7	6	15	1	6	5	1
Assegai	Farr 40	Christianakis/Hunt	28.5	5	6	4	1	5	15	10.5	2
Too Steamy	Farr 40	Nick & Anne Haigh	29	6	4	10	6	2	5	6	6
Fair Do's V	Ker 11.3	John Shepherd	32	7	5	9	3	3	9	7	5
2XL	Farr 40	David Murrin	44.5	8	13	8	4	6	7	10.5	9
Kerisma	Ker 11.3	Chris Bull	49	9	12	13	10	9	12	3	3
Mandrake	Mills 50	Peter Morton	50	10	8	7	12	10	4	9	12
Bounder	IC45	Chris Little (Merry/Aisher)	58	11	9	5	13	11	8	12	13
El Gringo	Ker 11.3	Nicholas Hartshorn	59	12	10	11	5	13	10	13	10
Minnie the Moocher	Ker 11.3	Anthony Richards	64	13	11	12	11	12	11	8	11
Moonshine	Mumm 30	Jack Kelly	81	14	14	14	8	15	15	15	15

See page two for more of Andy Nicholson's pictures of the action....