Le Billet breezes away in battle of the Beach Balls

by Ian 'Stripey' Grant on 5 Jan 2002 Sailing to and above her IMS rating proved to be the title winning factor for Bill Ebsary and his talented crew when they mastered an ideal sea breeze off Coffs Harbour today.

The Royal Prince Alfred crew understood the tactical challenge at hand when they sailed the consistent performing Beneteau 40.7 Le Billet onto the course for the 18.5 n/ml South Solitary Island race.

Le Billet with her 1-1-2 was the form yacht and there was some confidence on the deck and in the helming station as they prepared for a tactical class match race showdown with club rival Paul Turner and his Koolewong crew.

Turner reduced the overall title margin to 1 point, which set the stage for a boat on boat 'dogfight' but minutes into the windward slog against a building 15-knot true north east sea breeze it became clearly evident that Le Billet was never going to be rolled.

Skipper Ebsary obviously sailing to the winning plan never placed Le Billet into a negative position and that was clearly evident by the end of the beat when the crew scrambled to set the spinnaker in smart time.

From there it was a case of protecting their 'butt' because Koolewong was caught up in the pack and was minutes of the pace.

Sailing in clean air was the reward for completing a tactical smart windward beat which showed Le Billet had the crucial edge in boatspeed to stretch this even further on the run to Pelican mark set just out side the surf line off Nautilus Resort.

From there it was only a matter of sitting on the deck keeping the fast miles running under the keel as the proud helmsman Bill Ebsary steered Le Billet to her third race win of the series and a commanding lead in the title.

The combined skill of skipper and crew was reflected in the winning margin of 2 minutes 18 seconds over the Greg Newton helmed Beneteau 47.7 Antipodes Australia with another 'Beach Ball' True North skippered by the husband and wife team of Howard and Susan Piggott another 4-52 off the pace.

Koolewong 'blotted' her tactical copybook early in the race and never recovered and has therefore missed the opportunity to force the championship into the final race tomorrow.

After four races Le Billet with her very consistent score of 1-1-2-1 and 496 pts has firmed a vice like grip on the prestigious Strathfield Pittwater-Coffs Harbour IMS title trophy with a race to spare.

This leaves Koolewong 490 pts to regain some pride to secure second overall ahead of True North on 482 points.