Down to the wire in Airlie Sails Trophy series

by Ian Grant on 16 Jul 2007 Crafty tactician Rod Sawyer retained his grip on the Airlie Sails trophy series with a narrow one second corrected handicap win in the second heat of the Division 2 class title contested over the Whitsunday Sailing Club course last week.

Sawyer helming the Peter Norlin designed sloop Surefoot, struggled to match the more modern designs for pace in cool Trade Wind sailing conditions.

However, while Surefoot’s ageing sails were again tortured by the breeze her crew still managed to show their rivals that the first heat win the previous week was no fluke by again recording the fastest corrected handicap time to lead the series with a perfect 1-1 score and a commanding 6 points over Sandpiper (Colin Pruden) 4-4 and the consistent Queensland Marine Services (John Galloway) 2-6.5.

This race provided an interesting insight into the boat speed of the local fleet as they prepare for next month's Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week.

As expected the lightweight Thompson 7 sports boat Mustard Cutter, was unmatched for speed when skipper Shannon Hart and his crew claimed another comfortable line honours win over Queensland Marine Services and Surefoot.

They enjoyed a fast ride over the reaching legs of the course but their lower handicapped rivals particularly Surefoot, the Jeff Shipsey skippered Sunrise and veteran skipper Harold Menelaws in Treasure, always held control on the battle for the more important overall handicap.

Surefoot sailing within her .796 rating easily eliminated the threat of Mustard Cutter (1.000) and Queensland Marine Services (.847) but skipper Sawyer was not so sure that his 57 minute 32 second course time was quick enough to win overall.

He had almost conceded defeat when Sunrise approached the finish line at speed but her pace was not quick enough allowing the popular Rod Sawyer to retain his perfect score lead by the narrow margin of 1 second, while Treasure was another 40 seconds away third.

Russell Watts continued with his claim on the Division 3 class trophy when he steered Rastas to an important win over Scallywag (Michael Silcock) and Flat White (Peter Gault).

Both skipper and crew understand that Rastas may never be a challenger to win a line honours, but they sailed smart with their low handicap rating to covert the last elapsed time place into a 51 second win on corrected handicap, to lead the series by 2 points over Linga Longa (David Hardman) who holds second place on count back over Cocubine (Brian Fleming).

The tight tactical struggle is expected to continue when all three crews contest the important third race of the series on Pioneer Bay this week.