Queensland Yacht Charters trophy series - Heat 2

by Ian Grant on 15 Feb 2008 Terry Archer and Stewart Key turned the second heat of the Queensland Yacht Charters trophy series into a private Bavaria class match race over the Whitsunday Sailing Club course off Airlie Beach.

The echo from the twister which lashed the Whitsunday Islands with winds gusting above the officially recorded 36 knots presented the fleet with a supreme light wind test in a 10 knot North West land breeze.

However, while the wind was light and variable the washing machine type one metre sea added a test of steering skill particularly when the hobby-horse effect presented by the sloppy motion of the sea which constantly threatened to shake the wind out of the sails.

As the results have confirmed the star performers were the crews manning the decks of the Bavaria cruiser/racers the Terry Archer skippered Africa and Stewart Key’s Crescendo.

Africa was intelligently sailed maintaining the required all angle sailing speed to outpace her .755 correction factor.

But the corrected handicap result was real close with Stewart Key and the Crescendo crew failing by the slender margin of 11 seconds to claim a perfect 1-1 score.

Sure Crescendo was narrowly outpaced by the lower handicapped Africa but Stewart Key retains the ‘bragging rites’ with a commanding 3 point lead compiled from clever sailing over the two races contested in unseasonal 10 knot winds.

The win by Africa has kept their series winning chances alive but skipper Archer will need to become less friendly with his Bavaria match racing rival Stewart Key when the sails are tensioned for the important third race.
Both yachts are so evenly matched in terms of handicap ratings leaving Stewart Key to find a marginal boat speed advantage of 2.7 seconds per minute to retain his point score lead over the equally determined Terry Archer.

This sets the stage for a very interesting tactical dog-fight between the two crews when they set their race strategy in place on a wild weather tormented Pioneer Bay this week.

Roger Boast and his clever sailing mates have taken a firm grip on the Division three series with Serendipity while the battle for the Division two class hangs in the balance.

Serendipity was cleverly handled to beat their arch rivals Breakaway (Rob Davis) and Lady Hawk (John Hudson) for the major points in race one and repeated a similar consistent all angle speed to retain a perfect 1-1 score while Breakaway and Lady Hawk set up match race for the minor place points with their respective 2-9 and 3-9 scores.