McNeill on track to win Etchells Worlds

by Ian Grant on 5 Aug 2004 Lake Macquarie sail maker Peter McNeill has capitalised on sensible tactics and outstanding crew support from Paul Turner and former Olympian Greg Torpy to lead the 2004 ACE World Etchells championship contested off Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

He and his Tom Pepper XVII have been remarkably consistent in all six energy absorbing races sailed in a mixed range of winds that have blown from most points of the compass.

McNeill was in a similar position to win the 1993 Australian championship on the same course only to lose that title to the Americas Cup ace Dennis Conner in the final heat.

However he has since matured into a much tougher campaigner and a very clever one-design racing tactician to utilize the speed he has created from his personally made sails.

This marginal speed advantage has reflected in the way that he and crew have generally mastered the very competitive fleet to score 2-8-11-(13)-9-4 and 34 points to lead the series by 13 points from the 1999 World champion Cameron Miles from Pittwater while Mornington Yacht Club skipper Grant Wharington (Satu 11) slipped into third place six points behind the Miles skippered Pacesetter.

McNeill sailed onto the course today some what under pressure with a two point lead over Miles however he elected to race conservatively reading the variable advantages in the tricky offshore westerly which bent right and increased in velocity to a recorded 24 knots to finish with 9-4 compared with 11-OCS for Miles while the Satu 11 crew which scored a 49 in heat one are on the improve scoring a 19-17-4-10-3.

Only ten points split the next six places with South Australian Olympian Chris Pratt holding fourth place on 58 points with Squid followed by Tasmanian Andrew Hunn (Zulu) 59, Americas Cup champion Dennis Conner (Menace) 62, Victorian Glen Collins (Satu) 66, Queensland’s Jason Muir (Racer XY) 67 and New South Wales Julian Plante (Odyssey) 68.