Searle and Ramus in tight B14 Worlds title win

by Event Media/GN on 14 Jan 2006 The CST Composites B14 World Championships on Sydney Harbour went down to the wire, but in the end it was Briton's Matt Searle and Andy Ramus (Gutted Hedgehog) who won.

With everything depending on the final days racing, any one of four GBR teams could take the title. COnditions were a light to moderate SE breeze (8-12 knots) with grey skies and intermittent rain. Race 8 with a pin bias in Taylor Bay, saw the fleet split left and right off the line at the second attempt after a general recall.

At the windward mark the leaders had played the right centre of the beat and were AT&T (Tim Fells/Sean Dwyer), CSC (Chris Bines/Dave Gibbons), Gutted Hedgehog (Matt Searle/Andy Ramus), and Ronstan (Jono Pank/Richard Edwards).

On the run back to the leeward gate it was all about staying in the pressure with the leaders coming out of the left hand side and Readycrest (Mark Barnes/Tom Pygall) jibing on the puffs down the centre of the course closing into the top ten from well back in the fleet.

The leaders went left with the exception of Gutted Hedgehog going right. At the top mark the lead bunch remained the same with Boatracer.co.uk (Nils Jolliffe/Jonathon Branch) working their way to the front followed by AT&T, CSC and Ronstan. The majority of the fleet jibed at the top mark and headed down the left hand side with Readycrest continuing to work the puffs down the middle.

In a very tight finish the lead changed five times with Readycrest maintaining course position and holding out AT&T. This resulted in Boatracer.co.uk coming into the committee boat end on starboard and taking first only to be OCS’d. This resulted in Mark Barnes and Thomas Pygall (GBR) ahead of Chris Bines and Dave Gibbons (GBR), Tim Fells and Sean Dwyer (GBR) were third.

The second race got under way at the first attempt with a pin bias from Taylor Bay. The fleet again split left and right off the line with the boats that could stay in pressure and negotiate the shifts at the top of the course emerging as the leaders. First round was CSC with PICA (Jamie Mears/Matt Gill), AT&T and Bang Bang (Kieran Livermore/Tim Austin) in close proximity to the following pack.

The leaders again predominantly sought the pressure on the left hand side of the run with The Nude (Ritchie Reynolds/Liss McMillan) gaining the most and leading round the leeward mark. At the top mark the leaders came out of the left with Buggar the Bone (Richard Fisher/Stuart McDonnell) rounding in the top 3.

On the next beat those that went left lost out as the wind shifted 15 degrees to the right. The big beneficiaries of this were the Plumbers, Peter Ray and Gareth Wells (AUS) who led round the windward mark and maintained their lead to the finish. They were followed home by Bines and Gibbons again taking second, this time ahead of James Mears and Matt Gill (GBR).

Searle and Ramus were down in tenth but just ahead of Nils Jolliffe and Jon Branch (GBR) which with the OCS in the earlier race finished their title hopes.

Due to unstable light breeze and time restrictions Race 10 was not sailed.

On arriving ashore there were two protests that impacted the results. The first between PICA and Gutted Hedgehog resulted in Gutted Hedgehog being disqualified from race 8. The other protest did not proceed which involved Boatracer.co.uk for OCS infringement in Race 8.

This resulted in Briton's Matt Searle and Andy Ramus (Gutted Hedgehog)
winning a very tightly contested World Championships and being the only boat to win two races.

Final leading positions after 9 races, 2 discards:
1 GBR773 Gutted Hedgehog M Searle A Ramus 27.0pts [10.0] [36.0Q] 6.0 2.0 8.0 3.0 1.0 6.0 1.0
2 GBR772 PICA J Mears M Gill 28.0pts 3.0 [10.0] 2.0 1.0 5.0 5.0 4.0 8.0 [10.0]
3 GBR758 AT&T T Fells S Dwyer 28.0pts 7.0 3.0 4.0 4.0 1.0 6.0 [12.0] 3.0 [7.0]
4 GBR741 CSC C Bines D Gibbons 30.0pts 2.0 2.0 9.0 3.0 2.0 [10.0] [11.0] 9.0 3.0
5 GBR764 Boatracer.co.uk N Jolliffe J Branch 32.0pts 9.0 [36.0O] 3.0 [9.0] 3.0 7.0 5.0 1.0 4.0
6 GBR768 Readycrest M Barnes T Pygall 43.0pts 4.0 1.0 [23.0] 13.0 4.0 [18.0] 14.0 2.0 5.0
7 AUS368 The Nude R Reynolds L McMillan 49.0pts 5.0 [14.0] 7.0 5.0 7.0 12.0 [36.0F] 11.0 2.0
8 GBR771 Ronstan J Pank R Edwards 64.0pts 14.0 4.0 1.0 11.0 11.0 [16.0] 13.0 10.0 [37.0O]
9 AUS373 Nerdwork M Johnson M Halkes 68.0pts [28.0] 7.0 14.0 8.0 [23.0] 4.0 3.0 15.0 17.0
10 AUS370 The Plumbers P Ray G Wells 71.0pts 1.0 5.0 [21.0] [18.0] 16.0 11.0 9.0 17.0 12.0

Event website: http://www.woollahrasailingclub.org.au