Gemmell Sails takes race 1 at the 12ft Skiff Interdominions

by Richard Billett on 7 Jan 2013 The Harsco Infrastructure 53rd 12ft Skiff Interdominion Championship 2013 is being sailed 4th to 12th January 2013 on Waterloo Bay, from the Darling Point Sailing Squadron at Manly, Brisbane .

The forecast was ominous with 10-15kts and a few showers for the 12ft Skiff Interdominions Day 1. The first race start was hot with a light Easterly breeze. Queensland locals PB Towage did the ballsy port hand bandit and crossed the fleet!!

The breeze was super fickle and the lead swapped a few times up the first work. There was a rain squall to the South and as it had been doing all morning, it brought the wind. Thank goodness it did because word has it, the race was about to be shortened or abandoned! Those on the starboard side of the course got to it first and came storming in to the top mark. It was CTech who rounded first followed by the wise men on Vantage. PB were next and Allwood Sails who missed the start by six minutes were fourth.

Vantage and CTech headed north but as the breeze was filling in quickly PB and Allwood did a gybe set. The breeze kept filling in and The lead boats were towed well below the bottom mark. PB dropped the kite first and had a quick two sail to the bottom. They rounded first followed closely by Allwood Sails and CTech. Gemmell Sails were now in the mix and as the breeze was still kicking harder. Gemmell and CTech went left and PB went up the middle. The two rivals went toe to toe and had a nice little lead on the fleet by the next top mark. PB rounded in third and Absolute CnC were now in fourth. There was a little gap forming now and the breeze was settling in. Was second the right rig choice for the day?

The downwind was fast, with Gemmell and CTech locked in a tight dogfight. PB and CNC were sending it hard to try and catch up, but the two favourites with their second rigs were on a mission.

The third lap saw few changes up the pointy end of the fleet, with the same four flying high and praying for the nose to stay out of the water. The fourth lap had the breeze die a bit, and Garde made their move. Lumping around big rig all day was taking its toll on PB and CNC and Garde sure made some serious gains.

Gemmell sails took the gun with CTech close behind. PB were able to cover CNC on the final downwind to the finish third, but fourth was much tighter than Russell would have liked. Garde threw a big last effort at them with a gybe set at the top mark. CNC got there in the end, with Garde a few seconds behind them.

What a sensational start to the regatta with a tough rig choice and some sensational rides!!

Race 1 Interdominions
Scratch Race Time to Time to
Placings Time Previous Winner
1 Gemmell Sails 1:18:15
2 C-Tech Little Bus 1:18:18 0:00:03 0:00:03
3 P.B. Towage 1:22:27 0:04:09 0:04:12
4 Absolute Cnc 1:22:50 0:00:23 0:04:35
5 Garde 1:23:11 0:00:21 0:04:56
6 As Good As It Gets 1:24:18 0:01:07 0:06:03
7 Giddy Up 1:26:23 0:02:05 0:08:08
8 Frankenskiff 1:26:54 0:00:31 0:08:39
9 Variety 1:27:28 0:00:34 0:09:13
10 Skoll 1:28:23 0:00:55 0:10:08
11 Squid 1:28:29 0:00:06 0:10:14
12 Harsco Infrastrcture 1:30:46 0:02:17 0:12:31
13 C-Tech Performance 1:31:20 0:00:34 0:13:05
14 Vanatage Real Estate 1:32:09 0:00:49 0:13:54
15 Barfoot and Thompson 1:32:20 0:00:11 0:14:05
16 Team Architecture 1:32:26 0:00:06 0:14:11
17 KaRoShi 1:36:40 0:04:14 0:18:25
18 Madonna 1:38:33 0:01:53 0:20:18
19 www.skiff.org.au 1:38:48 0:00:15 0:20:33
20 Gizmo 1:39:32 0:00:44 0:21:17
21 Hey Charger 1:40:37 0:01:05 0:22:22
22 www.skiff.org.nz 1:47:40 0:07:03 0:29:25

Did Not Finish
Allwood Sails
CST Composites
Did not start
Challenge
out of start time limit

Teams Trophy:
Australia 78 pts
New Zealand 74 pts