Irwin and Perry reclaim 14ft Australian Skiffs

by Di Pearson on 20 Jan 2007 Lindsay Irwin and Andrew Perry have successfully defended their 2006 14ft Skiff National title, sailing Irwin Sails to two wins in Races 9 and 10 to claim the Championship from a well sailed Roger Blasse/Andrew Gilligan (Read Between the Lines) today on Corio Bay in Geelong at the International Skiff Regatta.

Going into today’s racing at the Sail Melbourne event conducted by the Royal Geelong Yacht Club, team Irwin had only a one point lead over Blasse; the two crews swapping the series lead over the past few days, but the Irwin Sails guys took the Championship by six points.

In the earlier Race 9, Blasse had the lead but, as Gilligan said: 'We were coming up to the gybe mark and it was tight between us and Lindsay. He was about three boat lengths behind and with 50 metres to go, we got a gust and had to drop our kite to round the mark.

Lindsay and Andrew went around under spinnaker and sailed through us. We almost got level again going upwind, but he had too much pace on downwind for us.'

Bad luck got in the way in Race 10; as Blasse/Gilligan faltered with a big capsize. 'It was at the gybe mark again – a Liberal voter got in our way and in we went,' Gilligan said tongue in cheek, referring to Stewart Vickery.

'We just didn’t do it right today – we had it all wrong. We sailed a good series though and we are happy with our second. It was a great competition between us and Lindsay and Andrew – close racing throughout.'

'The Race Committee did a great job considering the different and changing conditions they had to deal with – actually the whole event was superb,' said skipper Blasse, who like Irwin, is from the Black Rock Yacht Club in Melbourne where both are on the Committee and are friends.

Irwin and Perry were merciless in the up to 25 knots with gusts conditions on the course today, their experience showing. The 45 year old Irwin said of he and Blasse 'We are pretty good mates.'

Irwin added: 'I have been Champion eight times, nine with this one, and a world champion in 2005. I would have been happy to see Roger and Andrew win. They gave us great competition, which is good for us.'

The South Australian Grant Geddes/Dan Wilsdon crew on Boost, needed one today to stay in third place, but it was not to be, as the Flaunt It crew of Ron Scherwinksi/James Lanati came up with a fourth and a second today, giving them third place overall, making it a clean sweep for the Victorians.

Boost’s South Australian crew finished with seventh and fourth results, dropping them to fourth overall on the scoreboard.

Seven West Australians came to the event, the best placed of them Stuart Sloss/Ben Austin, sailing Snatch to 10th place. The lone New Zealand entry Matt Balmer/Jeff Causey (For the Ladies) finished 22nd and Andrew and Maureen Bates sailed their USA entry Extended Adolosense to a 32nd place.

As for Stewart Vickery, whose idea it was to hold the International Skiff Regatta, whilst sitting nicely in Race 9 today, he had contact with another entry and was forced to rush ashore to make quick repairs to his tiller extensions, making it back to the course just in time to sail the final Race 10. He and Tim Withall sailed Argo 16 to 12th place.

Vickery raced against his two brothers at this regatta, and it was Alan with crew Andrew Wilson (WAM) who had the best success in seventh place. A third brother Rob, with crew Chris Vaughan (Carbon Concepts) finished 21st.

Series Results [Class ET] for 14ft Skiff up to Race 10 (Drops = 1)

