Baby boat wins Meridien Marinas Race Week trophy

by Ian Grant on 16 Aug 2007 Middle Harbour Yacht Club sailor Geoff Pearson justified the purchase price of his A35 ocean racing sloop Arajilla when Sydney Olympian Neville Wittey helmed her to a close IRC class title win in the International Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race week earlier today.

Arajilla seemed to be two paced in the gusty 15-22 knot trade wind but skipper Wittey was well aware that they only needed to finish in the top five to beat the star studded fleet for the title.

Wittey who showed his class in the lighter wind races simply had to stay in touch with the race clock and while Arajilla staggered upwind it was a different story on the spinnaker runs where the small sloop wave surfed to log
the required speed and claim the important points.

However Arajilla was clearly outsailed on corrected handicap when Quest helmed by Jamie Macphail won an exciting 2 hour 53 minute 40 second tactical match race to win the final over Karl Kwok’s Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club sloop Beau Geste .

Quest set up her win with unmatched speed on the spinnaker runs to eventually record her impressive 1minute 5 second victory while Beau Geste finished with more than two minutes to spare over the defending champion the Ray Roberts skippered Quantum Racing.

The crew of Arajilla who flew a protest flag prior to the start breathed a sigh of relief when she finished fourth to win the title with the consistent score of 5-2-1-1-1-4 while Michael Hiatt steered his Victorian sloop Living Doll to record a 4-1-2-4-2-3 winning the Silver Medal ahead of the defending champion Quantum Racing 1-7-4-5-1-3.

Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club’s Hussy expressed her liking to the stronger winds when owner skipper John Bacon steered her to a comfortable win in the Premier Cruising class.

This was Hussy’s second win in three years and clearly showed she is race prepared to contest the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week IRC Cruising class championship which starts off Dent Passage on Saturday.

Hussy finished the series with a 1-1-1-3-1 to beat the West Australian skipper John Moore in This Way Up by 3 points while Esprit skippered by Victoria’s Garry Anderson filled third place.