Australian 18 Footers League
Club Championship, Race 14. |
| By Frank Quealey, the Australian 18 Footers League. |
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Photos by the Australian
18 Footers League
edited By Peter Andrews. |
| Sunday, March 27, 2011. |
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Scott Babbage, John Harris and Peter Harris won Race 14 of the Australian 18 Footers League Club Championship today on Gotta Love It 7, but the overall season champions are John Winning, Andrew Hay and Dave Gibson with Yandoo.
Going into today’s final race of the championship, the Yandoo team had an unbeatable lead and their third place in today’s race saw them take the title by 18 points from Gotta Love It 7. |
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Smiles all around for the winning crew, during Race 14 of
the Australian 18 Footers League Club Championship on Sydney
Harbour.
Photo © Australian 18 Footers League.
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Gotta Love It 7, skippered today by the regular sheet hand Scott Babbage, took line honours by 2 minutes and 44 seconds from Jonathan Whitty’s Panasonic, with Yandoo a further 43 seconds back in third place.
Final placings overall for the season were Yandoo with 47 points, Gotta Love It 7 with 65, Matt Searle’s Red Claw Wines (today skippered by Archie Massey) with 76, Michael Coxon’s Thurlow Fisher Lawyers with 79, Nick Press’ Smeg with 94 and Jack Macartney’s Rag & Famish Hotel with 119 points. |
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The first spinnaker run, during Race 14 of the Australian 18 Footers League
Club Championship on Sydney Harbour.
Photo © Australian 18 Footers League.
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It was big rigs all around today as a light southerly wind greeted the fleet. Smeg held a 7 second lead at the windward mark off Clarke Island from Yandoo, Red Claw Wines, Simon Nearn’s De’Longhi, Thurlow Fisher Lawyers, Mark Kennedy’s TF Collect, Gotta Love It 7, and Jeremy Wilmot’s Appliancesonline.com.au.
The two leaders gybed soon after rounding while the next group stayed on a port gybe and went to the right hand side of the course. The latter move proved the winning way as De’Longhi took the lead when the two groups crossed. |
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Mark rounding under spinnaker, during Race 14 of the Australian 18 Footers
League Club Championship on Sydney Harbour.
Photo © Australian 18 Footers League.
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The breeze was light and patchy as the fleet spread across the harbour on the spinnaker run to Oberlisk Bay, with those staying more to the south doing better each time they crossed.
The experience of the Gotta Love It 7 team (last season’s Rag & Famish Hotel team), saw them grab a one minute lead at Obelisk Bay from Evan Walker’s Kenwood-Rabbitohs and Appliancesonline.com.au. From that point it was never a contest for the lead, even though Gotta Love It 7 had a ‘quick swim’ on the second spinnaker run from Shark Island back to the bottom mark. |
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Low flying traffic on harbour, during Race 14 of the Australian 18 Footers
League Club Championship on Sydney Harbour.
Photo © Australian 18 Footers League.
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While Gotta Love It 7’s lead was unchallenged, the battle behind was gripping as several teams were in contention throughout the rest of the course. Kenwood-Rabbitohs held onto second place for almost one lap of the course, but Yandoo moved ahead at Obelisk Bay on the second lap.
Working back into Rose Bay, Jonathan Whitty’s Panasonic made ground along the southern shore and narrowly crossed Yandoo off Nielsen Park. Despite a challenge by Yandoo over the concluding leg, Panasonic held on to take second place. |
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This season's Club Champion, Yandoo, during Race 14 of the Australian 18
Footers League Club Championship on Sydney Harbour.
Photo © Australian 18 Footers League.
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Today’s race was the final race of the season and we would like to thank all those who have given us so much support throughout the season. Our 2011-2012 Season will commence on Sunday 9 October.
More information, photographs and videos can be found at www.flying18s.com and www.18footers.com.au.
Replays of the live tracking of each race from the 2011 JJ Giltinan 18ft Skiff Championship will be available from: http://www.tractrac.com/index.php?page=eventpage&id=138.
Frank Quealey, Australian 18 Footers League www.flying18s.com. |
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| Outimage and the
Australian 18 Footers Leaguea © 2011 |
