Sports Boats Winter Nationals - Ocean Swell takes toll
by Darren Spence on 12 Jun 2015
Slingshot - ASBA Sports Boat Winter Nationals 2015 Teri Dodds
http://www.teridodds.com
The fleet at the third Australia Sports Boat Association Winter Nationals had a bit of everything to contend with on day one of the three day event being held at the home of winter sailing, Mooloolaba Yacht Club on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.
Wind, rain, sunshine, rain, massive swell, great rides and a few gear failures. This was just Race 1.
In the end, one race was all that was completed as the weather gods decided it was time to return to the bar.
Graham Sherring (Stay Tuned) and his crew from the Southport Yacht Club kept the boat under the sails (most of the time) and recovered well from a wipe out to take Race one on corrected time ahead of Brisbane VX One owner, Michael James (The Beast).
Rounding out the top three positions was Emma Peel (Jim Dwyer) from Sydney in the modified Elliott 7 and is also the leading boat in Division 2.
Crank (Andrew Wikland) won out in the line honours battle and enjoyed the ride of the day down the ocean swell to the finish.
With the two time event winner, Raptor, not able to defend their title this year, the gate is now wide open for the most consistent crew to step up. First to seventh overall all have different boat designs and shapes, so the SMS rating system for the class is doing it’s job. Now we just need Huey to behave to get the balance of the races in over the next two days.
Check out all the action, video and pictures from Teri Dodds Photography at the ASBA Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sportsboatsaus) and the results on the ASBA web site www.asba.org.au/event/2015-asba-winter-nationals.
Racing kicks off Saturday morning around 11am and concludes on Sunday.
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/135374
