ADCO Etchells Australasian Winters day 3 - Can GT take the fast lane?

by ADCO Etchells Australasian Winters media on 10 Jun 2012 The final day of the ADCO Etchells Australasian Winter Championship starts earlier today with the first warning signal scheduled for 10am and the fleet likely to start leaving the dock from 8:30am.

Last night Graeme (GT) Taylor, second at the 2012 Etchells Worlds and the 2008 Etchells Australasian Winter Championship winner explained, slightly tongue in cheek, just how he plans to win his second Winter title (no one skipper has yet achieved this result at this event in it's 15 year history).

‘In this regatta so far, we won race one, ‘got lost’ in race 2 (our concentration really), won race 3 and had water issues in race 4.

‘In race 4 it was a problem we should not have had; two sailing gloves in the bilge from last winter jammed the bilge pump on the first beat yesterday. We sailed that beat with MJ (Ben Morrison-Jack) bailing and the first run with Mothie (Steve Jarvin) pulling the pump apart.

‘We obviously have speed and we managed to lift from fifteenth to eighth in the remainder of that race.

‘So going into the final day we are sitting in third place; we have to get past Chewy (Matthew Chew) and Thorny (Mark Thornburrow).

‘So the Sunday plan is simple - get two good starts, cross the fleet like we did in yesterday’s first race, keep the gloves out of the pump and win both races.

'Simple if we say it fast… then we can drop our tenth and watch a few guys get ahead of our competition.

'I’ve learnt this all at the ’Mothie School of Etchells Sailing’, GT said with a straight face, then a smile.

There could be a few obstacles, as GT knows only too well, in the way of his plan.

Number one is the breeze. With 20-25 knots expected and with up to 35 knots overnight just how fast the wind builds will be the issue and with rain squalls all around getting two races in on this final day might be a problem, even for top draw race officers like Ross and Kevin Wilson. If there are only five races there is no worst race drop.

The second problem is the competition. Yesterday Mark Thornburrow sailed 2,1, series leader Matthew Chew finished 4,2 and Peter McNeil, Mark Bulka and Colin Beashel are all looking at podium results plus there are another 20 skippers who could easily take the wins today.

An interesting day ahead .....

ADCO Australasian Winter Championship 2012
7th June to 10th June 2012
Top Ten Series Summary after four races.

1. 17 Matthew Chew, Ashley Deeks, Brian Donavan & Paul Wyatt Brisbane 4 1 4 2 11
2. 11 Mark Thornburrow, Simon Cooke, Sam Sakai & Bucky Smith Hong Kong 6 4 2 1 13
3. 33 Graeme Taylor, Steve Jarvin & Ben Morrison-Jack Mornington 1 10 1 8 20
4. 20 Peter McNeill, Simon Reffold & David Gleadhill Lake Macquarie 8 9 3 3 23
5. 27 Mark Bulka, James Arnold & Steve Young Melbourne 2 3 9 11 25
6. 10 Tom King, David Edwards, Ivan Wheen & Owen McMahon Sydney 3 8 5 9 25
7. 12 Colin Beashel, Richard Allanson & Garry Gudmunson Sydney 5 2 14 13 34
8. 06 Christopher Hampton, Matthew Johns & Sam Haines Melbourne 17 6 7 5 35
9. 24 Jeanne-Claude Strong, Tiana Wittey, Neville Wittey & Marcus Burke Sydney 7 7 6 24 44
10. 09 David Clark, John Collingwood & Andrew Smith Melbourne 14 17 11 4 46

Event website http://www.mooetchells.yachting.org.au/