Australian Moth Championship - Crash and Burn, gusty action at Wangi

Fri, 11 Jan 2013

Today, day four of the 2013 Australian Moth Championship, was used for re-sails, as Tuesday was cancelled. The racing started in a gusty 10-14 knot easterly which tended to have constant swings of five to ten degrees.

The sailors were again a little too keen at the first start resulting in a general recall, however they all got away cleanly in the re-start. James Doran and A-Mac (Andrew McDougall) seemed to have mastered running down the line on the course side and dipping back just as the gun goes to hit the line at full speed, however the Moth Squad boys still had their measure with Kiwi Pete (Burling) in first, followed by Joe Turner in second and Slingers (Tom Slingsby) third with Goobs (Iain Jensen) seventh and Nath (Nathan Outteridge) ninth.

The second race of the day started in similar conditions, however this time it was Tom Slingsby’s turn to grab a win, followed by Josh McKnight, Pete Burling and Goobs fourth. The third race of the day saw Nathan Outteridge miss the start by nearly four minutes, after going to the shore for makeshift repairs. He was never going to catch the leaders however did catch quite a few boats and finished 23rd. Once again Kiwi Pete dominated winning the race from Joe Turner, Scott Babbage and Dave Lister.


As the forecast for Saturday was looking very suspect, with very light shifty winds, and as the conditions were still quite reasonable, the race committee decided to run a fourth race, much to the dismay of some of the tired sailors.

Once again Pete Burling took control winning his third race for the day. Pete just looked so relaxed in his boat and had speed to burn. One person commented that he reminded him of the cartoon character Gumby when he tacked and gybed, slithering under the boom, but obviously it works for Pete.

Second in the race was Josh, followed by Goobs and Dave Lister. A notable retiree was Joe Turner, who I am told did not wish to miss happy hour at the club.

Peter Burling, was very impressive today. He said ‘The first race I got a really good start off the boat and done some right pressure and just led the whole way and just kept it pretty simple and managed to hold off Scottie and then in the second race I think it was pretty similar. Looking forward to another good day tomorrow.

A disappointed Nathan Outteridge commented ‘I had a bit of an issue today. In the first race, I broke the rear wing bar and it took a while to get it fixed so I missed all three races today. It is a bit disappointing but we are going to fix it up tonight and get it out there tomorrow and fight another day. ‘

Some laughs as always from Wangi local Jodi Shiels,

‘I had quite a few crashes out there actually. I had one just above the start finish boat. I think it was on the second last leg and I was just coming in to adjust height at the wrong time and cut a bad wave and snapped it right (went in hard) in front of everyone. The bloke that came round behind me was giggling his head off. If I find him he is in big trouble. ‘

After 10 races, with two drops, Pete now leads on 10 points from Scott on 21 points, Josh on 29 points, Dave Lister on 32 points, Joe Turner on 37 points and Tom Slingsby on 44 points. Racing continues on Friday from 1pm.





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