Tight at top - Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race

by Al Constable on 15 Aug 2007 Two days ago it looked like there would be some run-away winners in the 18th annual Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week, but as the wind increases the seascape has changed.

In the IRC Racing fleet Geoff Pearson’s Archambault 35 Arajilla strung together four wins and a second. Today she did not have a great start and as Pearson commented this afternoon, ‘we suffered at the back of the fleet, sailing at times in airs 10 knots less than the big boats and we recorded our second fifth of the series.’

Michael Hiatt’s modified Cookson 50 Living Doll’s worst result is a fourth and going into tomorrow’s final race, she is just two points shy of the series lead. Hiatt and his crew have sailed a consistent series, in a totally reconfigured boat and they could snatch victory tomorrow. Regardless, they are looking good for the Hamilton regatta next week.

Behind them Ray Roberts, the defending Airlie Beach Champion, helmed his Quantum Racing to their first win of the 2007 series today. They can’t win the regatta from here but there is nothing like a win to lift the spirits.

Tactician Stephen McConaghy said ‘a really good course, we were first round the top mark, that was important as we beam reached to the top of North Molle. We held off Wired until Hanna Point and then, as we went on the wind, they sucked our dirty air and they fell back.

‘We had winds of 22 knots south of Hamilton, we enjoyed the extra pressure and we are enjoying the win today.’

In 2004 John Bacon won the IRC Cruising Division with all but one gun and they started this regatta with a string of wins. But the last two days have been less kind.

This Way Up, Western Australian John Moore’s Sydney 36 won Race 5 of the Premier Cruising division from Esprit, Garry Anderson’s Beneteau 47.7. John Bacon’s Hussy was third.

Moore is just two points off the lead and if Bacon stumbles he could miss the chance of a double victory.

The PHS fleet is closing up too. Despite listing themselves in the boat notes as ‘ageing crew’ Terry Balson and company managed to win in Race 6 of PHS Racing. Effarrvescent won on handicap from Mr Bojangles, the Northshore 38 of Pauline Cleaver. John Netherton’s Cadi, The Melbourne Osaka entrant from the Mooloolaba Yacht Club was third.

Overall, local Whitsunday sailor Kevin Fogarty leads on Idle Time by just two points, from Chris Smith’s Mummbo, with fellow locals Chris Nicholl and Terry Archer’s A.F.R.I.C.A. third.

In the Cruising with Spinnaker Division Bobby D, Ross Winterbourne’s Farr from the North Queensland Cruising Yacht Club took the honours in Race 5. Kat, Chris Stockdale’s Beneteau 50 was second, from Paul Verdon’s magnificent Bliss (Azzura Yachts).

Sunrise, Helen and Jeff Shipsey’s Elan 37 continues to lead the overall point score in this division, with Townsville Cruising Yacht Club member Andy Muirhead’s Fahrenheit (Farr 11.6 mod) in second. The well traveled but ‘forever young’ crew (their average age is somewhere in the sixties) of Hans On, the Hanse 370e of Nick Thomas and Col Thomas is third.

In Cruising Non Spinnaker division, Rainbow scored a handicap win for New Zealander Peter Hall and his crew. This is the sixth Airlie beach Race Week for Hall and his mates, who are enjoying the Whitsunday scenery and the Queensland beer.

Second was Delphian, the McIntosh 47 of John Sloan, with John Hudson’s Lady Hawk from the Whitsunday Sailing Club in third.

Overall after five races, Lady Hawk leads from Fish Frenzy (Wayne Banks-Smith) with Delphian third.

The Sport Boats fleet battle continued today with Liquid Tactics, the Egan 6 of Tom Jordan winning Race 7 on handicap, a great result to help celebrate Liquid Tactics’ tenth birthday! Peter Sorensen’s Vivace was second, with Raptor, the Stealth 7 of Mark Buchbach in third.

Today ‘Sorro’ commented ‘Mark Bushbach’s Raptor beat us to the first mark, they just blew us away to windward. They have a smaller rig… my mainsail is too big for windy stuff ….people beating us to windward, we can’t have that - I might switch to a smaller main.’

Another close regatta battle in this class with just two points separating the top placings, but the overall leader is the newly purchased Rock n’ Roll from Townsville (Leon Thomas). It’s What You Do (Brett Whitbread) is second, with Melges Asia Pacific (Heath Walters) third.

Tomorrow is the final day of the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach; the fleet will be sailing Pioneer Bay triangle courses with warning signals from 0940.

