Gemmell Sails wins 74th Australian 12ft Skiff Championships

by Skiff Ed on 14 Apr 2009 Gemmell Sails, Murray Press and Ben Gemmell, wrapped up the Australian Championships on Monday 13th April. It was a nervous day for the crew, in testing conditions they pulled off a third place enough to seal the championship from O and Yabba Dabba, who failed to finish in the top eight.

Heat six got underway in a light southerly, the Harken skiff of James Francis and Brad Phillips played the shifts perfectly on the first windward beat to round the top mark in first place.

They were closely followed by a group of skiffs including Queenslanders Juice To Go (Richard Billet and Tim Willis), Andrew Short Marine (Micheal Spies and Damien Vlotman) and Geotherm (Andrew Chapman and Ali Chapman).

Gemmell Sails round in 10th place, with O, Yabba Dabba and Garde towards the back end of the fleet.

Three skiffs opted to head to the Taylors Bay side of the course on the downwind leg including, Andrew Short Marine, CST (Tony Hannan and David Cleworth) and Gemmell Sails. The move paid greatly for all, Andrew Short Marine leading at the bottom mark from CST then Gemmell Sails in third. The downwind lead was not so kind to Harken, who found themselves back in eighth place.

Gizmo (Michael Bochoner and Tim Barraclough) moved into fourth place on the second work, recovering well from an ordinary start. They poked their nose just in front of Juice To Go and Sirromet (Jakub Ronowicz and Peter Valpiani) at the top mark.

Geotherm had a capsize trying to round Bradleys Head on the run to the finish in Athol Bay, and saw them fall out of the top placings.

Andrew Short Marine went on to win the shortened race, CST Composites finished second, and with Gemmell Sails coming in third they remained at the top of the championship scoreboard. Yabba Dabba crossed the line in eight and O in tenth.

Gemmell Sails were crowned the 74th Australian Champions after the rescheduled heat three was abandoned.

O finished second in the championship, with Yabba Dabba coming home third overall and Andrew Short Marine fourth.

The win is a great credit to Gemmell Sails, who showed true skill and speed throughout the entire weekend. It is a well deserved victory for the crew who has been sailing together for five years and has been so close to winning the Championship on many occasions.

Overall handicap honours went to Vantage Real Estate (Jack Winning and Brett Phillips), who wrapped up the title after winning heat six. Hey Charger (Nick Bernard and Robbie Polec) took out second place.

Full results can be found at www.skiff.org.au