Sailing Masters win in Hog's Breath National Title

by Ian Grant on 16 Aug 2001 Melbourne's Another Challenge brilliantly sailed by her veteran skipper Lou Abrahams and a talented crew won the Hog's Breath Australian Sydney 38 class championship off Airlie Beach today.

Skipper Abrahams and the Another Challenge crew expressed their collective long-term experience to come from behind and score their fifth win in the seven-race championship.

'We were not in real good shape early in the race but it's what you can achieve between the start and finish which adds up at the end of the day'. Said key helmsman Carl Schmidt.

' I guess we were settling on accepting a mid fleet placing today before the rig was tensioned for the second upwind leg'. Abrahams Said.

But his acceptance gradually changed when the Another Challenge crew sailed every subtle wind switch on merit to claw their way back into the race.

However the crew who already had the championship won with the fleet placing they held at the halfway point in the race continued to dig deep and aim at finishing first.

They made up ground on every sailing angle with a smooth crew technique built from numerous hours of training and race preparation to eventually fall into phase with the early race leader Gourmet Express skippered by Craig Escott of Hobart.

Both crews staged a nip -n -tuck tacking match before Another Challenge finally broke through to record what was earlier accepted as an impossible task.

Skipper Abrahams sailing his first full season in this exciting circuit of one-design racing against much younger skippers capitalised on crew skill and faultless tactics to draw ahead on the final windward beat to finish 9 seconds clear of Gourmet Express with another 16 seconds to Tazzie 2 (Alec Barrass) of Sydney.

This result allowed Another Challenge with the very consistent score of 2-4-1-1-1-1-1 to win the championship by a commanding 17 points over Tazzie 2 with another 2 points to Prosail Team Next (Matt Wenke) of Sydney.

Final Results: Another Challenge (Lou Abrahams, Vic) 13pts 1, Tazzie 2 (Alec Barrass, NSW) 30pts 2, Prosail Team Next (Matt Wenke, NSW) 32pts 3, Yeah Baby (Rob McMillan, NSW) 33pts 4, Wadadli (Gordon Ketelby, NSW) 35pts 5, Asylum (Wayne Kirkpatrick, Qld) 40 pts 6, The Business (Brett Neill, NZL) 42pts 7, Gourmet Express (Craig Escott, TAS) 45pts 8, Obsession (Michael Jones, NSW) 58pts 9, Utopia (John Messenger, NSW) 60 pts 10.