The 3rd Australian
Musto Skiff Championship 2013 - Day 5
Venue : Mounts
Bay Sailing Club - Perth (AUS) This is the venue for
the next World Championships
Report: various
Photos: Rick
Steuart
See
all the photos here >>>
DAY 5
With no racing possible on Day 4, 3 races were scheduled
for Day 5, with a steadily building sea breeze forecast
for the middle off the day.
RACE 8
The fleet left the beach in light conditions,
the wind swinging from gradient to sea breeze direction
and settling in at 8 knots as the fleet started.
The breeze swung right off the line, favouring
boats at the boat end, before bending back to the left
as the leaders approached the port tack lay line. Newman,
Hill, Green, Sutherland and Phillips led the fleet back
to the starboard approach and onto the first run. Newman
found pressure on the right hand side of the run to
lead to the bottom gate from Phillips and Hill.
The second beat followed the same pattern
as the first. Hill and Newman took s short hitch to
the right, tacked back to the left while Phillips headed
immediately to the left hand side. The wind shifted
left and strengthened, Phillips making up ground to
round in second behind Newman, Hill and Thor following.
Newman held his lead to the finish, while
behind him boats gybing early back to the centre of
the course passed Phillips leaving him 5th over the
line. Hill was 2nd, Thor 3rd and Sutherland 4th.
 RACE
9
The breeze freshened to 12 knots at the start of Race
9, shifting to the right again favouring boats at the
boat end. Hill and Newman crossed the fleet while Robertson
headed to the right hand side of the course. Hill and
Newman tacked to cross Robertson on a band of pressure,
approaching the starboard tack lay line as the wind
suddenly built to 25 knots.
Newman bore away in a cloud of spray at
the top mark and gybed while Hill held on on starboard
trying to settle his boat. Robertson followed with the
of the fleet close behind.
Hill swam briefly on the gybe. Newman
reached in to set his kite, ploughed along the the nose
in, stepped back to pull the bow out, reached in again,
nearly lost it once more and elected to ride the gust
out to the bottom mark without setting. The rest of
the fleet attempted hoists, gybes and drops to varying
degrees of success. Thor managed a gybe set and rode
Newman down to round close behind in the ride of the
regatta. Hill righted his boat, left his kite in the
bag and rounded 3rd, with Hamilton and Phillips close
behind.
The breeze stayed in at 20-25 knots. Newman's
tiller extension detached from his tiller in his tack
to the top mark and he swam, giving the lead to Thor.
Hill went right, Phillips went left, following Thor
to the top mark with Hill behind. Thor kept his kite
in the bag, Phillips set and swam on the gybe, Hill
kept his kite down also, made the gybe and finished
second, Phillips third, Hamilton fourth, Newman fifth.
RACE 10
Race 10 was epic. 20-25 knots with few lulls and a short
chop ricocheting off the headlands making gybing very
difficult. The fleet all headed left to the lay line
on the first beat, Newman rounding first from Hamilton.
Some boats set kites down the run, some didn't, some
swam on drops, others on gybes, others on tacks. Newman
held it together to lead to the finish, followed by
Phillips, Hill, Hamilton and Thor in fifth.
The final results saw just crowned Australian
49er Champion, Will Phillips pip his former crewmate,
Jon Newman by just one point. Tim Hill's consistent
sailing on the final day lifted him into 3rd overall,
one point in front of Marcus Hamilton with promising
newcomer Mark Whittington in fifth.
Many thanks to Thor, Chris and the
growing WA fleet for putting on a great event and Mounts
Bay Yacht Club for making it possible. Special thanks
goes to our Race Officer, Andy Curnow, who negotiated
the unusual weather conditions and managed to give us
a full series in fair racing conditions. The next nationals
will be in Victoria, at a venue to be decided later
in the year.
Full
results are here >>>
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