Audi Hamilton Island Race Week – All to play for in wrestle for podium

by Crosbie Lorimer on 21 Aug 2015 With one more day of racing the jockeying for podium spots at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week was in full swing today, August 21, 2015. In one or two of the divisions the leaders still have some wriggle room should they post a sub-par performance tomorrow, but for most it’s still game-on for the top three spots.

In the Racer Cruiser division Tony Walton’s Hartbreaker from the Royal Brighton Yacht Club in Victoria is holding first place by just one point. The Racer Cruisers sailed two windward/leewards today and the Reichel Pugh 46 started the morning with a disastrous last place, before dramatically turning their fortunes around and taking the gun in race two.

“The poor old crew were a tired and sorry lot this morning,” said Tony “but they finally seemed to wake up after race one and really turned it on for the second. Actually, this is all part of our strategy to keep the opposition off-guard; they’re now wondering whether we’re a bunch of amateurs or a thoroughly professional crew. So we’re going to look closely at our opposition for tomorrow and work out how to snuff them out!”

It’s still tight at the top of Cruising division one with four points separating Dave Rooke’s Virago II from Bob Bird and Paul White’s Whitebirds in second and Chris and Lauren Thorpe’s Miss Minx in third.

It’s close too in cruising division two with only three points separating Peter Williams’ Ceilidh from Chris McSorley’s Lunacy. Ian Thomson’s Vitesse and Peter Mumford’s eye-catching Avventura jointly hold third place.

David Pascoe’s Seawafer has a five point lead in cruising division three, despite a bad day at the office today with a 13th position. Roger Johnston’s Engarde and Jim Watson’s Windsong of Mornington share second place. But only three points separate second and ninth place, so there will be plenty to play for in this division tomorrow.

John Brand’s beautifully restored Star Ferry has an impressive seven point lead in the thirty boat Non Spinnaker division, ahead of Peter Edward’s Lafayette and Mike Walter’s Mim. Star Ferry is hoping to drop their 17th place in race four as their discard.

After yesterday’s dramas in the Racing Multihulls it was great to see the Stransky team back out on the water racing their rapidly patched-up Fantasia and turning their fortunes around with a second place. Wayne Bloomer’s ChillPill took the gun and holds second place overall behind Chris Williams’ Morticia and ahead of Peter Wilcox’s Mojo.

In the inaugural Trailables division David Barker’s Halcyon holds a commanding six point lead but remarkably will not be in a position to defend it tomorrow. “I’m hoping we’ve got enough in the bag to hold on to top spot, because we have to pull the pin today. My two crew are flying back to Victoria tomorrow morning, so we’ll be nervously waiting to check out the results on line tomorrow afternoon.”

David Davenport hails from Western Australia but keeps his boat Sea Mist on the East Coast so he can enjoy the winters in warmer climates. “Our boat’s a bit nomadic but we’ve never raced it before; so we’re really pleased to be holding top spot in the Multihull Cruising, division” said David, adding that his plans post Race Week include taking his UK-based mother and sister cruising. “My Dad used to get very seasick, so we didn’t sail much when he was alive. When I asked my mother recently if she wanted to come sailing she said, ‘when’s the next plane?’”

Place	Boat Name	Sail Num	Skipper	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1	VIRAGO II	6813	Dave Rooke	44.0	6.0	20.0	3.0	8.0	7.0
2	WHITEBIRDS	788	Bob Bird Paul White	45.0	7.0	6.0	11.0	18.0	3.0
3	MISS MINX	0505	Chris & Lauren Thorpe	48.0	10.0	12.0	9.0	11.0I	6.0
4	PHARLAP	8885	Sandy Spencer	53.0	5.0	8.0	13.0	1.0	26.0
5	PLATINUM	SM76	Chris Barlow	54.0	8.0	11.0	22.0I	12.0	1.0
6	MAXI RAGAMUFFIN	7007	Keith Batt	57.0	9.0	17.0	2.0	21.0	8.0
7	SMOOTH OPERATOR	SB509	Russell Durham	57.0	17.0	7.0	10.0	5.0	18.0
8	CONCERTO	SM5892	James Morris	60.0	4.0	4.0	14.0	15.0	23.0
9	ONE O NINE	1109	Robert Salteri	61.0	13.0	9.0	19.0	7.0	13.0
10	ALLEGRO	6723	Adrian Lewis	62.0	16.0	5.0	25.0	14.0	2.0
11	TAKANI	6981	James Whittle	62.0	21.0	14.0	4.0	13.0	10.0
12	SHAZAM	PD447	Doug Ryan	65.0	12.0	23.0	5.0	3.0	22.0
13	INFINITY	AUS52	Edward Fader	65.0	15.0	13.0	7.0	19.0	11.0
14	ZOE	98	Wayne Millar	66.0	20.0	25.0	1.0	11.0	9.0
15	ABRACADABRA	5612	James Murchison	67.0	25.0	10.0	12.0	4.0	16.0
16	VANISHING POINT	22000	T Ryan	73.0	2.0	1.0	23.0	22.0	25.0
17	HELSAL3	262	Rob Fisher	74.0	18.0	3.0	21.0	28.0F	4.0
18	L'ESPRIT	7041	Peter Byford	74.0	3.0	24.0	18.0	9.0	20.0
19	PILGRIM	E226	Paul Ley	76.0	23.0	19.0	15.0	2.0	17.0
20	CHRISTINE	S77	Paul Bunn	76.0	11.0	18.0	16.0	17.0	14.0
21	ENCORE	00100	T.Lewis J. Milledge	80.0	22.0	28.0O	8.0	10.0	12.0
22	LE COCHON NOIR V	NA	Roman Guerra	84.0	14.0	2.0	24.0	20.0	24.0
23	SILVER LINING	SM1155	Andrew McGrath	85.0	1.0	15.0	20.0	28.0F	21.0
24	FIRST LIGHT	6666	P White/ C Stannard	96.0	26.0	21.0	6.0	28.0R	15.0
25	XSCAPE	AUS501	John Foster	97.0	24.0	16.0	22.0	16.0	19.0
26	CONDOR	KB80	David Molloy	102.0	19.0	22.0	28.0C	28.0C	5.0
27	JOURNEY	SM61	Bryan Dorman	140.0	28.0C	28.0C	28.0C	28.0C	28.0C

