Big rigs mistake helps Jackson Electrical take NZ 18ft skiff title
by 18ft Skiff Association on 13 Dec 2009
Jackson Electrical in full flight Greg Fenwick
Jackson Electrical sailed by Chris Skinner, Luke Gower and Dave Healy are the 2009 NZ 18ft skiff Champions following a consistent series in difficult conditions, in which they won half the races and didn't finish outside the top three in any races.
Day 1 greeted the fleet with a light breeze which was forecast to build. This saw the fleet split in their choice for the #1 or #2 rig. The forecast came true and by midway through the second race the breeze had picked up to 30-35knots. With the teams carrying #1 rigs all retiring in the first race and a number of gear failures thorughout the fleet, only two teams finished each of the first two races. Jackson Electrical comfortably picked up the two wins with Maersk (Graeme Catley) coming in second for each race.
After the lunch break the teams all had the smaller gear for the long harbour course in 18-22knots. Defending champions JF Hillebrand sailed a consistant to win the race 3 in which a number of teams went swimming, ahead of Jackson Electrical and Yamaha (Scott Kennedy).
The teams arrived on day two to a light westerly breeze and naturally all rigged with the #1 rigs. But with the wind increasing most teams elected to change to the #2 rig, leaving only Jackson Electrical and JF Hillebrand racing witht the big rig. Three races were scheduled back-to-back so all crews were committed to their rig selection. The decision to change to the smaller rig paid dividends in race 4, which was sailed in 20-22knots with Yamaha narrowly edging out CT Sailbattens (Alex Vallings) after the two teams traded positions mulitple times. Jackson Electrical managed to recover from capsizing at the start to finish third.
In race 5 the wind started to become a little more patchy with some lulls of 15 knots appearing in the course and Jackson Electrical utilised their bigger rig to take the victory after a long battle with CT Sailbattens and the fast finishing Yamaha.
With the series already sown up Jackson Electrical looked to be in fine form in the first lap of the final race. At this point they were the only team with the #1 rig as JF Hillebrand had elected to miss race 5 inorder to make a rig change. The second lap had the added variable of a container ship going through the middle of the course. Jackson Electrical was the only team to cross the bow of the ship, however JF Hillebrands move to tack early and sail up the left side of the harbour saw them lead at the next mark. JF Hillebrand then sailed a strong final beat to windward to take the win and Yamaha made some great tactical decisions to pass Jaskson Electrical just before the finish. This proved to be critical as Yamaha took second overall on countback, ahead of Maersk.
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