Club Marine/Lexus Lincoln Week Regatta - Overall report
by Harry Fisher on 27 Feb 2015
Kym Clarke's Fresh racing on the final day of the Lincoln Week regatta. Harry Fisher
TP-52 Secret Mens Business, skippered by Geoff Boettcher, has taken out the 2015 Club Marine/Lexus Lincoln Week regatta in dominant fashion.
Finishing the fifth and final race of the regatta with a third on IRC, Secret Mens clinched the overall result ahead of a fast finishing Concubine, skippered by Jason Ward.
Concubine finished off their Lincoln Week campaign on a high on Thursday with an IRC win in the fifth and final race of the regatta, which secured second place ahead of Andrew Corletto's Shining Sea in third.
After a three-hour on shore postponement on the final day due to light winds, the fleet eventually got on the water for one out of the two scheduled races in a northeasterly breeze around five knots.
Unfortunately, principal race officer Mike Rogers was not able to start a second race after 1.30pm and sent the racing division back to the marina after the conclusion of the first windward/leeward race.
The cruising division had a day race that was scheduled to finish in front of the Port Lincoln Yacht Club in Boston Bay however due to the light winds and the risk of a dying breeze, they shortened the course to an earlier mark.
It was close racing off the start line in the final race for division one with Secret Mens Business and Rob Date's Scarlet Runner closer than they had been all week.
After the first of three laps, Secret Mens was able to edge further ahead and eventually finished well ahead of Scarlet Runner beating them on IRC with a race result of third.
Behind Concubine on division one IRC in the final race was Aikin in second who, after a difficult first day, ended up with some great results and showed what they were capable of.
The inclusion of Wild Rose skipper and three time Sydney to Hobart handicap winner Roger Hickman proved to be an advantage on the tactical front, with Aikin matching it closely on the course with boats much bigger and finishing with quality IRC results.
Unfortunately they finished fifth on overall IRC due to having to carry a non-result from the first day where crew member Dave Royle suffered a head injury during a bottom mark rounding.
The division one IRC results finished with Secret Mens in first, Concubine in second and Shining Sea in third.
On AMS it was a similar story with Secret Mens winning overall however the rest of the podium was flipped with Shining Sea in second and Concubine in third.
In division one PHS, the fleet was spread wide open with some extremely competitive results and only two points separating the top four boats and two boats finishing equal for third.
Concubine won the division ahead of David Knights' Sydney 38 White Knight in second and Kym Clarke's Fresh in third.
Fresh was unlucky not to come away with the win after a disappointing final race dropped them from first place to third overall.
In division two, Jonathan Newbury's Sextant proved to be the dominant boat with convincing overall wins on both IRC and AMS as well as a second place on PHS handicap.
Sextant made mince meat of the division two fleet and has been no stranger at the daily presentations throughout the week consistently receiving prizes for race wins under all rating systems.
Behind them on IRC was the only other competitor in the division registered for IRC in Bacardi, skippered by Martin Power.
On overall division two AMS, Sextant was followed by Doug Gladman's Peer Gynt in second and Pete and Marissa Chalkley's Hush in third.
In division two PHS, Peter Montgomery's Blue Max finished first ahead of Sextant in second and Paul McGeever's Splitter in third.
The five-strong fleet of Sydney 38s sailed in their own division as well as in division one for the regatta and finished with some close results.
Heading in to the final day, Seb Bohm's Slipknot was equal on points with White Knight however a disappointing final day from the Slipknot team put them behind on the final overall result.
White Knight sailed a fast final race to take the convincing win over Slipknot in second to win by a point.
In third place sailing a consistent regatta was Derek Morrison's The Asylum who had some good results but wasn't quite within striking distance of the top two boats come the end of the regatta.
The cruising boats sailed four long races over the four days to constitute their regatta and after the week was said and done it was David Smallacombe's Steeple Jack winning the overall result on a countback ahead of Paul Richards' Tanqueray in second.
Tanqueray led overall going in to the final day however after finishing with a fourth in the final race, ended up second overall behind Steeple Jack.
Brian Hill's Jupiter was also not far off the pace finishing in third overall a point behind first and second.
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