Sail-World.com : Queensland Marine Services and Wobbly Boot battle
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Queensland Marine Services and Wobbly Boot battle |
John Galloway and Craig Piccinelli continue to stage a close and exciting battle of tactical supremacy for the major trophies over the Whitsunday Sailing Club courses on Pioneer Bay.
Both talented skippers, John Galloway's Queensland Marine Services and Craig Piccinelli’s Wobbly Boot, are currently separated by the slender margin of one penalty point in the tactical duel to win the four race Abel Point Yacht Sales trophy.
Galloway has relied on his consistency steering Queensland Marine Services to a 4-4 while Piccinelli who opened the series with an impressive second to the Mike Trickey skippered Hydrotherapy in race one surprisingly struggled in the ideal trade wind sailing conditions to finish a disappointing seventh in race two.
Normally the Wobbly Boot crew sail consistently in all wind strengths and are generally rated among the top chances but skipper Piccinelli certainly ‘blotted’ his tactical racing reputation with a below par result to finish mid fleet in the race dominated by the Shannon Hart skippered Mustard Cutter.
Skipper Hart and crew were far too classy with the speed sailing Thompson sports boat eventually winning line honours with a handy 1 minute 33 second margin over Another Fiasco (Damien Suckling) which ultimately allowed Mustard Cutter to outpace her .890 time correction factor to claim the major points ahead of Jeff Brown (007) and Terry Archer in Africa.
These results have shown that no crew can rest on their past performances and tactical reputations with the tight racing applying the pressure test to the tactical strategy and sail handling skills of all crews.
Point score leader John Galloway and his Queensland Marine Services combination will experience some tactical attention when they tension the sails on Pioneer Bay this week for what is expected to become a ‘war on the water’ as seven crews led by Wobbly Boot, 007 and Kevin Fogarty’s Idle Time enter into a tactical arm-wrestle to become the new series leader.
The battle for the trophy remains very much an open affair with only 8 points separating the top eight boats which means there will be no free advantage to sail in clear wind and sea space when the fleet line up for the important third race this week.
Queensland Marine Services will naturally become the target however similar attention will be applied to the crews aboard Wobbly Boot, 007, Idle Time, Africa, Dehler Magic, Treasure Vlll and Pacific Phoenix who will need to protect their space or slip off the pace to gain the important points.
Consistency and form suggests Queensland Marine Services deserves to be the pre-race favourite to retain her lead however skipper John Galloway will need to finish in the top three to keep his trophy winning prospects alive.
by Ian Grant
12:14 AM Mon 19 May 2008 GMT
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