Australian Mid-Winter Etchells championship Day 1

by Tracey Johnstone on 8 Jun 2007 It was a tough day on the water for crews and race management in day one of the Discovermaroochy 2007 Etchells Australian Winter Championship.

Wind shifts, poor tactical decisions and early starters all made for upsets amongst the top challengers.

It was a disappointing day for Victorian Ian Johnson who took out line honours in race one only to find himself disqualified for being over the line early at the start.

Second on the line but awarded the race one win was David Rose from Brisbane. Rose raced his boat War of the Roses consistently around the course never out of the top three around the marks.

Current national Etchells champion Skip Lissiman would have been disappointed by a second place after leading the fleet by two boat lengths at the last mark.

There were three boats across the start line early including 2004 Etchells world champion Peter McNeill. He finished ninth place but now carries a disqualification due to his early start.

Defending Etchells winters champion Cameron Miles never got into the top ten of the fleet struggling to get out of the pack and pick the wind shifts. Victorian John Bertrand found himself in similar circumstances, outside of the top ten throughout the 90 minute race to finish eleventh.

The sole New Zealand entry, Alastair Gair, finished seventh in the 52-boat fleet.

The breeze gusted to 24 knots and swung north-west to west during the race. Sea conditions were flat. The second race started in steadier westerly breezes that backed off to a maximum of 15 knots.

The boats that took the left hand side of the course on the first leg as it swung and softened benefited against the rest of the fleet with Cameron Miles finally showing his expertise on the waters off Mooloolaba by rounding the top mark first followed by Brisbane sailor Mick O'Brien, then Rupert Henry from Sydney. Miles was around the top mark for the second time 55 seconds ahead of his nearest rival Lake Macquarie sailor Grant Turnbull.

The second race scored a hard hit again on some of the fleet's best sailors with Gair, Bertrand, Lissiman and Rose all scoring places outside of the top 10. A fourth place for Peter McNeill and a seventh for Ian Johnson will make up a little for their first race disqualification.

For the first time in the winter championship race organisers decided not to allow a worst-race drop within the seven-race series meaning that every race result counts.

The provisional top ten overall results after two races are -

1. War of the Roses (David Rose, Brisbane)

2. Racer XY (Jason Muir, Brisbane)

3. Gypsy (Cameron Miles, Sydney)

4. Steampacket IV (Rob Brown, Sydney)

5. No Excuse (Rupert Henry, Sydney)

6. Odyssey (Julian Plante, Sydney)

7. Fool Hardy (Dave Clark, Sydney)

8. Bandwagon (Skip Lissiman, Perth)

9. Racer X (Mick O'Brien, Brisbane)

10. Never Again II (Matthew Ogg, Sydney)

http://www.mooetchells.yachting.org.au/

Results:

Series Results [One Design ET] up to Race 2 (Drops = 0)

