Time Lord sails into the right Time frame

by Ian Grant on 19 Aug 2008 Keith Munro’s comfortable Bavaria cruiser racer Time Lord revelled in gusty trade winds of the Whitsunday Passage to register an important class win in the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week today.

Time Lord racing under the New Zealand Clearwater Bay Yacht Club burgee sailed through gusty 30 winds and a seaway that had some lumps and bumps to scoop the pool with a very important corrected handicap win in the Cruising in Whites (non spinnaker Class).

Skipper Keith Munro’s who likes to call the pleasant tropical sailing destination of Airlie Beach his second home, is using this series as an evaluation trial to contest the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race starting on Boxing Day.

Meanwhile both skipper and his happy crew showed they prefer to sail with the leeward rail awash.

Time Lord certainly had some trouble matching the pace of the Wayne Banks-Smith skippered Tasmanian sloop Cyclone when she broke away for an early lead which was extended on each leg of the course.

Cyclone wave rode the building seaway to complete the 22 n/ml course bash to windward and return course with an impressive 2 hour 59 minute 45 second time leaving her rivals to sort out the minor results.

However while the crew of Cyclone showed their class in terms of speed it was the lower handicapped trio of Bavaria’s which ultimately shared the major places with Time Lord winning the corrected handicap points with a handy 5 minutes 6 seconds margin over Capricorn (Rod Smith) and the local Whitsunday Sailing Club sloop Crescendo (Stewart Key).

Class leader the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club sloop Joie De Vie a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey helmed by Martin Cross will be under some tactical pressure when they line up to contest the fifth race of the series tomorrow.

She leads by a narrow one point margin over Time Lord and Rainbow (Peter Hall) which suggests all three crews may have some trouble racing in uncontested water in what could prove to be the title decider.

Full results are available at www.airliebeachraceweek.com.au