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North Sails Loft 57 Podcast

Tricky conditions on Day 2 of Australian Yachting Championship

by Jane Gordon on 24 Mar 2017
Team Beau Geste - 2017 Australian Yachting Championship - Day 2 Andrea Francolini
Yesterday’s breeze settled overnight leaving a confused sea state and five to eight knots for day two of the Australian Yachting Championship. Similar to yesterday, today’s racing consisted of a 19nm passage race to Coogee Beach and back.

Split again into the two divisions racing kicked off at 1100 for Division A boats with Division B following suit. With shifty conditions Principal Race Officer, Dennis Thompson, had a tough job to complete today. Dennis said,

“Today was a challenge; wind speed was down and there were rain cells coming through over the day pulling the wind all over the place. We had 100 degree shifts that we tried to keep up with by doing a couple of course changes, but it’s not all possible with the long passage race courses.”

After rounding a seaward mark less than a mile outside the Heads, boats proceeded to the top mark at Coogee Beach. After rounding this mark the boats set course to a bottom mark just in front of North Head followed by the seaward mark again before heading to the finish line at the same location as the start. Having the course set this way creates a level playing field for competitors. Dennis explained,

“Today we added a couple marks with longer legs that allowed for different points of sail for all the yachts which is good for IRC and ORCi, so not one particular boat will win.”

‘Team Beau Geste’ continued their impressive sailing in the tricky conditions with proactive race decisions and relentless trimming that made them gains on the upwind and finishing them nine minutes ahead of the fleet in IRC on corrected time. ‘Alive’ also continued their solid sailing and secured a win in ORCi to ‘Team Beau Geste’. They now lead ORCi overall, a great place to be before going into two days of Windward/Leeward racing. Skipper of ‘Alive’, Duncan Hine, commented on their racing today,



“We focused on trying to find our groove and I only see us getting better over the next couple of days. The breeze was flipping around a lot today and with the size of the boat, we needed to make decisions and stick with them; we were tossing up which shoot to use on the run and chose to use the ‘Masthead 0’ and thankfully it was the right call. We’re looking forward to the racing over the next couple days and hope we can keep our lead.”

Division B boats had to work hard through the choppy conditions today. ‘Philosopher’ sailed consistently well today and had a stronger day than yesterday, earning them a second place to ‘Bushranger’ in IRC and ORCi and also placing them second overall for both. Despite their skepticism in how they’d go in lighter air with their heavier hull, ‘Bushranger’ sailed a consistently well race taking their second bullet for the regatta and giving them a decent lead to their close rivals in IRC and ORCi.

‘Nautical Circle’ continued their convincing sailing today in PHS but were overtaken, in corrected time, by their smaller sister in the Archambault family, ‘Precision’, who took the win in the end. This boosted ‘Precision’s’ overall seating to second to ‘Nautical Circle.’

Day three of the 2017 Australian Yachting Championships continues tomorrow Saturday 25 March at 1100. For more information on the regatta visit website.

Quick links:

- Results – Click here.
- Website – Click here.
- Facebook – Click here.

2017 Australian Yachting Championships - Results

Series Results [IRC] for DivA up to Race 2
Place Ties Sail No Boat Name Skipper Sers Score Race 2 Race 1
1   IVB1997 TEAM BEAU GESTE Karl Kwok 2.0 1.0 1.0
2   52566 ALIVE Duncan Hine 5.0 2.0 3.0
3   18889 NINE DRAGONS Bob Cox 7.0 3.0 4.0
4 2.0S 6952 CELESTIAL Sam Haynes 9.0 7.0 2.0
5   421 THE GOAT Sebastian Bohm 9.0 4.0 5.0
6   8338 SHOWTIME Campbell Letchford 11.0 5.0 6.0
7   A5 YEAH BABY Lindsay Stead 13.0 6.0 7.0

Series Results [IRC] for DivB up to Race 2
Place Ties Sail No Boat Name Skipper Sers Score Race 2 Race 1
1   12450 BUSHRANGER Gerry Hatton 2.0 1.0 1.0
2   MH20 PHILOSOPHERS Peter Sorensen 5.0 2.0 3.0
3   7722 JUSTADASH Philip Dash 6.0 4.0 2.0
4 3.0S 6081 NEXT Phil Tomkins 9.0 3.0 6.0
5   5915 STORMAWAY Stening Gunn 9.0 5.0 4.0
6   AUS6133 FOREIGN AFFAIR Matt Wilkinson 11.0 6.0 5.0
7   6807 PRECISION John Anet 14.0 7.0 7.0

Series Results [PHSTCF] for DivB up to Race 2
Place Ties Sail No Boat Name Skipper Sers Score Race 2 Race 1
1   A169 NAUTICAL CIRCLE Robin Shaw 3.0 2.0 1.0
2   6807 PRECISION John Anet 4.0 1.0 3.0
3   AUS6133 FOREIGN AFFAIR Matt Wilkinson 5.0 3.0 2.0
4   SB445 LUNACY Chris McSorley 9.0 4.0 5.0R

Series Results [ORCi] for DivA up to Race 2
Place Ties Sail No Boat Name Skipper Sers Score Race 2 Race 1
1 2R 52566 ALIVE Duncan Hine 3.0 1.0 2.0
2   IVB1997 TEAM BEAU GESTE Karl Kwok 3.0 2.0 1.0
3   421 THE GOAT Sebastian Bohm 7.0 3.0 4.0
4   6952 CELESTIAL Sam Haynes 8.0 5.0 3.0
5   8338 SHOWTIME Campbell Letchford 9.0 4.0 5.0

Series Results [ORCi] for DivB up to Race 2
Place Ties Sail No Boat Name Skipper Sers Score Race 2 Race 1
1   12450 BUSHRANGER Gerry Hatton 2.0 1.0 1.0
2 2R MH20 PHILOSOPHERS Peter Sorensen 5.0 2.0 3.0
3   7722 JUSTADASH Philip Dash 5.0 3.0 2.0
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