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Crew	From	Sers Score	Race 10	Race 9	Race 8	Race 7	Race 6	Race 5	Race 4	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		AUS631	IRWIN SAILS	Lindsay Irwin	Andrew Perry	VIC	18.00	1.00	1.00	[8.00]	2.00	2.00	1.00	4.00	1.00	5.00	1.00
2		AUS642	READ BETWEEN THE LIN	Roger Blasse	Andrew Gilligan	VIC	25.00	[14.00]	2.00	6.00	4.00	1.00	3.00	1.00	5.00	1.00	2.00
3		AUS646	FLAUNT IT	Ron Scherwinski	James Lanati	VIC	35.00	2.00	4.00	2.00	5.00	4.00	6.00	3.00	3.00	[15.00]	6.00
4		AUS640	BOOST	Grant Geddes	Dan Wilsdon	SA	38.00	4.00	7.00	3.00	[15.00]	5.00	2.00	7.00	2.00	3.00	5.00
5		AUS645	RAY AND THE CRAZY 88	Anthony Anderson	Philip Chadwick	VIC	44.00	3.00	3.00	9.00	1.00	10.00	5.00	2.00	7.00	[11.00]	4.00
6		AUS638	ROGER RAMJET	Alex Newman	Derek Layfield	VIC	53.00	12.00	5.00	1.00	[12.00]	6.00	7.00	5.00	10.00	4.00	3.00
7		AUS633	WAM	Alan Vickery	Andrew Wilson	VIC	63.00	6.00	6.00	11.00	6.00	7.00	4.00	[42.00F]	6.00	10.00	7.00
8		AUS643	Deep Water	Mark Kristic	Matthew Low	VIC	75.00	11.00	12.00	4.00	7.00	3.00	8.00	8.00	11.00	[13.00]	11.00
9		AUS639	ALEXANDER SAILS	Davifd Alexander	David Snoad	SA	85.00	9.00	[42.00C]	5.00	8.00	9.00	9.00	12.00	9.00	7.00	17.00
10		AUS626	SNATCH	Stuart Sloss	Ben Austin	WA	93.00	5.00	8.00	23.00	10.00	[25.00]	16.00	6.00	4.00	9.00	12.00
11		AUS608	PROLAMPS	Warren Sare	Rob Murdoch	WA	94.00	7.00	13.00	16.00	3.00	12.00	10.00	17.00	[42.00F]	8.00	8.00
12		AUS644	ARGO 16	Stewart Vickery	Tim Withall	VIC	110.50	8.00	[42.00F]	10.00	13.00	15.00	19.00	20.50	8.00	2.00	15.00
13		WA652	TARGET	Ray Hancock	David Bramley	WA	114.00	18.00	[42.00F]	15.00	9.00	18.00	12.00	15.00	12.00	6.00	9.00
14		AUS353	TWO DOGS	Stephen Edmunds	Michael Woodroffe	VIC	128.00	17.00	11.00	7.00	14.00	8.00	21.00	[42.00F]	23.00	17.00	10.00
15		AUS612	MORE GRUNT	Greg Coutts	Chris Killmore	VIC	135.00	16.00	16.00	13.00	18.00	14.00	18.00	11.00	17.00	12.00	[19.00]
16		AUS364	GREAT LEAP FORWARD	Ridhard Ekberg	Carl Cubitt	VIC	136.00	15.00	9.00	17.00	16.00	[24.00]	17.00	19.00	15.00	14.00	14.00
17		AUS602	THE PEST	Glen Tincombe	Ian Furlong	WA	141.00	13.00	15.00	22.00	20.00	[42.00F]	14.00	9.00	13.00	19.00	16.00
18		630	SLIVER	Brec Mitton	Silas Nolan	SA	149.00	25.00	14.00	14.00	11.00	20.00	15.00	16.00	16.00	18.00	[42.00F]
19		AUS10	CARBON COMET	Luke Devine	Adam Green	WA	168.00	10.00	10.00	20.00	19.00	17.00	20.00	10.00	42.00C	[42.00F]	20.00
20		AUS610	CARBON CONCEPTS	Robert Vickery	Christopher Vaughan	VIC	174.00	20.00	21.00	18.00	17.00	[26.00]	11.00	23.00	18.00	24.00	22.00
