The Lakes Resort Hotel Skiff Sprint Series - Overall report
by Adam Wannan on 13 Apr 2015
The Lakes Resort Hotel Skiff Sprint Series Brian Outram
Easter weekend saw Skiffs Australia run a hugely successful 18ft Skiff regatta at West Lakes and Largs Bay in South Australia.
Adelaide came alive with seven of the fastest monohull skiffs in the world hitting the water with crews from interstate, including NSW and WA, taking part in the event.
Over the Friday and Saturday sailing took place in the picturesque and narrow West Lakes Rowing course, with fantastic viewing from event sponsor The Lakes Resort Hotel. The teams took Friday to famiiarise themselves with the race area and set up their boats, leaving Saturday for racing.
All seven teams found the light wind conditions and narrow race area quite tactical and a group decision to have all seven skiffs race together instead of the planned three boat knock out series, made for exciting close action...with each team pushing each other and the rules to the limit.
Wind shifts across the course allowed sailors an opportunity to capitalise on the shifts and gusty conditions as well as show off their boat handling. With these tricky conditions, each of the seven skiffs had their glamour moments with positions changing almost every second tack.
Race one was taken out, with a spectacular last lap comeback, by young Adelaide crew on Lexus after the Ella twins, Ella Bache and Ella Bache/DirtyDog dominated most of the race, swapping leaders, but got trapped on the wrong side the course, taking a bad shift going to the finish line.
Club Marine and the pink Ella Bachè dominated the racing during the afternoon with more bullets of wind and an increase in average wind speed. The new young Top Gun team impressively won the start in one race, leading the fleet early into the top mark.
Team Bartercard and Squid ink showed good speed and crew work to make good ground but the closeness of the fleet and short race times had them fighting for minor places.
At the end of the day, the teams were exhausted and retired back to the event sponsor accommodation, The Lakes Resort Hotel, where many people commented on how spectacular the boats and event looked, and how great it was being so close to the action as they relaxed on their balcony or at a table while enjoying their meal.
Sunday was totally different. The fleet moved to the open water of Largs Bay in a strong breeze and small chop. All teams had expected less wind and chose No1 big rigs which made for drama, action and epic cartwheels. The racing was dominated again by Club Marine and the pink Ella Bache, with capsizes a common occurrence. Lexus' pursuit of the leaders featured a text book nose dive, while conditions became too much for some teams to handle with Bartercard and Top Gun retiring in the final race of the day.
Final results came down to the last race with the local Lexus Team against the two experienced teams aboard Ella Bache Pink and Club Marine, with the Ella Bache/DirtyDog team opting out of racing with broken crew member.
With a spectacular finish to racing in a perfect freshening afternoon seabreeze, one point seperated the event winners Club Marine and Ella Bache Pink.
Results:
1st Club Marine Insurance..Kane Sinclair, Damian Carey, Mark Paparella
2nd Ella Bache...Owen Vale, Michael Ekert, Yianni Foufas
3rd Lexus of Adelaide...Alex Bath, Jacob Keough, Minh Pham
4th McLaren Vale Associates III Squid Ink Sparkling Shiraz...Trevor Dinham, James Murphy, Marcus Cooper, Lynton Trenorden
5th Ella Bache/DirtyDog Eyewear...Greg Paterson, Mitch Benson, John Black
6th Top Gun Adventure Flights Australia...Alex Blacker, Jacob Bainger, Lindsay Glaetzer
7th Team Bartercard...Adam Wannan, Shane Houston, Matt Allen
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/133328