Down to the wire - Hogs Breath Trophy Series

by Ian Grant on 28 Mar 2008
The Colin Pruden skippered Sandpiper had her ‘wings clipped’ in the crucial final race of the Whitsunday Sailing Club Hogs Breath trophy series off Airlie Beach last week.

Sandpiper was all but home and hosed when her crew entered the final with what appeared to be a trophy winning two point lead over their nearest rival the Craig Piccinelli skippered Woobly Boot.

But the course proved to be a tactical minefield for skipper Colin Pruden and his Sandpiper crew when they failed to produce a competitive boat speed eventually crashing to seventh on corrected time while Wobbly Boot was also a little shaky finishing fifth.

The margin between the two was only 31 seconds however that minimal time factor proved crucial when Woobly Boot with her 2-10-5-5 (22pts) won the series on count back from Sandpiper 4-7-4-7 (22pts) while the John Galloway skippered Queensland Marine Services which forced the series into a count back when they beat Sandpiper by 22 seconds for the title deciding sixth place claimed third overall.

Sure the variations in the wind velocity and direction left the tacticians wondering about where the next favourable wind shift would come from.

However all of the fleet were forced to sail in the same conditions and while some crews played their ‘lucky cards’ to the best advantage it was the lower handicapped Tropicali (Laurie Gubb), Sunrise (Jeff Shipsey) and Africa (Terry Archer) who salvaged their reputations to fill the major places.

Tropicali rating .730 was cleverly sailed to beat Sunrise .759 by 33 seconds while Africa .776 finished third another 40 seconds off the pace.

As this trophy deciding final proved there are no certainties in yacht racing however the Sandpiper crew will bounce back when the fleet line up to contest the first race of the Whitsunday Sail Loft series on Pioneer Bay this week.
The Division 3 series was clearly dominated by the consistently well sailed Breakaway when skipper Rob Davis won the final by 3 minutes 45 seconds over The Other Annie (Jon Griffin) while Roger Boast helmed Serendipity into third another 26 seconds astern.

Breakaway basically had the trophy won with a race to spare but skipper Rob Davis and crew were determined to add a heat win to their 3-2-3 score.
This determination was reflected in the applied tactical strategy where skipper Davis made all the right choices piloting Breakaway to a runaway 10 minute 18 second line honours win and an equally convincing 9 point series victory over Concubine (Brian Fleming) and Serendipity (Roger Boast).