21		AUS641	ELLIOTT INDUSTRIES	Cameron Elliott	Bruce Rollerson	WA	177.50	19.00	20.00	12.00	28.00	42.00F	[42.00C]	13.50	14.00	16.00	13.00
22		NZL41	FOR THE LADIES	Matt Balmer	Jeff Causey	NZ	185.00	21.00	18.00	31.00	25.00	13.00	13.00	18.00	[42.00O]	22.00	24.00
23		AUS514	MEXICAN WAVE	David Hayter	Matt Johnston	SA	198.50	[42.00F]	19.00	26.00	24.00	27.00	24.00	13.50	19.00	25.00	21.00
24		AUS647	JKM	Mark Elsworthy	Jason King	VIC	199.50	42.00C	17.00	27.00	22.00	11.00	[42.00F]	20.50	22.00	20.00	18.00
25		AUS629	MISS MATCH	Rick De Jong	James Rudolph	VIC	209.00	22.00	23.00	21.00	21.00	[30.00]	23.00	26.00	21.00	23.00	29.00
26		AUS628	DONKEY ON THE EDGE	Philip Strong	Jeff Klemm	VIC	225.00	23.00	22.00	[35.00]	27.00	29.00	27.00	24.00	24.00	26.00	23.00
27		AUS636	RIDE EM + WRECK EM	Andrew Low	Peter Dowdney	Vic	228.00	24.00	27.00	[29.00]	26.00	28.00	22.00	27.00	27.00	21.00	26.00
28		AUS345	FRANKSTON TOYOTA	David Mcgeoch	Luka Dogan	VIC	239.00	29.00	24.00	19.00	42.00F	16.00	[42.00F]	28.00	26.00	27.00	28.00
29		AUS553	MUPPET	Oliver Merz	Charlie Bellwood	NSW	243.00	26.00	26.00	25.00	32.00	21.00	[42.00F]	29.00	25.00	32.00	27.00
30		AUS309	LYNX	Benjamin Strong	Robert Scrivenor	VIC	252.00	27.00	25.00	33.00	29.00	22.00	25.00	[42.00S]	28.00	30.00	33.00
31		AUS601	WALKING ON WATER	Graeme Everett	Garry Sloss	WA	256.00	42.00C	42.00C	28.00	23.00	23.00	[42.00C]	25.00	20.00	28.00	25.00
32		USA609	EXTNEDED ADOLESENSE	Andrew Bates	Maureen Bates	USA	258.00	28.00	28.00	24.00	31.00	31.00	26.00	30.00	29.00	31.00	[31.00]
33		AUS605	TONKA TUFF	Scott Davis	Bryn Richards	VIC	272.00	42.00C	[42.00C]	30.00	30.00	19.00	28.00	33.00	31.00	29.00	30.00
34		AUS355	HOLDFAST MARINE	Peter Roberts	Ryan Blackstock	VIC	297.00	31.00	29.00	37.00	35.00	36.00	29.00	32.00	30.00	38.00	[42.00F]
35		AUS362	ADDICTION	Adam Evans	Jon Evans	VIC	307.50	30.00	42.00F	32.00	42.00C	32.00	42.00F	22.00	[42.00F]	33.50	32.00
36		N227	DUKES	David McCrudden	Kate Cooper	NSW	314.50	32.00	30.00	38.00	33.00	33.00	42.00C	31.00	42.00C	33.50	[42.00R]
37		AUS363	ARGO14	Martin Cooper	Todd Cousens	VIC	333.00	42.00C	42.00C	34.00	34.00	34.00	42.00F	36.00	32.00	37.00	[42.00F]
38	34.0S	AUS481	COTTEE'S ELECTRICAL	Jamie Cottee	Todd Cottee	ACT	360.00	42.00C	42.00C	36.00	42.00C	38.00	42.00F	34.00	42.00C	42.00F	[42.00C]
39		N278	SEATEC GET IT ON	Barrie King	Bruce Nicholson	NSW	360.00	42.00C	42.00C	42.00C	36.00	37.00	42.00F	35.00	42.00F	42.00F	[42.00F]
40		AUS342	LONGBOW	Brian Long	Colin Long	VIC	365.00	42.00C	42.00C	42.00C	42.00F	35.00	42.00C	42.00F	42.00C	36.00	[42.00F]
41		AUS347	LOVEBONE	Paul Thompson	Ian Dimond	WA	371.00	42.00C	42.00C	42.00C	42.00C	42.00C	42.00C	42.00C	42.00F	35.00	[42.00F]