The Jury rules on the Gunfight at OK Corral

by Rob Kothe on 7 Aug 2004 Yesterday morning an impressive 85 boat international fleet sailed onto the Etchells Worlds course off Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The leaders knew that the days racing would be critical in the success of their 2004 campaign.

The series leader Peter McNeill from Lake Macquarie was two points ahead of former World Champion Cameron Miles from Pittwater who had successfully fought the previous night to have an OCS decision overturned.

It was a light and shifty day, after the start of Race seven, the fleet leaders were about half way down the first spinnaker leg on Course 1 with Pittwater’s Rob Brown just ahead of Mr. America’s Cup Denis Conner. With them was Michael Coxon.

Then came a 45-degree shift and Principal Race officer Arthur Hodges abandoned the race. Not popular as you can imagine with those three crews and others doing well. Very pleasing for John Bertrand could retain his 11th on the overall pointscore who discovered he’d been adjudged OCS.

Now the new course was Course 2. However the shifts continued, causing further delays. Then there was another general recall. In the depths of the Australian winter the sun set at 17:22. Etchells Championship rules require a Course 2 start at least four hours before sunset, certainly no later than 13:22.

The start gun fired just on 13:25, according to the denizens on the Media Boat.

At the finish its was Brisbane sail maker Mark Bradford leading John Savage with Julian Plante taking third place, to move into fourth overall, with Dennis Conner sailing his Menace into fourth place. This result placed Conner third overall.

The two leaders had been buried in the fleet and sailed their drops. The sailors were soon ashore looking at the implications of the results.

But then the rumblings started, there was a lot at stake and the official protest forms started rolling in.

International Jury Chairman Ronnie McCracken from Hong Kong confirmed at 20:05 last night that the Request for Redress to the International Jury was denied. The jury adjudged that the decision to abandon the first attempt at running race seven was in accordance with Rule 30.3.

However Race Seven had been declared invalid under Etchells Championship rules because of the out of time start. He was unable to provide further details as other protest hearings were scheduled.

At 9am this Saturday morning, there is a Comptitors meeting to discuss the events of the last 24 hours.

So there might be more turmoil yet.

However lets hope these Championships are determined on the water today, with the rerun of Race Seven,or as a Race Eight.

Let's hope it’s Gunfight at OK Corral time, hopefully without the need for another long night for the International Jury.

Cameron Miles and his Pacesetter team need to strike a mortal blow, while the Tom Pepper crew only needs to wound their rivals to win the war.

After Race Six without any drop considered Tom Pepper XVll (Peter McNeill) has results of 2,8,11,13,8,5 47pts 1, Pacesetter (Cameron Miles) 11,12,8,5,10,3 49pts 2, Satu (Glenn Collings) 14,23,16,12,28,1 94pts 3

Sail-World will bring you live action from the racecourse from mid-morning tiday at www.sail-world.com/etchells

The final results on Saturday night will come from www.mooloolabaetchells.com