Three way battle at 14ft Skiff Nationals

by Di Pearson on 15 Jan 2007 Two Victorian and one South Australian entry are battling it out for the top prize at the 14ft Skiff National Championship in the International Skiff Regatta hosted by the Royal Geelong Yacht Club.

The series is shaping up to be a fight to the end. In one corner of the triangle is Lindsay Irwin and Andrew Perry (Irwin Sails) out to defend their title and currently leading by one point following a fifth and a bullet in today’s races four and five.

In the second corner is OK Dinghy world champ Roger Blasse and his crew Andrew Gilligan (Read Between the Lines) who also came up with a win and a fifth at the Sail Melbourne event, with the South Australian pair Grant Geddes/Dan Wilsdon (Boost) just two points behind.

'We got away from them in the first race early on, then a few of them caught us up and then we got away again,' said Blasse’s crew Gilligan on coming ashore.

'We had magnificent racing here again today – it was tough but good,' the Black Rock sailor added.

Western Australia has also fielded a team in this event, their eight crews from the Perth Dinghy Club have not sailed on Corio Bay before this event. Stuart Sloss/Ben Austin (Snatch) are the best placed in ninth place overall following a ninth and fourth places this afternoon.

'We had a better day today – a day of improving,' crew Austin said. 'We enjoyed the races, there was a bit of place switching going on; lots more people to play with today. It was nice during the second race, we were getting more breeze – I’d love a big breeze race,' he said.

Further down the list in 15th place overall are fellow West Aussie Glen Tincombe and Ian Furlong (The Pest). 'We travel a lot to the various Championships – but at least a lot of us get together and send the boats by container now, which makes it easier,' Tincombe, who has sailed 14s for the past 25 years said.

'It’s beautiful conditions here, magic,' Tincombe continued, 'but I wouldn’t mind a bit of a blow. Sailing here is fairly similar to sailing on the Swan at home. In WA they’ve been sailing 14s for over 105 years now, which could be a bit of a record,' he said.

The Sail Melbourne 14ft Skiff Nationals with a 42 boat entry is being sailed on Corio Bay and continues with two further races tomorrow starting from 3.00pm.

Results:

Series Results [Class ET] for 14ft Skiff up to Race 3 (Drops = 0)

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		AUS631	IRWIN SAILS	Lindsay Irwin	VIC	7.00	1.00	5.00	1.00
2		AUS642	READ BETWEEN THE LIN	Roger Blasse	VIC	8.00	5.00	1.00	2.00
3		AUS640	BOOST	Grant Geddes	SA	10.00	2.00	3.00	5.00
4		AUS638	ROGER RAMJET	Alex Newman	VIC	17.00	10.00	4.00	3.00
5		AUS645	RAY AND THE CRAZY 88	Anthony Anderson	VIC	22.00	7.00	11.00	4.00
6		AUS633	WAM	Alan Vickery	VIC	23.00	6.00	10.00	7.00
7		AUS646	FLAUNT IT	Ron Scherwinski	VIC	24.00	3.00	15.00	6.00
8	2.0S	AUS644	ARGO 16	Stewart Vickery	VIC	25.00	8.00	2.00	15.00
9		AUS626	SNATCH	Stuart Sloss	WA	25.00	4.00	9.00	12.00
10		WA652	TARGET	Ray Hancock	WA	27.00	12.00	6.00	9.00
11		AUS639	ALEXANDER SAILS	Davifd Alexander	SA	33.00	9.00	7.00	17.00
12		AUS643	Deep Water	Mark Kristic	VIC	35.00	11.00	13.00	11.00
13	13.0S	AUS641	ELLIOTT INDUSTRIES	Cameron Elliott	WA	43.00	14.00	16.00	13.00
14		AUS364	GREAT LEAP FORWARD	Ridhard Ekberg	VIC	43.00	15.00	14.00	14.00
15		AUS602	THE PEST	Glen Tincombe	WA	48.00	13.00	19.00	16.00
16		AUS353	TWO DOGS	Stephen Edmunds	VIC	50.00	23.00	17.00	10.00
17		AUS612	NA1	Greg Coutts	VIC	52.00	21.00	12.00	19.00
18		AUS608	PROLAMPS	Warren Sare	WA	59.00	43.00F	8.00	8.00
19		AUS647	JKM	Mark Elsworthy	VIC	60.00	22.00	20.00	18.00
20		AUS610	CARBON CONCEPTS	Robert Vickery	VIC	63.00	17.00	24.00	22.00
21		AUS514	MEXICAN WAVE	David Hayter	SA	64.00	18.00	25.00	21.00
22	19.0S	AUS601	WALKING ON WATER	Graeme Everett	WA	72.00	19.00	28.00	25.00
23		AUS629	MISS MATCH	Rick De Jong	VIC	72.00	20.00	23.00	29.00
24		AUS628	DONKEY ON THE EDGE	Philip Strong	VIC	73.00	24.00	26.00	23.00
25		AUS636	RIDE EM + WRECK EM	Andrew Low	Vic	74.00	27.00	21.00	26.00
26		630	SLIVER	Brec Mitton	SA	77.00	16.00	18.00	43.00F
27		AUS345	FRANKSTON TOYOTA	David Mcgeoch	VIC	81.00	26.00	27.00	28.00
28		AUS553	MUPPET	Oliver Merz	NSW	84.00	25.00	32.00	27.00
29		NZL41	FOR THE LADIES	Matt Balmer	NZ	89.00	43.00O	22.00	24.00
30		AUS605	TONKA TUFF	Scott Davis	VIC	90.00	31.00	29.00	30.00
31	28.0S	AUS309	LYNX	Benjamin Strong	VIC	91.00	28.00	30.00	33.00
32		USA609	EXTNEDED ADOLESENSE	Andrew Bates	USA	91.00	29.00	31.00	31.00
33		AUS10	CARBON COMET	Luke Devine	WA	106.00	43.00C	43.00F	20.00
34		AUS362	ADDICTION	Adam Evans	VIC	108.50	43.00F	33.50	32.00
35		AUS355	HOLDFAST MARINE	Peter Roberts	VIC	111.00	30.00	38.00	43.00F
36		AUS363	ARGO14	Martin Cooper	VIC	112.00	32.00	37.00	43.00F
37		N227	DUKES	David McCrudden	NSW	119.50	43.00C	33.50	43.00R
38		AUS347	LOVEBONE	Paul Thompson	WA	121.00	43.00F	35.00	43.00F
39		AUS342	LONGBOW	Brian Long	VIC	122.00	43.00C	36.00	43.00F
40		615	TBA	John Taylor	VIC	129.00	43.00C	43.00C	43.00F
40		N278	SEATEC GET IT ON	Barrie King	NSW	129.00	43.00F	43.00F	43.00F
40		AUS481	COTTEE'S ELECTRICAL	Jamie Cottee	ACT	129.00	43.00C	43.00F	43.00C