		IRC RACING
Series Results [IRC] up to Race 6 (Drops = 1)
Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Design	Sers Score	Race 6	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		6669	ARAJILLA	Geoff Pearson	MHYC	Archambault A35	10	5	1	1	1	2	[5.00]
2		R50	LIVING DOLL	Michael Hiatt	rycv	Farr	12	3	2	4	2	1	[4.00]
3		8899	QUANTUM RACING	Ray Roberts	CYC	Cookson 50	18	1	5	[8.00]	4	7	1
4		HKG2245	BEAU GESTE	Karl Kwok	HKG	Reichel Pugh	19	2	4	5	5	[6.00]	3
5		52002	QUEST	Jamie Macphail	CYCA	Farr Tp 52	20	6	[11.00Q]	3	6	3	2
6		A33	INVINCIBLE	Harold Clark	BYC	Farr 1104	24	4	3	2	8	[8.00]	7
7		43218	LIMIT	Alan Brierty	CYCA	Corby 49	26	[7.00]	6	6	3	5	6
8		9009	NIGHT NURSE	Russell McCart	rqys	Farr 40	33	8	7	7	7	4	[8.00]
9		NZL10303	WIRED	Rob Bassett	RNZYS	Bakewell-White	44	9	8	9	9	9	[9.00]
10		NZL8977	RAN TAN 2	John Meade	RPNYC	Elliott 50	49	10	9	10	10	10	[10.00]
		PHS RACING
Series Results [PHC] up to Race 6 (Drops = 1)
Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Design	Sers Score	Race 6	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		588	IDLE TIME	Kevin Fogarty	WSC	Spacesailer	32	6	10	3	5	[17.00]	8
2		451	MUMMBO	Chris Smith		Farr	33	10	5	5	[13.00]	3	10
3		W42	A.F.R.I.C.A.	Chris/Terry Nicoll/A	WSC	Bavaria Cruiser 42	34.5	[21.00]	3	14.5	1	11	5
4		5013	AIR APPARENT	Steve Wright	NQCYC	Young 31	36	7	2	12	[21.00]	8	7
5		M242	WALLOP	Peter Hewson	l.m.y.c	Sydney 41	37	17	1	1	[19.00]	6	12
6		999	TRUE LOVE	Roger Down	WSC	Farr 11.6	39	14	13	6	[14.00]	2	4
7		640	WOBBLY BOOT	Craig Piccinelli	wsc	Mod.Young.88	39.5	11.5	[20.00]	7	3	16	2
8	1.0S	B707	EFFARRVESCENT	Terry Balson	MBTBC	Farr 11.6	41	1	16	[16.00]	10	13	1
9		5796	QLD MARINE SERVICES	John Galloway	WSC	Holland	41	5	6	[19.00]	12	15	3
10		Q999	ANOTHER FIASCO	Damian Suckling	APYC	Jutson 43	45	[19.00]	11	10	6	5	13
11		MK99	MISTERY	Argus/ Waldmeier	MYC	Swarbrick S99	46	[20.00]	4	4	11	18	9
12	2.0S	M4	CADI	John Netherton	Mooloolaba	Jones 42	47	3	7	2	18	[21.00]	17
13		W8	SANDPIPER	Colin Pruden	wsc	Swarbrick S111	47	8	[19.00]	9	15	9	6
14		MK6	THE POACHER	Foster John	MYC	Cavalier 1050	51	[16.00]	15	11	4	7	14
15		8041	LORNA ROSE TOO	Peter Mitchelson	WSC	Austral Clubman 8	53.5	18	18	14.5	2	1	[18.00]
16		4556	MR BOJANGLES	Pauline Cleaver	HYC	Northshore 38	54	2	8	18	7	19	[22.00C]
17		6607	WIRRAJURND	Andy Kearnan	CYCA	Sydney 32	57.5	11.5	9	[20.00]	9	12	16
18	4.0S	NQ19	DESTINY	Rodger Snell	N.Q.C.Y.C.	Davidson 34	59	13	14	17	[17.00]	4	11
19		633	DEHLER MAGIC	Greg/Charlie Tobin/P	WSC	Dehler 39	59	9	17	[21.00]	8	10	15
20		6222	AVANTI	Bruce McKay	CSC	Northshore 369	65	15	12	8	16	14	[19.00]
21		RQ444	ASYLUM YEARS	Nico Sieling	RQYS	Lyons 41	77	4	[21.00]	13	20	20	20
