Rex Gorell Prestige Etchells Australian Championship- Barry on a roll

by Etchells Australian Championship Media on 13 Jan 2011 The Rex Gorell Prestige Etchells Australian Championship is being sailed from the Royal Geelong Yacht Club. Three races have been completed in the scheduled nine race series.

This morning the fleet was held ashore under AP for three and a half hours as driving rain caused low visibility out on Corio Bay.

The rain seemed relentless, but eventually eased and the visibility improved. The fleet left the dock at around 14:30 sailing out past the shipping channel in the Bay, in an attempt to complete at least one race.

In ten to twelve knots of building breeze, the Race Committee set the course at 0.85, with a leg length of 1.95 nautical miles, on the western side of the Channel, near the refinery.

Race 4 of the Rex Gorell Prestige Etchells Australian Championship got underway at 15:30, in misty rain. After multiple cups of coffee at the Royal Geelong Yacht Club during the morning's delay there may well have been a few hyped up skippers, but the fleet gifted PRO Greg Sinclair a clean start.

At the top mark Damien King (Barry) led into the mist just ahead of Bruce McBriar (Fast Forward). And then there was chaos.

At the bottom mark, King continued to lead the fleet and rounded the left mark ahead of Gary Boyd (B Squared) and McBriar. Tom Braidwood followed (Bad Doll), then Andrew Telford (Never Enough) chose the right mark, as did Graeme Taylor (Magpie). Peter Merrington (Odyssey) chose the left and rounded seventh.

At the top mark for the second time Damien King, Simon Cunnington, Andy Butler and James Weare, the Barry team, were comfortably ahead. The Boyd Brothers on B Squared were second, ahead of Bruce McBriar's Fast Forward. Tom Braidwood and his Bad Doll team, elegant in pink, were fourth ahead of Dave Clark's Fifteen. Next was Graeme Taylor. John Bertrand (Triad) was 12th ahead of Mark Thornburrow (Racer X 923).

The wind lifted to 15 knots, then 17, providing another surfing run for the Etchells fleet.

The Barry team extended down the run to take the gun. Gary Boyd was second (B Squared), Bruce McBriar (Fast Forward) was third, Tom Braidwood (Bad Doll) fourth, Dave Clark (Fifteen) fifth, Graeme Taylor (Magpie) sixth with Peter Merrington (Odyssey) seventh. Noel Drennan (Jack's Hut) made an appearance in the top ten, finishing eighth in today's race. John Bertrand (Triad) and Andrew Telford (Never Enough) completed the ten.

With four races completed, the series is now valid. If five or more races are completed the drop will come into play.

Team Barry Skipper Damien King was smiling dockside. ‘We are really pleased with our two wins from the last two races.

‘We decided on the way in, yesterday and today was probably the best sailing we’ve done together as a team – ten years of it and we are finally getting it right!’

Andy Butler (Barry tactician) agreed. ‘We seem to be getting it right at last. We’ve been stringing together some decent results, second at the Melbourne Worlds and third in Ireland. On the local scene we won the 2009 Mid-Winters, and we were second at the last Australian titles.

‘It was an interesting race today. We started late in the middle, got pushed right early, we did not a plan to do it that way necessarily and it was patchy, so we just went with the pressure.

‘We focused on a little pressure line on the right, we were pretty patient and got it, followed it for quite a while, then found another on the left.

‘We came into the top mark on port and squeezed around first, and we extended from there.

‘Down the run we kept in pressure, we gybed onto port about a third of the way down.

‘We headed right from the bottom mark and did well again. We had good boat speed and we managed the fleet from there.

‘Looking forward to getting our fifth race in, to drop that noose from our first race - third last.’

B Squared Gary Boyd, John Boyd and Dean Blatchford (Lake Macquarie).

Gary Boyd (B Squared) commented ‘We started mid-right with good pace. We were neck and neck with the Barry boys on the right, we stayed out and came in on the starboard lay and were second around the top mark.

‘It was a very even beat so a lot of boats arrived at the top mark together and we could hear a lot of shouting behind us.

‘We rounded the bottom mark second, we got an early tack in, Barry covered us from there but we managed to keep Bruce McBriar’s Fast Forward at bay.’

Commenting on his regatta to date Boyd said ‘We’ve had some up and down results; we were wishing the Race Committee would count the Invitation race, which we won.

'But it’s been good racing, a bit lumpier than Lake Macquarie though.’

The Rex Gorell Prestige Etchells Australian Championship 2011 Overall Series leader after 4 races is John Bertrand's Triad on 37 points, ahead of Brad Sheridan (US Forces 1223) on 38 points, then Ian Johnson (Bananas in Pyjamas) on 39 points with Gary Boyd (B Squared) and Graeme Taylor (Magpie) both on 41 points.

Results at www. http://www.etchells.org.au/nationals/