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Crew	Crew.	From	Sers Score	Race 2	Race 1
1	1.0S	867	War of the Roses	David Rose	David Irvine	Matthew Harrison	Brisbane	11.00	10.00	1.00
2		874	Racer XY	Jason Muir	Adrian Finglass	Matt Chew	Brisbane	11.00	6.00	5.00
3		117	Fast Harry	Cam Miles	Grant Crowle	Phil Smidmore	Pittwater	14.00	1.00	13.00
4		1326	Steampacket IV	Rob Brown	Bruce Wookey	Gary Gudmunson	Pittwater	16.00	8.00	8.00
5		1337	No Excuse	Rupert Henry	Jan Scholten	Sean O'Rourke	Sydney	17.00	5.00	12.00
6		1254	Odyssey	Julian Plante	Geoff Bonouvrie	Nick Garland	Pittwater	20.00	17.00	3.00
7		1272	Fool Hardy	David Clark	TBA TBA		Pittwater	21.00	15.00	6.00
8	2.0S	891	Bandwagon	Skip Lissiman	Lloyd Lissiman	Mike Tyquin	Swan River	22.00	20.00	2.00
9		923	Racer X	Mick O'Brien	Bill Cuneo	Gary Adshead	Brisbane	22.00	13.00	9.00
10	3.0S	893	Never Again 11	Matthew Ogg	Kyrra Deane	Travis Tubman	Pitwater	31.00	3.00	28.00
11		1160	Liquidity	Dirk Van Der Struyf	Reid Fleming	Wilco Veerman	Swan River	31.00	14.00	17.00
12		1321	Triad	John Bertrand	Ernie Lawrence	Mark Tonner-Joyce	Melbourne	32.00	21.00	11.00
13		865	Fast Forward	Bruce McBriar	Jeff Casley	Tony Bond	Melbourne	34.00	12.00	22.00
14		1347	Funky	Vaughan Prentice	Chris Anderson	Darren Hutchison	Brisbane	40.00	22.00	18.00
15	7.0S	950	Velsheda	Alistair Gair	Dave Ridley	Derek Scott	Gulf Harbour	41.00	34.00	7.00
16		1084	Why Be Flat	Kane Sinclair	Gary Telford	Richard Grimes	Lake Macquarie	41.00	31.00	10.00
17	4.0S	1274	The Grey Nurse	Ross Lloyd	Andrew Wilson	Matthew Turner	Melbourne	43.00	39.00	4.00
18	14.0S	1277	Critical Balance	Mark Bulka	Jake Gunther	Stephen Young	Melbourne	43.00	29.00	14.00
19		1131	Slick	Brendan Garner	Brian Case	Sue Case	Geelong	43.00	18.00	25.00
20	9.0S	1192	Echo Beach	Tom Woods	Dean Blatchford	Keith Jensen	Lake Macquarie	44.00	9.00	35.00
21		1102	Panther	Steve O'Rourke	John Minter	Steve Backhouse	Botany Bay	44.00	11.00	33.00
22	19.0S	1275	Trekka	Christopher Williams	John Hopkins	Luke Birch	Lake Macquarie	45.00	19.00	26.00
23		892	Second Wind	Jeff Rose	Craig McCallam	Fred Haes	Metung	45.00	25.00	20.00
24	19.0S	1024	Voodoo Spirit	Guyon Wilson	Darren Mahoney	Jason Farnell	Geelong	47.00	28.00	19.00
25		1213	Dutch Moth	Anthony Paterson	Aaron Hampo	Gam Van Dijk	Lake Macquarie	47.00	26.00	21.00
26		756	Etchellence	John Sheehan	Richard West	Roger Viggen	Pittwater	50.00	16.00	34.00
27		813	Electra	Grant Turnbull	logan Fraser	Paul Morrish	tba	55.00	2.00	53.00O
28		947	Magpie	Graeme Taylor	Grant Warrington	Simon Gorman	Mornington	56.00	41.00	15.00
29		915	Koolong X	Peter McNeill	Dean Wyborn	Peter McLachlan	Lake Macquarie	57.00	4.00	53.00O
30		850	No Regrets	Graeme Alexander	Errol Candy	John Herbert	Mornington	58.00	35.00	23.00
31		1245	3 Gone Missing	Dave Ritchard	Roger Gain	Stephen Trevillion	Sydney	59.00	32.00	27.00
32	7.0S	1318	Road Kill	Ian Johnson	Blair Coventry	Tim Ede	Melbourne	60.00	7.00	53.00O
33		852	Three Ring Circus	Trevor Martin	Glen Thompson	Paul Brathwaite	Mooloolaba	60.00	23.00	37.00
34	24.0S	826	Hustler	David Healey	Rod Mackay	William Barker	Brisbane	62.00	24.00	38.00
35		866	Forceful	Brad Sheridan	Gary Smith	Paul Spencer	Swan River	62.00	33.00	29.00
36		1250	Bushfire	Jervis Tilley	James Arnold	Nigel Natress	Sydney	63.00	47.00	16.00
37		1291	The Don	Don Wilson	Brad English	Jason Browne	Gosford	66.00	30.00	36.00
38	24.0S	1088	Sun Tzu	Roger Hickman	Peter Inchbold	Sam Newton	Pittwater	68.00	44.00	24.00
39		1049	Vertigo	Doug Williams	Chris Blanch	Rob McGrath	Lake Macquarie	68.00	36.00	32.00
40		1288	Magic Buzz	Stephen Gunther	John Collingwood	Russell Hutton	Melbourne	70.00	40.00	30.00
41		1027	Licorice Allsorts	Brian Tyquin	Brad Palmer	Wayne Keavy	Botany Bay	73.00	27.00	46.00
42		415	Waterloo Bay	Noel Paterson	Kevin Mo;en	Terry Passey	Brisbane	79.00	48.00	31.00
43		1276	Etch	Jan Muysken	Nigel Natress	TBA N.A.	Sydney	81.00	42.00	39.00
44		851	Panther Too	Peter Young	tba tba		Botany Bay	83.00	38.00	45.00
45		731	Betelguese	Greg Forgan-smith	Gary Wakefield	Gunter Lmprecht	Gold Coast	85.00	37.00	48.00
46		1164	Bellatrix	Brendan Quinlan	Dave Nichols	John Trotter	Lake Macquarie	86.00	46.00	40.00
47	41.0S	166	Trilogy	Neil Hudson	Mark Jamison	Robert Howie	Gold Coast	91.00	50.00	41.00
48		856	Butterfly Effect	Geoff Dews	Karen Dews	Liam Dews	Mooloolaba	91.00	49.00	42.00
49	43.0S	635	Jail Bait	Peter LaFataine	Jamie Renwick	Peter White	Mooloolaba	92.00	43.00	49.00
50		1025	Walk on Water	Glenn Norton	Iain Gartley	Peter Rattray	Melbourne	92.00	45.00	47.00
51		720	Phantom	Mark Sanders	James Horwarth	Scott McInally	Gold Coast	94.00	51.00	43.00
52		243	Grape Juice	Graeme Bates	Justin Barr	TBA TBA	Gold Coast	96.00	52.00	44.00