Sports Boat Queensland Title goes interstate
by Darren Spence on 8 Oct 2013
2013 QLD Champs - The Stigs Audi Driving Cousin - Australian Sports Boat Association QLD Titles 2013 Teri Dodds
http://www.teridodds.com
The fifth Queensland Australian Sports Boat Association (ASBA) Titles were completed Sunday afternoon in near perfect conditions off Main Beach on the Gold Coast. For the first time in the event history, the title has been won by an interstate crew - The Stigs Audi Driving Cousin (David Ellis) from Royal Yacht of Victoria.
The Stig was one of nine Shaw 650 class boats competing at the event with four of them finishing in the top 10 overall. Money-Pussy (Rees Howell) from WA was pipped at the post by one point in the overall standings but collected the Shaw 650 winners trophy which where proudly supplied by the production boat builder - www.shaw650.com.
This was truly a national event with the top four in the overall results coming from four states. An amazing effort really from all that travelled, including the Vivace crew from Mackay, which is further from the Gold Coast than Sydney.
Racing on the second day was in 10-15 knts with considerably less swell than the first days racing. The extra breeze over the first day proved to be the difference between the overnight leader, Zippier (Andrew Waugh), and chasing Shaw's.
Full credit to the The Stig crew who sailed the pants off it in race four and continued a faultless day's work to take wins in all three heats and the title.
Rounding out the top three and winning Division 2 was the current National and NSW Champion, Zippier. The first QLD boat was fourth overall, Viper QLD (Ben Leigh-Smith).
Crank (Brett Whitbread) won the line honours battle on a count back from Kiss (Greg Scherwinski).
The general consensus was that the racing was of a high calibre and most crews had their skills challenged. Boats such as Porn Star (Chris Bland) and Legless (Dave Hewitt) improved with each race in their first series in new boats. The elapsed time spread from first to last also compressed over the six race - by over three minutes. There was also multiple dead heats on SMS over the weekend. Proving the point that the more fleet racing you do, the more you improve.
The next ASBA event is the Victorian Titles on the weekend of the 23-24 of November at The Stig's home club, RYCV. Time for another road trip.
Massive thank you to ASBA partners - Gill, 3 Oceans Winery and Hogs Breath Cafe for their generous support of the event. Big thank you also to gun photographer, Teri Dodds, for documenting yet another ASBA event and showing off our machines to the world.
More images will be available soon at www.teridodds.com
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/115521