Newcomer breaks Short/O'Rourke stranglehold in Arrow cat class

by Warwick Graham on 27 Jan 2009
The domination of the Arrow catamaran Championship by Victorian Steve Short and New South Welshman Frank O’Rourke was finally broken in dramatic fashion by Queenslander Robbie Lea at the 2009 Championship, held at Rosebud, Victoria.

The event, which also included Championships for Stingray and Cobra catamarans was hosted by the Rosebud Sailing Club on Port Phillip Bay. Twenty-eight Arrows competed in the nine race series.

The small but enthusiastic group of officials and helpers from the Rosebud Yacht Club kept the visitors well fed and watered, and conducted the racing in a thoroughly professional manner.

The prevailing off-shore breezes generally provided flat water and excellent conditions for fast catamaran sailing but a fierce and testing chop developed out at sea on the fresher race days. A characteristic of the off-shore wind was that as well as the usual 'bullets', it came in distinct strength bands. This made the off-the-wind legs particularly interesting. Sometimes it allowed the leaders to scoot away from the main pack, and on other occasions, caused them to be run down from behind.

Lea, a relative newcomer to the class, laid down the challenge in the invitation race which he won in style, sailing a new boat in its first competitive outing. When veteran Queensland skipper and two times champion Daryl Skinner won the first heat, Short – the current and five times championship winner, and O’Rourke (16 championships) knew that they were in for a tough regatta.

Short, the favourite for the event, found himself under further pressure when he lost the front of a hull in a collision in heat two and had to retire. With no redress granted, he had used up one of his two drops after just two heats. Lea won the heat and also heat three to confirm that he was the skipper to beat.

Short regained his composure to win the fourth heat but had a disastrous ninth in the fifth when his normal uncanny knack of picking the shifts in light conditions deserted him. However, he came back strongly to win heats six and seven. Meanwhile, O’Rourke was a model of consistency, scoring second or third placings in six of the first seven heats. Queenslander Daryl Skinner also remained in contention with two wins and four fourth placings.

Coming into the last two heats on the final day, Short held a narrow points lead and needed top three placings to ensure victory. A bad race would cost him the series because of the DNF and ninth already being carried. Unfortunately that is what eventuated. He mis-read the course for heat eight and sailed past the finish line, eventually returning to cross it in tenth place.

That left O’Rourke, still without a victory, in the lead by a single point from Lea. It was expected that O’Rourke would cover Lea like a blanket to prevent him from grabbing victory.

With the stakes high, Lea was one of the few to take the left side of the course off the starting line, and lost out badly, being more a minute behind the leading pack, which included O’Rourke, at the weather mark. However, the weather god was on his side, as he was in the mid-fleet pack that picked up a lift off the shore that carried them right up and amongst the leaders.

At the leeward mark, Lea was right on O’Rourke’s transom, in fourth place. Inexplicably, O’Rourke then tacked away, leaving Lea to take the right side of the course favoured in the previous beat. O’Rourke sailed into a 'hole' and was several minutes behind by the time he reached the weather mark. Despite desperately working his way back up the fleet, he could do no better than fourth, whilst Lea sailed conservatively to take second, leaving Short to claim the consolation of a last heat victory.

With Lea and O’Rourke equal on points after two drops, victory went to Lea on a countback with two heat wins to nil. Short was one point behind.

Results: first - Wild Child (R Lea, Qld) 17 points; second - Zero (F O’Rourke, NSW) 17 points; third – Slingshot (S Short, Vic) 18 points; fourth - Airpower II (D Skinner, Qld) 21 points; fifth – Angry Ant (G Powell, NSW) 35 points; sixth – Zip (D Bryan, Vic) 38 points; seventh – Bad News (M Rushton, Vic) 42 points; eighth – Firefly (I Champion, Vic) 48 points; ninth – Sirius (K Kay, Vic) 65 points; tenth – Zephyr (W Graham, SA) 82 points.