Brazilians extend at J24 Worlds

by Di Pearson on 19 Jan 2006 Just about everyone came ashore frustrated after a difficult day on the water at the 2006 J24 World Championship off Sandringham Yacht Club this afternoon – but not the Brazilians on Bruschetta, who despite patchy up and down winds, managed fourth and second places in Races 9 and 10 today at Sail Melbourne.

‘We had a bad day – no good – not happy,’ said Anna Sargenti on the Italian entry Black Jack, referring to their 18th and 14th places today. Luigi Ravioli’s boat seems to be going backwards since scoring 2-2-2 results on the opening day of the regatta.

Following a number of protests yesterday, overall placings changed. In Race 8, second placed Wataru Sakamoto (Siesta, JPN) moved from second overall down to fourth, which moved Inmarsat (Ian Southworth, GBR) up into second place and Black Jack (Luigi Ravioli, ITA) moved to third – but after today, they are fifth.

The Brazilian crew, skippered by Mauricio Santa Cruz, is having a better time of it on the J24 course on Port Phillip. Following a fourth and a second place, they hold a five point lead over the Wataru Sakamoto skippered Siesta (JPN), with the Brits, skippered by Ian Southworth (Inmarsat) retaining third place.

However, a new player emerged today when the American crew on Brain Cramp, skippered by Mike Ingham scored two bullets, moving them up from seventh into fourth place.

Surprisingly, the best placed Australian crew is in sixth place. Doug McGain and his crew on Code Violation finished their day with 22-6 results.

‘It was very challenging out there today, similar to last Thursday at the Nationals. In the first race, the breeze could have gone either way – we couldn’t get our heads around it – couldn’t pick the shifts, but the second race went right for us. We found the pressure and managed to hang on for sixth,’ McGain from Sydney said.

Asked was he surprised by the poor Aussie results, McGain said, ‘I guess I thought the local guys would do a bit better, but not the rest. The international standard here is really up there – they are world class. I guess I thought Sean Kirkjian (currently 10th) would be doing better.’

Kirkjian said he had set his boat up wrong. ‘We’ve re-set it now, so it feels better. Maybe I’m just having a bad week.’ He went on to say: ‘Winds were up and down – they had 30 knots at the airport and nearly as much in Bass Strait – I thought that’s what we’d get, but we only got up to 18 in the first race, but only 9 or 10 in the second.’

However, it could have been worse – as it was on the Neville Wittey steered Starpac. Wittey was involved in another collision on the start line today, prompting Starpac’s owner, Terry Wise to comment, ‘He’s old and cranky and obviously blind' Wittey winced 'I’m going to get off after this regatta and just be on the support boat'.

The 12 race series finishes at the host venue, Sandringham Yacht Club tomorrow. Officials plan holding the final two heats starting from 11.00am.

Other protests overnight resulted in disqualification for Grant Willmott (Crackerjack, AUS) and Stephen Girdis (Convicts Revenge, AUS) in Race 8. In Race 7, Neville Wittey (Starpac, AUS) was disqualified from Race 7, while Sueaki Murayama (Stella, JPN) was penalised in a Yellow Flag incident.

