Owen successfully defends Elliott 7 National title
by Lisa Ratcliff on 27 Jan 2008
Walter Turnbull - Skandia Geelong Week 2008 Teri Dodds
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Matthew Owen, skipper of the Canberra Elliott 7 Walterturnbull, has scored his third win at Skandia Geelong Week from three attempts, the current champion successfully defending his national title for yet another year.
The delighted skipper could afford to relax a little on the race track today in the moderate sou’westers, only needing a fifth to seal the FKP Property Trust Elliott 7 Australian Championship, but couldn’t himself hold back, finishing the regatta with two straight wins to finish with a scorecard of 1-1-2-1-1-1-1.
“Andrew Reed did a great job as tactician today, he hit every shift. The conditions were fluky, a bit like sailing in Canberra,” said Owen who has been racing with the nucleus of his crew for almost three years.
“We just bought this boat a month ago so we only had limited time to get it up to pace”.
Owen is returning home tomorrow, his bag a little heavier, to his job of running the Canberra Yacht Club which made up the bulk of entries in the 10 boat E7 fleet.
Second to Owen was Justin Mitchell, skipper of Mitchell Sails from Sydney which finished six points behind the series winner on 12 points.
Owen paid tribute to Mitchell, commenting, “Justin is a very talented 505 sailor with a great crew. As Justin is a sail maker, they were able to tweak the boat but in the end I believe our starts won the regatta for us.”
Third in the national championship was Jim Walsh’s Woof from the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.
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