The Showdown Regatta - Elliott Noye takes Lasers on a countback
by Peter Campbell on 1 Nov 2010
Laser raft-up while waiting for the wind at The Showdown Jane Austin
Royal Yacht Club of Tasmanian Dinghy Group sailors Elliott Noye and George Jones are a remarkable pair of young International Laser sailors, highly competitive when racing each other, yet training together regularly to improve each other’s techniques and tactics in the Olympic single-handed class. <,/b>
Both will compete in Lasers at the Sail Melbourne and Sail Sydney regattas for Olympic classes then, early in the New Year, they will join forces with Stephen Boyes in a world championship campaign in the International Dragon class.
Before then, Elliott Noye will lead a Tasmanian crew contesting the Australian match-racing championships to be hosted by the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania in mid November.
This weekend, The Showdown 2010, has been all about the International Laser and the skills required to be a champion in the world’s most popular single-handed dinghy, one with Olympic status and a high profile Australian status in the class.
Noye, sailing Shake N Bake, Jones steering Gutted Rabbit, are two of the young guns of the RYCT Dinghy Group and over the two days of off-the-beach racing in The Showdown, they were never more than a few metres apart on the race track.
At the end of Saturday’s race they were equal on points; at the end of the regatta on Sunday they were still level pegging, ending up with 10 points apiece. Each had notched up four first placings in the eight race regatta, but Noye also had three seconds to win on a countback.
The Noye family had a good weekend, with Lewis Noye, sailing Lunacy, scoring a comfortable win in the Laser 4.7 class from Kailas Johnson sailing Ninja, third place going to Sophie Chesterman sailing Export Roo.
Zac Pullen dominated the big Laser Radial fleet, finishing the regatta with two wins to comfortably win from Flat White (Nathan McMillan) and Bryn (Darcy Rankin).
Another class working hard towards their national championship is the International Cadet Dinghy, based at Sandy Bay Sailing Club. A fleet of 13 boats lined up at The Showdown with Jonathan Cooper in Wild Thing winning a close series from Oliver Burnell, helming Winning Edge.
For the Sabots, The Showdown has been an important event as the final selection series for young Tasmanian sailors to compete in the Sabot Australian championships to be hosted by Wynyard Yacht Club over Christmas-New Year.
Girls outsailed the boys in two of the Sabot class divisions with RYCT Dinghy Group member Jacqui Walker sailing exceptionally consistent series of 3-2-1-1-1-1-3 with Another White Boat to finish on 9 points, four points clear of Red Herring (Dylan Van Drunen) on 13 points and Loose Cannon (Jock Calvert) on 14 points.
Bronwen Symonds, sailing Under Pressure, probably experienced a lot of pressure in finishing equal on 10 points with William Wallis, sailing Yogi, with and Nick Neates, helming Hardrock, a close third. Bronwen won on a countback with three wins to William’s two wins.
Port Dalrymple Yacht Club’s Thomas Cooper, sailing Snap E Tom, followed up his recent success in the Northern Sabot Regatta at Wynyard by taking out the Sabot 2-up class from Red Alert (Sam King) and Lone Wolf (Angus Calvert).
Optimists are a growing class for young sailors in Tasmania with ten boats lining up for The Showdown. Angus Lane took the honours with a consistent series to finish on 14 points, four clear of Hugo Hamilton sailing DownUnder, with another four points to Petit Bateau (Damien Messmer).
Also increasing in status is the International 420 class with current Australian champion in the International Cadets, Alec Bailey, from Sandy Bay Sailing Club, switching to this class for The Showdown. Bailey and his crew, Henry Goodfellow, sailing VMG, proved unbeatable in the 420s winning all seven races.
Junior sailors were not the only ones competing in the off-the-beach classes, with OK Dinghy stalwarts shaking the cobwebs off their boats in preparation for the national titles at the Derwent Sailing Squadron in January. Driving the revival is Juston Barr and he comfortably won The Showdown series, although Don Williams took out one race.
Catamarans were well represented at The Showdown, with Richard Everleigh winning the A class division with Magic Marine, and Mick Boyle dominating the Paper Tigers, winning every race with Re-Entry. Strait4Devils (Adrian Beswick) won the B14 trophy, also placing second to the Sharpie One Hump or Two (Drew Latham) in the Yardstick division.
The Sailboards and Windsurfers elected not to race in the light winds on Sunday, with Richard Cunningham-Smith winning the Sailboard class, and RYCT Dinghy Group chairman Tim Jones taking out the Windsurfer class.
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