Australian crews lead Admix B14 World Championship

by Event media on 8 Jan 2009
Three Australian crews lead the Admix B14 World Championship after three races completed in Hobart, Tasmania. Guy Bancroft and Nick Darlow have an eight point lead but Rhys Bancroft and Joey Randell lead a closely packed chasing group.

After racing was postponed on day 1 due to the strong winds, day two of the B14 World Championships started with a promising 5 to 15 knot northwesterly but with a sea breeze forecast, was always likely to die and become very patchy before the sea breeze set in. As always in these conditions it was going to be a challenging day at the office for race officer Nick Hutton.

In race one, it initially paid to go left with the boats from the pin looking really good. However, the beat turned inside out and the left was hung out to dry. The lead bunch enjoyed a consistent but dying northwesterly.

Over the two laps there were big changes with some of the favourites arriving in heartbreak hotel with no route to the front. The lead bunch finished with kites, but then the opposing sea breeze kicked in and the latter bunch managed to finish on a beat, with some being out of time. Guy Bancroft and Nick Darlow won the race pushed hard by Alan Davis and Toby Barsley-Dale with Nick Craig and Matt Johnson taking third place.

Race two was sailed in a consistent 15 - 18 knot sea breeze with a steep chop to punch into, making for great kite runs down wind. The race got under way under a black flag after an enthusiastic fleet pushed the line hard resulting in a general recall. Mark Barnes and Pete Nicholson overhauled the leading group to win from Nick Richardson and Alan Nicholas with Rhys Bancroft and Joey Randell third.

In Race three, with the breeze shifting right, then a large shift to the left, the fleet on the right had paid on the first round with Chris Bibby and Scott Cunningham taking the lead form a tight pursuing group.

On the second beat, there was a strong shift to the left, closing up the front runners and bringing others who had headed hard left to the front, led by Chris Bines and Dave Gibbons at the windward mark.

With very tight racing, there were many place changes on the last run and a big group crossing the line together. Bines and Gibbons held on to win from Bibby and Cunningham with Bancroft and Darlow third.

Going into day 3, with more of the same, all is to play for and the fleet is very closely bunched from front to back.

Admix B14 World Championship - Positions after 3 races

1 AUS778 Sly Bone Guy Bancroft Nick Darlow McYC 1 4 3 8 pts
2 AUS7 Bonework Rhys Bancroft (Y) Joey Randell McYC 9 3 4 16 pts
3 AUS374 Toxic Dave Lorimer Raf Heale McYC 8 5 5 18 pts
4 GBR768 Seavolution Mark Barnes Pete Nicholson W/BYC 5 1 12.5 18.5 pts
5 GBR773 Team Gill Nick Craig Matt Johnson FPSC 3 7 12.5 22.5 pts
6 AUS372 Pigs Arse Nick Richardson Alan Nicholas WYC 6 2 16 24 pts
7 GBR772 Simmons & Simmons Mark Watts George Morris WeSC 7 9 11 27 pts
8 AUS371 bangbang Kieran Livermore Jonathan Branch WSC 10 6 14 30 pts
9 AUS137 Aviva Simon Morgan (Y) Drew Latham RYCT 11 14 9 34 pts
10 AUS370 The Plumbers Ian Cunningham David Cunningham McYC 13 11 10 34 pts
11 AUS379 Last Gasp Chris Bibby Scott Cunningham McYC 16 18 2 36 pts
12 GBR757 MJF/North David Hayes Sean Dwyer 17 17 6 40 pts
13 AUS357 Buggar The Bone Richard Fisher Stuart McDonnell TYC/PDYC 14 19 8 41 pts
14 GBR763 Hyde Sails Alan Davis Toby Barsley-Dale WeSC 2 16 24 42 pts
15 AUS368 The Nude Richie Reynolds Lissa McMillan WSC 15 10 17 42 pts
16 GBR758 Anthill Mob Tim Harrison Jonathan Ratcliffe HPYC 25 13 7 45 pts
17 AUS359 Epic Chris Wells Dianne Maynard DSC 18 8 19 45 pts
18 GBR775 Quinta Raddison Ltd Chris Bines Dave Gibbons BSC 33 12 1 46 pts
19 GBR770 Compact Pussycat Simon Hadley Nikki Webster WhYC 12 26 21 59 pts
20 AUS363 Just In Time Ben Price (Y) Jim Morgan RYCT 4 28 28 60 pts
21 GBR777 Dynamic Ovington Boats Chris Turner Phil Eltringham TSC 28 21 15 64 pts
22 AUS151 The George James Patterson (Y) James Huggett McYC 20 24 22 66 pts
23 AUS376 Hunt Leather Sophie Hunt Andrew Payne WSC 21 23 25 69 pts
24 AUS369 Strait4devils Budget Adrian Beswick (Y) Josh Phillips RYCT 23 15 34 72 pts
25 AUS353 Dodge A Bullet Andre Webster Jacob Webster CYC 19 27 26 72 pts
26 AUS375 Octopussy Peter Ray Karen Branch WSC 27 22 23 72 pts
27 GBR760 On Purpose Geraldine Brown Leaky Fermor 24 29 20 73 pts
28 AUS378 Siren Kelvin Boyle Josh Fullenger McYC 31 25 18 74 pts
29 AUS377 Early Warning Ross Daley John Genders MPYC 29 20 33 82 pts
30 AUS159 Partic Nasty Weather William Short Alan Short KBSC 22 34 31 87 pts
31 AUS366 The Cunning Plan Cole Dabner Rob Moreton PDYC 32 30 35 97 pts
32 AUS280 B+ Craig Macaulay Louise Macaulay BRYC 35 33 30 98 pts
33 AUS182 Power Play Simon Baker (Y) Aaron Ellis DSC 26 41 36 103 pts
34 AUS356 B-Sting Daniel Watson Derek Schaefer RPAYC 39 36 29 104 pts
35 AUS250 B Alert Tim Grant Stuart Grant MYC 38 31 40 109 pts
36 AUS361 Smokin' David Cromarty (Y) Cameron Gibson TYC 51 37 27 115 pts
37 AUS355 Bondi Tram Stephen Mitchell Amy Van Galen MPYC 51 32 32 115 pts
38 AUS181 The Edge Timothy Starkey Mathieu Mongin RYCT 37 40 38 115 pts
39 AUS155 Zone Gemma Meincke Danielle McKay MPYC 40 35 41 116 pts
40 AUS152 Not Just Yet John Tanton Benn Morgan RYCT 30 43 44 117 pts
41 AUS226 Esra Tew Gavin Barwick (Y) Simon Legge TYC 34 51 37 122 pts
42 AUS290 Serious Yahoo Peter Fox Mick Hawes KYC 36 39 51 126 pts
43 AUS104 Austral Asia Line Benjamin Zamstra Peter Coad DSS 51 38 39 128 pts
44 GBR728 Hey Ho, Here We Go Trevor Harris Lucy Walter BSC 51 42 42 135 pts
45 AUS299 Hurricane Geoff Waldon Rick Boughton WSC 51 44 43 138 pts
46 AUS103 Blow Me Luke Cripps Sam Cannamela BYC 51 45 45 141 pts
47 AUS354 Bounce Michael Semelbauer John Semelbauer MPYC 51 46 51 148 pts
48 AUS313 Bring It On Shaun Hancock Sam Lowe MPYC 51 51 51 153 pts
48 AUS362 Shmoo Roger Board Alex Board RYCT 51 51 51 153 pts
48 AUS367 Phantom Stephen Miller Lauren Keil MPYC 51 51 51 153 pts