Sussex Inlet lads win Australian Timpenny championship

by Rob Milner on 22 Mar 2010 After a couple of years of coming a close second Greg Brown and Craig Davidson have just won the Australian Timpenny Trailable titles held at Gippsland Lakes Yacht Club.

After frustrating second place finishes at Sussex Inlet in 2008 and Blairgowrie Port Phillip Bay in 2009, Brown and Davidson encountered extreme winds to win the Gippsland Lakes championship aboard ‘Fly Navy Too,' finishing ahead of Aron Gavin and Loughie Pearman in ‘Navanna Again' and 'Uome' Doug Carswell and Rowan Gillies. 'Navanna Again' was T boned by a 770 class in race four in a classic port and starboard incident and after the protest, gain reinstatement points.

In the 2010 series in what Brown described as the worst conditions he had encountered in twelve years of sailing competitions it was tough job to get to the finish in first place.

In the final race in 30 knot plus winds Brown had an unexpected dip as he explained ', but fortunately my crew and son in law remained on board and managed to turn the boat around quickly and pick me up. '

Only four boats were able to finish in the final after the inclement weather caused serious damage to many vessels, including a number of crashes.

Brown was quietly confident he could do well in 2010. 'We had a fairly experienced crew so I expected to do better this time around,' Brown said.

Due to the close wave sets Brown had to change his tactics to suit the conditions by going for boat speed that than pointing height and to avoid losing control as much as possible.

After cruising the Gippsland Lakes for a week Brown with wife Ronda entered the Marlay Point race, only to find even rougher conditions with the extra difficulty of night sailing.

'That was certainly an interesting experience, the overnight racing!' he said.

'There were thunderstorms, wind, and rain but fortunately after the initial rain squall the wind lightened. During the night the wind would change direction many times freshening and then dying.

The wind came from every direction around the compass. 'It was a great experience though.'

Brown finished fourth over the line and 17th on handicap in Division A despite carrying cruising and bedding paraphernalia.

Timpenny National Titles 2010

Aggregate Results
(Ties: S=Score R=Race B= Bettered. Penalties: A=ARB B=BFD C=DNC D=DNE E=ESP F=DNF G=RDG L=Late Entrant M=DGM N=ENP O=OCS P=Protest Q=DSQ R=RAF S=DNS U=DUT V=AVG X=EXC Z=ZFP Y=SCP #=NoData [x.y]=Discarded)

Series Results [Mixed Class YS] up to Race 4 (Drops = 1)

Place Ties Sail No Boat Name Class Skipper Sers Score Race 4 Race 3 Race 2 Race 1
1 777 Fly navy too Timpenny 670 Greg Brown 3.0 1.0 [2.0] 1.0 1.0
2 1733 Nevanna again Timpenny 670 Aron Gavin 7.0 2.0G [6.0] 2.0 3.0
3 3038 Uome Timpenny 670 Rowan Gillies 9.0 3.0 4.0 [14.0F] 2.0
4 3021 Scorpio Timpenny 770 SK Gerry Van Maanen 11.0 2.0 5.0 4.0 [7.0]
5 3590 Serendipity Timpenny 670 Tim Finlayson 14.0 [14.0F] 3.0 3.0 8.0
6 3041 Aussie Action Timpenny 670 Rob Milner 16.0 [14.0F] 1.0 6.0 9.0
7 30 Ricochet Timpenny 770 SK Colin Wake 25.0 14.0F [14.0S] 7.0 4.0
8 4085 Sparkling Burgundy Timpenny 770 DK Trevor Turnbull 29.0 [14.0F] 7.0 9.0 13.0
9 5.0S 3083 Poseidon Timpenny 670 Peter Legge 30.0 14.0C [14.0S] 5.0 11.0
10 3022 Just for Fun Timpenny 770 SK Roger Plowman 30.0 14.0C [14.0S] 10.0 6.0
11 10 Sedikat Timpenny670Ns Ian Rice 33.0 14.0C 14.0S [14.0F] 5.0
12 84 Two up Timpenny 670 Paul Garrard 34.0 14.0C [14.0C] 8.0 12.0