Southern Cross Constructions wins Race 14 Aust 18 Footers League

by Frank Quealey on 16 Mar 2009
The Southern Cross Constructions crew of Euan Mc Nicol, Trent Barnabas and Aaron Links displayed the type of form which won them the recent Giltinan Championship when they took out Race 14 of the Australian 18 Footers League Club Championship on Sydney Harbour today.

Southern Cross Constructions crossed the finish line 21s ahead of a fast finishing Project Racing (Andy Budgen, James Barker and Matt Mc Govern), with Rag & Famish Hotel (John Harris, Peter Harris and Scott Babbage) on 4s further back in third place.

Yandoo (John Winning) finished fourth, ahead of Smeg (Daniel Phillips) and Kinder Caring Home Nursing (Brett Van Munster).

Gotta Love It 7 (Seve Jarvin) could manage only seventh today but still retains the lead in the championship with only one more race remaining (5 April).

Consistency throughout the season has given Gotta Love It 7 a total of 46.3 points.

Today's winner Southern Cross is second on 59 points, followed by Yandoo (John Winning) on 72, Rag & Famish Hotel 73.9 and Smeg (Daniel Phillips) on 80.3.

A light ENE wind prevailed throughout the race and produced several positional changes at the lead and through the entire fleet.

Southern Cross got a ‘flyer' start and immediately went to the RHS of the course with Gotta Love It 7, Keith Piggin Estate Agents (Peter Morrison) and Thurlow Fisher (Bruce Savage).

The windward (LHS) group was headed by Rag & Famish, Kinder Caring and Panasonic (Jonathan Whitty)

At the Rose Bay windward mark, Rag & Famish led Panasonic by 20s with Southern Cross in third place.

Pure Blonde (Nick Press) was fourth, followed by Kinder Caring, Asko Appliances (Evan Walker), CST Composites (David O'Connor), Gotta Love It 7and Yandoo.

Rag & Famish retained the lead downwind although Southern Cross had edged into second place ahead of Gotta Love It 7 and Panasonic.

The following windward beat produced a battle for the lead in very light air.

Rag & Famish and Southern Cross exchanged the lead off Shark Island before Southern Cross won the battle by 7s at the Rose Bay mark.

Yandoo reveled in these conditions to move into third place just ahead of Panasonic.

Bad luck struck the young Panasonic crew when they broke the top of their mast on the following spinnaker run.

The experience of the Southern Cross crew was clearly on display over the remainder of the course as they covered every move made by the challengers.

Yandoo closed the gap on Rag & Famish and briefly moved into second place on the final windward leg.

To almost everybody's surprise, Project Racing appeared from nowhere to grab second placing with a brilliant finishing burst.

Australian 18 Footers League