		CRUISING YACHTS WITH SPINNAKER
Series Results [PHC] for Division 4 up to Race 5 (Drops = 1)
Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Design	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		W677	SUNRISE	Helen & Jeff Shipsey	WSC / APYC	Elan 37	27	11	[12.00]	4	7	5
2		322	FAHRENHEIT	Andy Muirhead	TCYC	Farr 11.6 Mod	28	6	[13.00]	8	8	6
3		H370	HANS-ON	Nick / Col Cox / Tho	MYC	Hanse 370e	29	7	10	[12.00]	9	3
4	4.0S	SA10	STORM2	Don Algie	WSC	Warwick 66	31	[15.50]	4	11	15	1
5		5899	BOBBY D	Ross Winterbourne	NQCYC	Farr	31	1	[20.00]	5	13	12
6		3610	TURTLE TIME	Jason Randall	WSC	Swarbrick Spacesailo	33.5	5	2	[19.00]	16.5	10
7		34	TREASURE	Harold Menelaus	WSC	Dehler 34	35.5	17	[18.00]	7	3	8.5
8	1.0S	50	SWORDFISH	Doug & Clare Barry	BYC	Northshore 38	36	9	16	10	1	[20.00]
9		RQ40	MELTEMI	Jim Shannon	RQYS	S&S 34	36	18	[24.00O]	2	12	4
10		A60	ZULU CHIEF	David Simpson	myc	Steinman Pilot House	37	[19.00]	3	18	14	2
11		9111	ROPABULL	Mike Roper	RMYC/BB	Beneteau	38	10	14	3	11	[14.00]
12		B88	INGENUE	Rosie Colahan	RBYC	Jeanneau So 40	38.5	13	15	[15.00]	2	8.5
13	1.0S	6215	KAT	Chris Stockdale	CYCA	Beneteau 50	39	2	1	20	[20.00]	16
14	3.0S	BOW2	BLISS	Paul Verdon		Azzura Yachts	39	3	7	22	[24.00F]	7
15		M42	WHITE PEARL	Gary McCarthy	MYC	Simonis Voogd	39	14	8	[14.00]	6	11
16		6523	HOLY COW!	John & Kim Clinton	CYCA	Beneteau Oceanis 523	40	8	6	13	[16.50]	13
17	4.0S	6051	THEBIGGER PICTURE	Penny McConaghy		Sydney38	42	4	[19.00]	16	4	18
18		6146	KIONI	Nick Athineos	CYCA	Beneteau 47.7	42	[20.00]	9	6	10	17
19		606	MORE INTRIGUE	Merv Stephensen	RQYS	Northshore 38 C	43	12	11	1	19	[21.00]
20		B60	GUSTO 1	Brian Pattinson	RBYC	Open 60	51	[24.00C]	5	9	18	19
21		M298	FINE LINE	Mike Leitch	MYC	Elliott 1050	52.5	15.5	17	[17.00]	5	15
22		BOW4	STEALING BEAUTY	Adam Dando		Beneteau Cyclades 43	88	24.00C	21	21	[24.00F]	22
23		6657	PANTOMIME IV	Michael Kelly	CYCA	Moody	95	24.00C	24.00C	24.00C	[24.00F]	23
		CRUISING NON-SPINNAKER
Series Results [PHC] for Division 5 up to Race 5 (Drops = 1)
Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Design	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		W39	LADY HAWK	John Hudson	W.S.C.	Beneteau Oceanis390	13	3	7	1	[9.00]	2
2	1.0S	5090	FISH FRENZY	Wayne Banks-Smith	BYC	Ior Frers 50 Pilot/H	15	8	5	[12.00]	1	1
3		SM1616	DELPHIAN	John Sloan	SYC	Mcintosh 47	15	2	2	5	[7.00]	6
4	1.0S	S12	RAINBOW	Peter Hall		Beneteau 473	18	1	4	3	[11.00]	10
5		PC86	SHEARWATER	Mick Phillips	WSC	Spencer	18	5	[11.00]	6	4	3
6		BOW1	FELICITY	Lachlan Wilson	WSC	Clansman 30	21	6	8	2	[13.00F]	5
7		HI30	THE OCEANIC HUSTLER	Bill Lipson	HIYC	Gary Mull Ohlsen 40	22	[9.00]	6	4	8	4
