Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week - Airlie Retreat wins division

by Ian Grant on 20 Aug 2009
Royal Motor Yacht Club skipper George Challoner sailing his Elan 37 Airlie Retreat overcame a visit before the jury to score a narrow two point victory in the competitive Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week Performance Handicap championship earlier today.

He accepted a time penalty for neglecting to observe a mark of the course in race three but had never given up hope on combining the experience of racing in a warm environment with a fleet of rivals who had the same intention of sailing hard on the course and enjoying the post race presentations in the Hahn hospitality tent.

Wobbly Boot skipper Craig Piccinelli who is noted as a very competitive skipper on his home club course summed up the feeling in the class 'We go head to head with each other on the water and what happens out there stays on the water'.

As usual the Wobbly Boot crew who always manage to step up when their rival interstate mates sail into town for race week were again very competitive.

But it was the local veteran Roger Down and his crew of local mates who held the upper hand in the Farr 1106 True Love when the sails were tensioned for the title decider in what proved to be an interesting race in a fading and variable trade wind.

True Love tested to perform with a 1.020 handicap rating had her back to the wall in the lighter winds while the crafty George Challoner tapped on the tactical knowledge of racing in previous Race Weeks to produce his best race of the regatta when he steered the Elan 37 Airlie Retreat into second place behind Peter Mosely’s Local Hero.

The prospects for Airlie Retreat to win the series overall did not look good when she became locked in a duel against local skippers Tim Osborne in the Farr 1104 Rising Farrst and Craig Piccinelli’s modified Young 8 metre sloop Wobbly Boot.

All three crews shared second place with identical 28 point scores behind the local veteran Roger Down who held what appeared to be a winning lead on 23 points.

But like all previous six races the battle for clear sailing space remained very competitive with Local Hero setting the pace for line honours against the Kim Williams skippered Melges 32 Rock N Roll and the defending Charles Wallis skippered MBD 42 Reignition.

Predictably Rock N Roll sailed clear to set the race clock ticking when she completed the 3 hour 46 minute race with a 6 minute 39 second margin over Local Hero with another 9 seconds to Reignition.

As expected the light winds and the northerly flowing current played a role in deciding the handicap result where Local Hero was the star performer while Airlie Retreat sealed a popular win in the championship with second leaving True Love to fill second one point of the pace and one point ahead of Mike Roper’s Royal Motor Yacht Club Beneteau 42 Ropabull.