Zippier sets the Standard - Day 1 ASBA National Titles

by Darren Spence on 8 Jan 2015 Sydney Harbour and the CYCA turned on the sunshine and the wind for the first day of racing at the eighth Australian Sports Boat National Titles. A great day to be alive and out for a sail.

The breeze varied over the three races completed from 12 knots at gun of race one to 20 knots when the crews headed for the bar in the late afternoon.

Results - The day belonged to outgoing ASBA President, Andrew Waugh, and his Zippier crew. The 2013 National Champions took the win on corrected time in every race, although they had to share it with The Stig’s Audi Driving Cousin (David Ellis) in race one - dead head for first on corrected time. In fact race one produced a three way tie for sixth as well on corrected time. A sign that the Yacht Racing Services (YRS) SMS system is working a treat for the Sports Boat fleet as their AMS system has done for yacht fleets in Victoria and now Western Australia.

Octopussy (Rees Howell) have been the most consistent crew at the last two National Titles and this continued today with a 3, 3, 2 scorecard to be second overall followed by Old School Racing (Mark Griffith) who had a best result of a second in Race 2.

Zippier leads the Division 1 fleet as well with Octopussy heading up the Division 2 overall results.

The fleet heads out on a 'Harbour Cruise' passage race today with racing kicking off at 2pm Sydney time. With 6 more races scheduled over the coming three days, the regatta has a long way to go and some great crews trying to get their hands on the winners Gill Jacket.

ASBA receives outstanding support from it’s partners - Gill Australia, 3 Oceans Winery, Hogs Breath Cafe and Yacht Racing Services (managers of the SMS & AMS rating systems).

All the event information can be found in the Regatta Pages of the ASBA web site - www.asba.org.au or on the ASBA Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/sportsboatsaus