Melbourne – Day Three…. !!!

Flying 15 Australian Championships 2012 Race day 3

Races 5&6

Well it looked like it was going to be another light day, but by the time the days race session started at 1200 it was a SW at 12kts and quickly built to a solid 16-18kts with seas like a washing machine. The first race was all over at the first mark when Peter Milne and Phil Dubbin sailing Lapse of Reality rounded clear and increased their lead at every mark to redeem themselves after yesterdays lapse in concentration. As the leaders looked around for Where The Bloody Hell Are You, the Rainey brothers were on shore to fix a spinnaker retriever problem. Adam Hawkins and Ben Jones showed us that training through the winter does make a difference to boat handling skills finishing second and ahead of the regatta leaders Smith and Kingston in Sake.

A gust over 20kts and a lapse in concentration further back in the fleet had some people holding their breath when Lean and Mean had a little lie down with the spinnaker up, Doug said he was checking the bottom of the boat, yet Greg admitted he had to pull his skipper on board twice in one day! The bigger breeze suited Chris Paterson and Rupert Leslie in Storyteller in 4^th place and brought new faces to the top 10 including Mark Daly and Chris Schwarz in 6^th and Andrew Coutts and James Maskiell sailing Surprise in 7^th.

It was Surprise who led the fleet for most of the second race but could not hold back Hawkins and Jones who recorded their second win for the regatta, closely followed by Matt Owen and Andrew Reed in The Wife’s Fault who move up to 4^th on the leader board. But it was the Silver Fleet who drew the most applause in the after race daily presentations, they have 5 different winners over the 6 races. The first race today was won by Rob Radnell sailing with 15 year old Sam Danks in Fast Forward, and the second race was won by Eelke Wouda and Bruce Wales in Think Big.

The weather forecast for the last 2 days of the regatta is for extreme heat and very little wind.

Overall placings:

1. Smith/Kingston            13 pts
2. Hawkins/Jones            15 pts
3. Rainey/Rainey            18 pts
4. Owen/Reed              20 pts
5. Thompson/Taylor         29 pts
6. Milne/Dubbin            33 pts

Full results at www.daveysbay.org.au

Report by Sue Thompson

(Great photo in the Y&Y Report – click here )