Living Doll in the pink, by 13 seconds

by Al Constable on 13 Aug 2006 The fourth race in the 17th annual Airlie Beach regatta, the 34 mile Pine Island Race was sailed in perfect 20-25 knot breezes today.

Michael Hiatt’s Cookson 50 Living Doll, sailing with her canting keel fixed, led her Kiwi rival from the start and it was not until Anatole Masfen’s Pussy Galore reached Funnel Bay that the Auckland boat was able to use her canting ballast advantage to reach the front.

However, the Living Doll crew sailed hard, stayed out of the current and worked the shifts to stay close up the beat. She suffered no disadvantage downwind and finished less than 30 seconds behind Pussy Galore.

Michael Hiatt's Living Doll won narrowly on handicap, with Ray Robert's DK46 Quantum Racing second and Douglas Williment's Sydney 38 The Bigger Picture, in third.

Dockside Roberts commented; ‘We had the two Cookson’s on time comfortably up the work, on the reach they extended, that is definitely their best point of sail. We tried hard, we had the jib top reacher, the staysail, the lot but they got away and we were just beaten on handicap by Living Doll, by 13 seconds.'

Hiatt and his Victorian crew seem to have struck a pink patch, they won the 930 mile Sydney to Mackay race and are now leading this regatta.

Overall after four races, Living Doll (2,1,2,1) is ahead of Quantum Racing (3,2,1,2) and Pussy Galore (1,6,3,5).

In the Premier Cruising Division, AfterNoon, Greg MacMahon's Beneteau 44.7 enjoyed a win, with 'Robbo' Robertson's Bavaria Match 42 Monkey Magic second, followed by the Bavaria Match 35, Match Point (Graham Donnell).

Overall in this division, AfterNoon leads the pointscore with consistent top placings (2,2,1), followed by Monkey Magic (5,1,2) and Wayne Millar's Townsville based Zoe (1,4,4).

In the Sports Boat division, in Race 3, Julian Golding's Charley, who retired on Day 1 with a broken wing, triumphed over Tom Jordan's Liquid Tactics, from Chris William's Team G.U.E.

In Race 4, Team G.U.E. took the top podium position, with Road Warriors (Steve Battley) and So What (Franco Bortolin), second and third.

After four races, Liquid Tactics leads the fleet (1,2,2,7) ahead of Team G.U.E. (5,4,3,1) and Road Warriors (3,3,5,2).

In Race 3 in the Trailable Division, Spud Gun (Bernie Ryan) finished the day on top, with Key Largo (Lea Forster) and the consistent Baker's Dough (Charles Baker) completing the placings.

In Race 4, placings were exactly the same as in Race 3.

Baker's Dough (2,1,3,3), Spud Gun (1,9,1,1) and Key Largo (5,4,2,2) currently hold the top three overall positions.

In the Cruising with Spinnaker division, Race 3 on Day 3 David Simpson's Zulu Chief was elevated to the top position, with Magellan (Hendrick Knoop) and Hans-On, the Hanse 371 (Colin Thomas and Nick Cox) filling second and third place.

The overall points score in this division is headed by Hans-on (2,3,3), followed by Magellan (6,2,2) and today's winner, Zulu Chief (13,5,1).

In PHS, consistent 'locals' Greg Tobin and Charlie Preen on Dehler Magic repeated yesterday's win to again take top spot in Race 3, with Mistery second (Urs Waldmeier) and Immigrant (Jeff Paul) taking third. In Race 4, it was Dehler Magic again, with Restless (Kane Davidson) and Immigrant again third.

Overall, Dehler Magic (2,1,1,1) is clear of the pack, with Restless (1,3,6,2) second and Harbour Lights (3,2,4,4) third.

In the Cruising without Spinnaker division, the New Zealand crewed Chillie (Peter Hutchinson) won the day in Race 3, with local Whitsunday Sailing Club sailors, Lachlan Wilson on Felicity and John Hudson on Lady Hawke filling the minor positions.

Overall, Felicity (3,1,2) leads the division, with another Whitsunday Sailing Club local, Mick Phillips (1,3,5) on Shearwater second. Chillie completes the placings (8,4,1).

More stories from the weeks racing tomorrow morning, along with the protest results.

Full results at www.airliebeachraceweek.com.