Garde takes two more bullets at 12ft Skiff Australian titles

by Skiff Ed on 3 Apr 2010 Day two of the DB Schenker 12ft skiff Australian titles was intense. With two races scheduled for the day and the notorious Brisbane short sharp chop coming into its own because of the increasing wind, all crews except for one decided to use their third rigs.

The first race began in 15-18 knots of fairly consistent pressure. With the same left hand shift from yesterday making it's presence felt, the fleet tacked onto port quite early. From the outset, the wider woof hulls relished in the conditions shooting to the front of the fleet. Again, it was the usual suspects who reached the short top mark first, with Garde (Brett Hobson, Alex Johnson) edging out Dimension Polyant (Ken Sal, Brad Yabsley) after a tight tacking duel. Andrew Short Marine, who was involved in an altercation on the start line charged through the back fleet coming from last place to almost sixth by the top mark.

The first downwind saw Garde push their boat to the limit, which let them pull away from the pack. Brad Yabsley (Dimension Polyant) broke his stainless steel trapeze ring bearing away at the top mark but pulled out a magic save to stop a capsize. Further back, the condensed fleet rounding the mark in close fashion caused carnage, with two Queensland boats (Ghetto sled, Wingman) capsizing on top of each other pushing themselves out of the top ten.

With the wind swinging further to the left, Gains and losses became hard to find. On the second upwind, Foxy Lady Two (Peter Polec, Jamie Mcrudden) did their part for Clean up Australia, picking up pieces of boat and a tiller extension.

1st Garde
2nd Dimension Polyant
3rd Lincon Crowne
4th Allwood Sails
5th Hey Charger

With the pressure increasing above 20 knots, the second race saw the boats pushing the boats to the limit of their third rigs. The breeze continued its trend of swinging to the left limiting most tactical options.

At the first top mark, Dimension Polyant (Ken Sal, Brad Yabsley) got one on their arch rivals, pipping Garde to the top mark. With a wing mark to deal with, the top boats decided to test their luck by trying to make the shy angle under kite. This proved to be completely impossible every skiff having to drop to make the mark. At the wing mark, Garde rolled Dimension Polyant to capture the lead.

With the breeze shifting even more, the rest of the race turned into a pure boat speed drag race. With almost no changes in positions over the next two laps, the boats began to push harder to get the last out of their skiffs, with Hey Charger (Nick 'Barnyard' Bernard, Robbie 'Bruno' Polelick) nearly colliding with the finish boat.

1st Garde
2nd Dimension Polyant
3rd Lincon Crowne
4th The Wingman
5th Andrew Short marine