Arajilla wins Boss Hog trophy at Airlie Beach

by Rob Kothe on 26 Aug 2008
Middle Harbour yachtsman Geoff Pearson and his Archambault 35 Arajilla were awarded the Boss Hog Trophy on the last day of the 2008 Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week.

Arajilla won IRC Divison 2 with a race to spare, notching up a remarkable sixth win in six races at the 19th annual Whitsunday Coast regatta. On the last day, with some of the crew perhaps a trifle dusty, they dropped their guard and finished second, that was their series drop.

The Race Committee chooses the Boss Hog Trophy and the winners name is engraved on a trophy awarded by Don Algie, who founded the regatta at Airlie Beach 19 years ago when it was called the Hogsbreath Regatta.

Race Director Denis Thompson commented, ‘Arijilla was very consistent over the regatta, she won by dropping a second.

‘Most importantly Geoff and her MHYC crew embrace the spirit of the regatta. They are strong supporters of the series, they sail with pick up crew every day, they sail hard, but have great fun. They were worthy winners in 2008.’

Despite being unbeaten in six straight races, helmsman Neville Wittey, the Olympic and international sailor, said the outcome had been the result of sound preparation and hard, tactical sailing. ‘Everyone thinks this boat has a terrific rating but have to work hard all the way round the track to sail to that rating,’ Wittey said.

‘And it was especially hard work in the long passage races. Our second last race around the Molle Islands was a classic case. There was a fresh breeze, the joggle was mind-boggling and we were down two crew members...and crew weight is very important. The boys all worked very hard on the long beat to the top island and again on the spinnaker run back to Pioneer Bay.'

Arajilla, a French built Archambault cruiser/racer, was the overall IRC winner of the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week last year, but this year IRC has been split into two divisions, although the Arajilla crew would have liked to have taken on the bigger boats again.

‘For this regatta we had one new Doyle Fraser paneled carbon headsail and re-cut last year’s sails and they proved ideal for the conditions here,’ added Wittey as he and owner Geoff Pearson (the Archambault agent in Sydney) celebrated with crew members Tim Olding, Mark Tinworth, Graham Sanderson and David Wood.

‘Being one of the smaller boats in IRC Division 2, one of things we keep an eye on is course management,’ explained Wittey. ‘We find it is important not so sail longer than we have to around the course.. we dodge the current where possible, going for the best possible boatspeed, keeping a spinnaker up as long as possible to get around headlands as quickly as possible.

‘Our winning margins on corrected time have never been huge, one race we won by just 36 seconds, a big win for us was just over 4 minutes over a long course.’

Full results at www.airliebeachraceweek.com.au