Millar and Spud Gun dominate Whitsunday SC racing

by Ian Grant on 23 Oct 2007 Peter Millar and his exciting speed sailing catamaran Spud Gun continues to dominate the Whitsunday Sailing Club trophy racing on Pioneer Bay.

Millar and his long term sailing mate David Chittleborough recently showed their class to win the Hog’s Breath Queensland championship trophy and record their third consecutive win in the Hot FM Great Whitsunday Fun Race to further confirm Spud Gun as the fastest yacht racing in the Whitsunday Islands .

The Spud Gun crew always sail the sprint machine on the edge and have the experience to understand when to back off which is the reason why they regularly outpace their high .970 time correction factor in all wind strengths from fickle to fresh and frightening.

They were back on the spray drenched trampoline enjoying another fast blast in a moderate breeze when Spud Gun left her rivals tracing her speed sailing wake as she romped around Pioneer Bay to claim another line and corrected handicap win to head the points for the Johns Sails trophy.

Spud Gun simply was too quick on all sailing angles sealing an important win over the lower handicapped Full Monty (Leo Rodregius) and Sirocco (Bob Thompson) to claim a handy 2 point lead in the series after two races.

Skipper Peter Millar continued to have the edge over his older twin brother Scott and co skipper Vicki Applegate helming the Australian Multihull Offshore champion Rum Raider.

As expected both twins are very proud of their individual sailing reputations which make them super competitive but the Rum Raider crew who won the opening race of the series will need to produce a special performance this week to prevent Spud Gun from adding another trophy to their impressive list.

Spud Gun again proved her consistency outpacing her time correction factor to hold a 2 point lead with a 3-1 score compared with Rum Raider 1-5 who holds second on count back over the Rupert Henry skippered Overdrive 2-4.

Based on average handicap calculated speed Spud Gun is clearly the fastest completing both races with sub one hour course times and a 1 minute 57 second advantage on Overdrive and an even quicker 2 minute 44 seconds over Rum Raider.

However while the Peter Millar and David Chittleborough combination deserve to remain confident they still realise that Spud Gun will have to retain her consistent speed to be sure of winning the Johns Sails Trophy in the final race this week.