Bancroft and Darlow regain lead at B14 Worlds

by Event media on 10 Jan 2009
At the end of day 4 of the Admix B14 World Championship at the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania on Hobart’s Derwent River, Guy Bancroft and Nick Darlow have regained the overall lead.

Consistant sailing was the way forward and adding 4, 2, 4 to their scoreline brought the Australian pair back to the top, allowing them discard an 11 and 25 with eight races completed.

Into second place are another Aussie pair, Nick Richardson and Alan Nicholas, and then the first Brits, Mark Barnes and Pete Nicholson, who started the day with a win then added a 5, 8, 5 to finish the day seven points off the leaders.

With the fleet on the water for a morning start to try and recover the two race deficit on the schedule, it was an anxious wait whilst the wind filled in for the 50 teams.

Race 5 and a light SE wind filling in across the start the fleet who were a little too eager to get underway with the tide pushing the fleet over the line, leading to four general recalls and 11 boats, including the series leaders Rhys Bancroft and Joey Randell falling foul of the black flag.

With the start underway on the fifth attempt the fleet split left and right with Mark Barnes/Pete Nicholson leading the pack in from the left maintaining their lead over lap two from Chris Bines/Dave Gibbons and Nick Richardson/Alan Nicholas.

Race 6 and the fleet had learned to behave and got away cleanly at the first attempt. With many teams predicting the shift on the left of course being caught out by a big right hand shift.

Dave Hayes/Sean Dwyer capitalising on a good start from the committee boat end and leading in from the right hand side by a big margin maintaining this to finish first from Guy Bancroft/Nick Darlow and the consistent Nick Richardson/Alan Nicholas in third.

Race 7 and with the breeze slowly building the fleet again got away cleanly with a break left and right for the leading packs. Special mention must go to Tim Harrison/Johnny Radcliffe for spectacularly failing to cross the fleet on Port!

Alan Davis/Toby Barnsley-Dale looked good leading the pack out to the right with Chris Bines/Dave Gibbons and Mark Watts/George Morris coming in hard from the left to lead one-two round the top mark.

Down the run the lead pack split at the bottom with Mark Watts/George Morris leading round the bottom mark from Guy Bancroft/Nick Darlow and Richie Reynolds/Lissa McMillan. With a consistent breeze up the final beat QChris Bines/Dave Gibbons led from Mark Watts/George Morris losing out at the finish by a nose to Watts and Morris with Richie Reynolds and Lissa McMillan third.

Final race of the long day, Race 8 and with another clean start the fleet again split up the beat. The first run saw a big hole with Richie Reynolds and Lissa McMillan capitalising to take a good lead at the bottom mark from Nick Craig/Matt Johnson. Reynolds and McMillan continued to finish strongly in first from Craig and Johnson and in third Peter Ray/Karen Branch.

With today’s conditions providing more consistency, great racing and many of the event favourites recovering their form tomorrow is set for a big finale! Two races are possible with the three leading teams having a ten point break one of them will be the B14 Champions Saturday.

