Sydney 38 One Design racing tightest of the Telstra Cup. Top six in 80 seconds.

by Ian Grant on 17 Dec 2000 In a tight and exciting Sydney 38 Class, ThE Business skippered by Vaughan Stibbard, headed the championship race by two points clear of Sydney to Hobart dual winner Lou Abrahams, aboard his newly launched Another Challenge going into the final race today.

ThE Business had an excellent start in the light conditions and again had the best first work and stretched her advantage in the prevailing 5-8 knot sea breeze.

After the first spinnaker reach she was 10 lengths ahead of The Big Picture (Harry Hertzberg) and the Michael Jones helmed Obsession.

Another Challenge (Lou Abrahams) looked in good shape as she approached the mark, suffered when she was wind shadowed on the run and lost at least four boat lengths in bad air.

By the weather mark on the second beat Blowfly had caught ThE Business and took a narrow lead while Another Challenge climbed back into the race to close the gap as the wind increased to 16 knots over the deck.

Barry Moore's Blowfly crew produced tight tactics to defend their lead eventually sailing to a 40 second win over ThE Business with the next five boats and the next 5 boats completing a blanket finish just seconds apart.
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ThE Business held a seven second margin over Another Challenge, with the fast finishing doctorglobal with Craig Malouf and Matt Wenke only 16 seconds back. Victorian Harry Hertzberg finished his regatta only 14 seconds further back with a big grin on his face.

Provisional Final Points After seven races (1Discard): ThE Business (Vaughan Stibbard,NSW) 329 pts 1, Another Challenge (Lou Abrahams,Vic) 326 pts 2, Blowfly (Barry Moore,NSW) 316 pts 3, The Big Picture (Harry Hertzberg,Vic) 313 pts 4, Obsession (Michael Jones,NSW) 311 pts 5, 38 Degrees South (John Savage,Vic) 305 pts 6, doctorglobal.com (Craig Malouf / Matt Wenke,NSW) 304 pts 7.