8		4337	RELISH IV	Bill Bailey	CYCA/RANSA	Elan 43	24	7	[9.00]	7	2	8
9		KA215	SPLISH TOC	Stuart Garner	APYC	Garner 254	25	4	10	8	3	[11.00]
10		K8913	TIME LORD	Keith Munro	ssanz	Bavaria 50	27	11	3	[11.00]	6	7
11		PF57	PLANIT FLASHDANCE II	Brian Evans	CYC	Adams Radford	31	10	1	10	10	[12.00]
12		NZL8835	ISLAND GIRL	Ian Lillie	SSANZ	Farr 1220	36	13.00C	[13.00C]	9	5	9
		PREMIER CRUISING
Series Results [IRC] up to Race 5 (Drops = 1)
Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Design	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		9339	HUSSY	John Bacon	RPAYC	Sydney 39cr	6	3	[3.00]	1	1	1
2		MH360	THIS WAY UP	John Moore	MOFSC	Sydney36	8	1	2	3	[4.00]	2
3		SM477	ESPRIT	Garry Anderson	syc	Beneteau 47.7	9	2	1	[4.00]	3	3
4		SYD181	BERANI VII	David Todner	CYCA	Jarkan 12.5s	17	5	5	2	[6.00]	5
5	2.0S	AUS1407	LIESL	Greg Clinnick	Charter boat	Beneteau First 40.7	18	[8.00F]	6	6	2	4
6		G5038	CINQUANTE	Ian Murray	RGYC	Sydney 38	18	4	4	5	5	[6.00]
7		6676	TOTALLY WILD	Graham Macdonald	BBSC	Masram 920	27	6	7	7	7	[7.00]
			SPORTS BOATS
Series Results [PHC] up to Race 7 (Drops = 1)
Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Design	Sers Score	Race 7	Race 6	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		5887	ROCK N' ROLL	Leon Thomas	TCYC	Thompson 7	18	5	3	[9.00]	3	2	4	1.00G
2		5652	IT'S WHAT YOU DO	Brett Whitbread	syc	Elliott 780	20	[19.00F]	4	4	1	1	7	3
3		AUS668	MELGES ASIA PACIFIC	Heath Walters		Melges 24	26	6	7	[8.00]	5	3	3	2
4		RQ777	RAPTOR	Mark Buchbach	RQYS	Stealth 7	35	3	2	1	[14.00]	8	13	8
5		AUS709	KAITO	Heath Townsend	GBYC	Melges 24	38	8	9	[14.00]	7	9	1	4
6	1.0S	1	LIQUID TACTICS	Tom Jordan	MYC	Egan 6	40	1	1	5	9	15	[15.00]	9
7		RQ69	ELIXIR	Andrew Fisher	RQYS	Elliott 7.8	40	[19.00F]	5	6	2	10	6	11
8		RQ200	SO WHAT	Franco Bortolin	RQYS	Stealth 7.8	44	19.00S	[19.00F]	3	10	5	2	5
9		138	FEELING CHEEKY	Brett Cooper	RYCT	Young Rocket 7.80	49	9	11	[13.00]	6	6	11	6
10	4.0S	B1	VIVACE	Peter Sorensen	MHYC	Bethwaite 8	52	2	19.00O	7	[19.00R]	4	10	10
11		RQ202	STEALTHY	Bob Cowan	LMYC	Stealth	52	7	15	2	[19.00R]	7	14	7
12		38	TOO HOT TO TROT	Bruce/Eric Tardrew/K	RQYS	Lyons	55	12	8	10	8	12	5	[14.00]
13		6	RIP IT UP	Damien Van Deudekom	RQYS	Knuckles 6m	64	4	6	11	11	16	16	[19.00F]
14		7701	MEN IN BLACK	Rod Young	MDSC	Colson 770	65	10	10	16	4	13	12	[19.00C]
15		5747	THE WORKS	Michael Rynan	rmyc	Elliot 770	69	14	12	[15.00]	12	11	8	12
16	9.0S	7002	DECKIES.COM.AU	Ashley Gabrielson	MOFSC	Thompson 7	88	19.00C	19.00C	12	[19.00C]	14	9	15
17		R980	DARK ENERGY	Janet Williamson	RPYC	Thompson 980	88	13	13	17	15	17	[17.00]	13
18		734	X2 TANGENT	Simon Vincent	NQCYC	Elliot 780	94	11	14	18	13	19.00C	19.00C	[19.00F