B14 World Championship - Results after 8 races of 10 - 2 Discards

1 AUS778 Guy Bancroft Nick Darlow Sly Bone 1 4 3 25 4 2 4 11 18 pts
2 AUS372 Nick Richardson Alan Nicholas Pigs Arse 6 2 16 1 3 3 11 7 22 pts
3 GBR768 Mark Barnes Pete Nicholson Seavolution 5 1 12.5 8 1 5 8 5 25 pts
4 GBR775 Chris Bines Dave Gibbons Quinta Raddison Ltd 33 12 1 11 2 10 2 9 35 pts
5 AUS374 Dave Lorimer Raf Heale Toxic 8 5 5 9 6 7 5 14 36 pts
6 GBR772 Mark Watts George Morris Simmons & Simmons 7 9 11 4 10 12 1 8 39 pts
7 GBR773 Nick Craig Matt Johnson Team Gill 3 7 12.5 10 51 11 6 2 39 pts
8 AUS368 Richie Reynolds Lissa McMillan The Nude 15 10 17 6 5 15 3 1 40 pts
9 AUS7 Rhys Bancroft (Y) Joey Randell Bonework 9 3 4 7 51 17 9 12 44 pts
10 AUS371 Kieran Livermore Jonathan Branch bangbang 10 6 14 24 7 8 26 6 51 pts
11 GBR757 David Hayes Sean Dwyer MJF/North 17 17 6 18 51 1 10 4 55 pts
12 AUS379 Chris Bibby Scott Cunningham Last Gasp 16 18 2 3 11 20 14 16 62 pts
13 AUS137 Simon Morgan (Y) Drew Latham Aviva 11 14 9 2 17 14 28 18 67 pts
14 GBR758 Tim Harrison Jonathan Ratcliffe Anthill Mob 25 13 7 5 51 4 22 17 68 pts
15 GBR763 Alan Davis Toby Barsley-Dale Hyde Sails 2 16 24 17 9 19 12 23 75 pts
16 AUS370 Ian Cunningham David Cunningham The Plumbers 13 11 10 27 51 13 18 15 80 pts
17 AUS363 Ben Price (Y) Jim Morgan Just In Time 4 28 28 15 51 6 13 19 85 pts
18 GBR770 Simon Hadley Nikki Webster Compact Pussycat 12 26 21 14 8 23 21 13 89 pts
19 AUS375 Peter Ray Karen Branch Octopussy 27 22 23 30 51 16 7 3 98 pts
20 AUS357 Richard Fisher Stuart McDonnell Buggar The Bone 14 19 8 19 51 24 16 25 100 pts
21 AUS359 Chris Wells Dianne Maynard Epic 18 8 19 51 16 21 25 30 107 pts
22 AUS353 Andre Webster Jacob Webster Dodge A Bullet 19 27 26 20 15 36 20 21 121 pts
23 AUS376 Sophie Hunt Andrew Payne Hunt Leather 21 23 25 29 12 30 17 27 125 pts
24 GBR760 Geraldine Brown Leaky Fermor On Purpose 24 29 20 34 51 9 24 20 126 pts
25 GBR777 Chris Turner Phil Eltringham Dynamic Ovington Boats 28 21 15 13 51 27 33 24 128 pts
26 AUS369 Adrian Beswick (Y) Josh Phillips Strait4devils Budget 23 15 34 31 22 28 36 10 129 pts
27 AUS151 James Patterson (Y) James Huggett The George 20 24 22 23 23 29 19 22 129 pts
28 AUS378 Kelvin Boyle Josh Fullenger Siren 31 25 18 32 13 22 23 29 130 pts
29 AUS366 Cole Dabner Rob Moreton The Cunning Plan 32 30 35 12 19 26 29 33 148 pts
30 AUS377 Ross Daley John Genders Early Warning 29 20 33 22 51 34 15 35 153 pts
31 AUS182 Simon Baker (Y) Aaron Ellis Power Play 26 41 36 51 14 18 32 32 158 pts
32 AUS155 Gemma Meincke Danielle McKay Zone 40 35 41 21 21 32 30 28 167 pts
33 AUS152 John Tanton Benn Morgan Not Just Yet 30 43 44 28 18 25 35 34 170 pts
34 AUS226 Gavin Barwick (Y) Simon Legge Esra Tew 34 51 37 33 20 31 27 26 171 pts
35 AUS356 Daniel Watson Derek Schaefer B-Sting 39 36 29 16 26 35 38 38 180 pts
36 AUS159 William Short Alan Short Partic Nasty Weather 22 34 31 37 24 39 37 37 185 pts
37 AUS250 Tim Grant Stuart Grant B Alert 38 31 40 26 25 37 42 39 196 pts
38 AUS355 Stephen Mitchell Amy Van Galen Bondi Tram 51 32 32 51 27 41 40 36 208 pts
39 AUS361 David Cromarty (Y) Cameron Gibson Smokin' 51 37 27 36 31 38 41 40 209 pts
40 AUS290 Peter Fox Mick Hawes Serious Yahoo 36 39 51 51 32 45 31 41 224 pts
41 AUS367 Stephen Miller Lauren Keil Phantom 51 51 51 51 28 33 34 31 228 pts
42 AUS181 Timothy Starkey Mathieu Mongin The Edge 37 40 38 38 33 42 46 44 228 pts
43 AUS104 Benjamin Zamstra Peter Coad Austral Asia Line 51 38 39 51 34 43 39 43 236 pts
44 GBR728 Trevor Harris Lucy Walter Hey Ho, Here We Go 51 42 42 51 29 40 43 42 238 pts
45 AUS280 Craig Macaulay Louise Macaulay B+ 35 33 30 51 51 51 51 51 251 pts
46 AUS103 Luke Cripps Sam Cannamela Blow Me 51 45 45 39 30 47 49 47 253 pts
47 AUS313 Shaun Hancock Sam Lowe Bring It On 51 51 51 35 35 44 44 45 254 pts
48 AUS354 Michael Semelbauer John Semelbauer Bounce 51 46 51 51 36 49 45 48 275 pts
49 AUS299 Geoff Waldon Rick Boughton Hurricane 51 44 43 51 51 48 47 46 279 pts
50 AUS362 Roger Board Alex Board Shmoo 51 51 51 51 37 46 48 49 282 pts