Rush Claims National One Design Championship

by Ian Grant on 26 Aug 2003 Highly skilled Royal Prince Alfred Yacht club one-design helmsman Cameron Miles staked his claim to win the Hahn Premium Australian Sydney 38 class championship with Rush off Hamilton Island today.

Miles a former World Etchells champion has expressed his cool tactical skill over the past three races but left his best performance for today’s exciting race to score a 1 minute 38 second win over his New South Wales rival AMI Jade (Peter McNamara) with the defending champion Another Challenge (Lou Abrahams) of Victoria another 1 minute 7 seconds away.

The winning margin is considered to be a runway in a class which starts the race with each crew having an equal chance due to their strict one-design rules.

But Miles and his equally skilled crew on Rush created unmatched speed built from a race strategy which was in tune with the prevailing winds that were spiced with some unpredictable 20 degree direction changes.

Rush assumed command with a good start in clear wind and the option to sail their own private course.

They were never under threat at any stage after the initial windward beat leaving the balance of the fleet led by AMI, Jade, Another Challenge and Easy Tiger (Chris Way) to stage their own match race for the minor places.

Miles never looked back when the crew stowed the spinnaker at the end of the first run.

All he had to do was make the clever decisions to sail every wind direction change on merit to win the race and pilot Rush into the overall lead in the championship.

Rush completed the 10nml windward leeward course in a slow 1 hour 50 minutes 29 seconds but the result proved to be invaluable for the Rush crew who are now in the box seat to dictate with their 7-2-7-1-3-1 score followed by Another Challenge 3-5-2-2-1-3 and AMI Jade 6-3-4-3-2-2.