 Cruising Division two

Place	Boat Name	Sail Num	Skipper	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1	CEILIDH	237	Peter Williams	53.0	6.0	10.0	11.0	8.0	18.0
2	LUNACY	SB445	Chris McSorley	55.0	14.0	11.0	16.0	12.0	2.0
3	VITESSE	1021	Ian Thomson	57.0	15.0	18.0	5.0	5.0	14.0
4	AVVENTURA	7044	Peter Mumford	57.0	9.0	14.0	18.0	9.0	7.0
5	KATE	R53	John Raff	58.0	23.0	9.0	7.0	13.0	6.0
6	AVANTI	B19	Philip Cormie	58.5	10.5	8.0	25.0	6.0	9.0
7	BEDFORDCA THREE CS	B45	Charles Cupit	59.0	7.0	15.0	19.0	17.0	1.0
8	CHARM OFFENSIVE		James Permezel	60.0	1.0	3.0	21.0	22.0	13.0
9	LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE	SM501	Sam Pavic	62.0	2.0	1.0	26.0	23.0	10.0
10	VANILLA	BOW17	David Perkins	62.0	24.0	4.0	20.0	10.0	4.0
11	COOPERS	3810	Craig Watson	63.0	20.0	6.0	24.0	1.0	12.0
12	KITE RUNNER	11000	Phil Jobe	65.0	16.0	13.0	10.0	4.0	22.0
13	THAT BOAT	6782	Darryle Dransfield	66.0	26.0	24.0	3.0	2.0	11.0
14	HOLY COW!	6797	John & Kim Clinton	66.0	13.0	2.0	22.0	21.0	8.0
15	BARUCH	SB560	Glenn Watson	67.0	8.0	7.0	23.0	24.0	5.0
16	SYNERGY	RQ410	Ron James	68.0	4.0	5.0	14.0	25.0	20.0
17	BUNDABERG	G16	John Kint	69.0	5.0	28.0F	17.0	16.0	3.0
18	LEE-WAY	135	Stephen Humpeis	69.0	18.0	21.0	8.0	3.0	19.0
19	KICKATINALONG	1317	Graeme Poole	72.0	3.0	12.0	27.0	7.0	23.0
20	UPSTART	L41	Michael Daly	77.0	21.0	16.0	9.0	14.0	17.0
21	MORTGAGECHOICE RUMBA	6232	K Burke/R Carr S Cook	78.0	17.0	28.0F	6.0	11.0	16.0
22	ERESSEA	6590	John Bankart	82.0	22.0	17.0	13.0	15.0	15.0
23	FLYINGFISH LET LOOSE	M604	Walter Jorgensen	83.5	10.5	19.0	4.0	26.0	24.0
24	WIDE LOAD	4198	Elaine William Alan Mcclintoc	89.0	19.0	22.0	2.0	20.0	26.0
25	LLOYDS TOO IMPETUOUS	3663	Rudy Weber	94.0	12.0	23.0	15.0	19.0	25.0
26	ELUSIVE	R6608	Rick Pacey	96.0	25.0	20.0	12.0	18.0	21.0
27	CHANTILLY	R56	Timothy Dutton	112.0	28.0C	28.0F	1.0	28.0F	27.0

Place	Boat Name	Sail Num	Skipper	Sers Score	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1	SEA WAFER	R473	David Pascoe	24.0	12.0	1.0	4.0	5.0	2.0
2	ENGARDE	B55	Roger Johnston	30.0	8.0	3.0	10.0	6.0	3.0
3	WINDSONG OF M'TON	M5	Jim Watson	30.0	9.0	10.0	3.0	4.0	4.0
4	D'EUPHORIA	6956	Mike Selbie	31.0	10.0	11.0	2.0	3.0	5.0
5	OASIS	662	Merv Stephensen	32.0	1.0	12.0	1.0	9.0	9.0
6	NORTHERN MOMENT	C192	Vic Stevens	32.0	4.0	8.0	9.0	10.0	1.0
7	KARMA	BOW27	David Angus	32.0	2.0	2.0	5.0	12.0	11.0
8	KAYAMI	BOW28	Brian Pozzey	32.0	5.0	6.0	12.0	2.0	7.0
9	OSCARS RIDE	RQ1982	Peter Driml	33.0	7.0	5.0	8.0	7.0	6.0
10	QUATTRO	F8	Jason Daisley/ C&C Monaghan	35.0	6.0	4.0	6.0	11.0	8.0
11	RHYTHM	BOW29	Ray Sweeney	38.0	11.0	9.0	7.0	1.0	10.0
12	ESCAPADE	C200	Mike Schmidt	41.0	3.0	7.0	11.0	8.0	12.0
13	SANUK 11	547	Harvey Michael	77.0	13.0	13.0	17.0C	17.0F	17.0C
14	CONDESA	BOW19	Mark Gaskell	81.0	17.0R	17.0F	17.0C	13.0	17.0C
15	PLUNDER	191	Ry Spalvins	81.0	17.0C	17.0C	17.0C	17.0C	13.0
16	SATISFACTION II	RQ725	Malcolm Wallace	85.0	17.0C	17.0C	17.0C	17.0F	17.0C