Overall positions after 10 races, 1 discard
1 BRA37 BRUSCHETTA Mauricio Santa Cruz 34pts 2 4 1 7 [13.0] 5 2 5 7 1
2 JPN5179 SIESTA Wataru Sakamoto 54 4 9 [41.0Q] 2 5 7 6 3 8 10
3 GBR4270 INMARSAT Ian Southworth 58 16 5 8 4 [41.0Q] 3 9 4 5 4
4 USA1208 BRAIN CRAMP Mike Ingham 65 1 1 13 10 10 4 [16.0] 12 3 11
5 ITA233 BLACK JACK Luigi Ravioli 73 14 18 3 [41.0O] 2 12 18 2 2 2
6 AUS186 CODE VIOLATION Doug McGain 78 6 22 7 6 8 1 5 8 15 [24.0]
7 USA1892 THE PIE David Klatt 83 3 8 11 18 18 11 [41.0Y] 1 4 9
8 AUS190 FLY EMIRATES Sean Wallis 88 [20.0] 16 14 12 1 14 1 9 6 15
9 JPN5289 CEREZO Yasutaka Funazawa 91 [40.0] 3 12.0Y 13 3 2 12 20 12 14
10 AUS145 DEATH STAR Sean Kirkjian 100 9 10 6 8 6 22 8 15 [23.0] 16
11 AUS171 PACEMAKER David Suda 108 5 19 5 3 14 6 20 18 [24.0] 18
12 GBR4268 CRAZY GOALS.CO.UK Jon Powell 116 19 7 19 [29.0Y] 12 15 3 7 11 23
13 AUS172 INNAMINCKA John Crawford 116 8 20 15 9 20 [25.0] 7 6 14 17
14 AUS160 KAOTIC Ben Lamb 129 17 11 9 1 9 16 [39.0Y] 22.0G 19 25
15 JPN4085 SLED Kazuyuki Hyodo 129 28 14 12 11 21 20 11 [28.0] 9 3
16 AUS198 SECURITY BLANKET Hugo Ottaway 136 12 12 18 19 16 21 4 27 [28.0] 7
17 JPN5260 GEKKO Satashi Kume 137 32 2 10 [41.0O] 11 17 10 23 26 6
18 AUS167 J-SPOT Michael Blackburn 139 11 [41.0F] 2 14 15 21.0Y 23 32 13 8
19 AUS161 CONVICTS REVENGE Stephen Girdis 144 23 17 [41.0Q] 5 4 9 15 22 27 22
20 AUS201 HYPERACTIVE Philip Coombs 154 10 24 25 16 [41.0F] 18 14 26 16 5
21 CAN4865 REX Scott Weakley 160 7 15 27 22 26 23 19 11 10 [31.0]
22 AUS128 JPEG Warren Sare 179 33 13 16 [41.0O] 22 24 24 10 25 12
23 AUS195 CRACKERJACK Grant Willmott 183 22 23 [41.0Q] 15 17 19 17 16 34 20
24 AUS206 STARPAC Neville Wittey 186 21.0Y 26 36.0Y [41.0Q] 7 8 13 31 17 27
25 JPN4907 DABOHAZE Kazuki Kumagai 192 27 6 20 26 24 [33.0] 28 14 28.0Y 19
26 USA2223 FIVE TO SIX Suzi Taylor 224 35 28 23 31 35 29 21 [35.0] 1 21
27 AUS193 WILDFIRE Kayne Binks 225 24 30 22 17 29 30 32 19 22 [38.0Y]
28 AUS66 NO EYE DEER Trevor Conyers 227 31 33 17 25 23 [37.0] 22 21 21 34
29 AUS184 ACE David West 236 25 21 24 28 28 [31.0] 27 25 29 29
30 JPN4855 STELLA Sueaki Murayama 241 26 32 26 28.0Y 25 32 26 [36.0] 18 28
31 AUS108 FUN Alyn Stevenson 242 30 29 21 33 19 26 25 29 30 [35.0]
32 CAN4013 SINGLE MALT Tadeusz Bartlewksi 243 15 27 41.0F 32 41.0F 10 34 30 [41.0Q] 13
33 BER3158 PACATACK Peter Ramsdale 257 18 37 29 29 27 35 [38.0] 17 32 33
34 JPN5019 ENTERPRISE Makoto Yamada 264 29 39 [41.0F] 23 34 40 29 13 31 26
35 BER3254 FOOLISH BEHAVIOR Mike Lewis 279 36 25 30 24 30 36 33 [37.0] 33 32
36 AUS205 MR BRIDGER Alister Morison 282 34 31 31 30 32 28 37 24 35 [37.0]
37 AUS170 WHISPER Neil Begley 284 21 34 32 27 33 27 36 34 [41.0O] 40
38 GBR127 GOOD COMPANY Peter Woolf 320 39 35 41.0F [41.0F] 31 34 30 38 36 36
39 JPN5016 SURFMAID Etsuro Kitauchi 328 38 38 33 35 37 38 [39.0] 33 38 38
40 NZL6 KICKING BOTTOM Simon Grain 339 37 36 41.0F 34 36 39 40 [41.0Q] 37 39

Sail Melbourne is made possible by the support of event sponsors: Sport & Recreation Victoria, Collex, Parks Victoria; associate sponsors Bayside City Council and Menere's BMW Brighton and support sponsors Ronstan International, Schenker Australia, City of Kingston and the City of Port Philip.