Gemmill Homes Australian Flying Fifteen Championship at Esperance - Day 2

Downwind on day 2 of the Australian Flying Fifteen Championship © Jonny Fullerton

The Jerwoods fast reaching on day 2 of the Australian Flying Fifteen Championship © Jonny Fullerton

A masterclass by the Jerwoods but a new race winner

Day 2 of the 2017 Gemmill Homes Flying Fifteen Australian Championships and Esperance delivered a superb warm day with cloudless skies and a very agreeable breeze ranging from 10 - 15 knots all afternoon to allow for three races to bring the regatta back on schedule.

PRO John Taylor (JT) set a short course using a new combination of sau-sage, sausage and triangle to finish on a fast reach. The familiar site of the blue kite of Nick & Janet Jerwood (Ineffable) popped up for the first downwind with another blue kite just behind. This time it was Greg Tonnison & Mark Lovelady (Spot the Difference) who were the chasers with another new face in the front pack, Ashley Smith & Adam Kingston (Ffast Lane) from Queensland.

On lap 3, the final triangle, the chance of an upset was on the cards, Tonnison & Lovelady snatched the lead but sure enough by the final reach the Jerwoods superior downwind speed wore them down and the SoPYC team took bullet number two of the championship. Tonnison & Lovelady settled for 2nd and John Wilson & Matt Summers (Ffast Lane 4) a solid 3rd. David Yu & Chris Nelson from RFBYC broke the SoPYC stranglehold with a creditable 4th.

Race 3 and second of the day shortly followed in similar conditions sailing the same course. The breeze did start swinging right causing a few worries for the PRO but held in strength. The Jerwoods rounded lap 1 in the lead but with a new challenger to hunt them in Greg Leaversuch & Peter Barblett (Glamour Buoys) and another new player Chris Paterson & Ed Repsevicius (Storyteller).

As per usual, places 3 - 6 saw a number of changes but Nick & Janet Jerwood were serving up a masterclass extending on every leg to take a third bullet. The bad boys, Levo & Barblett held on to second in a hope that their turbulent regatta form was changing and Paterson & Repsevicius finished on the podium for the first time.

Rounding the top mark on day 2 of the Australian Flying Fifteen Championship - photo © Jonny Fullerton

The predicted increase in wind strength didn't materialise but a slightly longer course was set for the final race of the day. This time the octogenarian class stalwart Nils Blumann sailing with Gary Warman got snagged up with the luckless Glamour Buoys at the pin with both doing turns of shame. The rest got away cleanly but 'shock horror' at the top mark, a blue kite is not the first to show! A new leader David Yu & Chris Nelson sailing Tuffan Up from RFBYC were in front of the Jerwoods. Brits Alan Bax & Simon Childs (Fforever Young) were having a more consistent day in 3rd.

Bax & Childs got in front of the Jerwoods and then relinquished their 2nd place again but Yu & Nelson remained cool headed to keep a couple of boat lengths ahead on the triangle. At last we had a new race winner but second place was still undecided until the last tack. Bax & Childs came to the finish line of starboard forcing the Jerwoods to tack and snatched second on the line. Tim Walker & Alan Sharpe (Ffollow Us) finished an excellent 4th and the ever consistent Wilson & Summers combo 5th.

Alan Bax & Simon Childs (4047) pip the Jerwoods on the line on day 2 of the Australian Flying Fifteen Championship - photo © Jonny Fullerton

David comments on their first bullet of the regatta:
"We had exactly the start that we wanted and that was really the story of the race, we hit the side we wanted to go and after that it was just a matter of sailing a bit conservatively and making sure we stayed ahead of the Jerwoods but the start was the real key."

On what seems to be making the difference in their performance Chris adds:
"We have sailed here before but we have been working on our mid range which was the key for us, we just wanted to get a bit quicker in that range of breeze and we feel like we have done that."

So after day 2 of the regatta Nick & Janet Jerwood have a well deserved commanding lead but the next 5-6 places remain tight especially when a discard comes into play after 5 races are sailed.

With a similar forecast tomorrow, three more races are planned starting from 1100hrs (local time) before a heat wave is expected coming down the coast from Perth where day time temperatures have been in the 40's today. So the heat is on for the penultimate day of the regatta.

Results after Day 2:

There is a full schedule of social events for friends and families. More details are available from www.ebyc.com.au and www.ffiwa.com and the Facebook page, www.facebook.com/FFIWA

The organising authority of the 2017 Gemmill Homes Flying Fifteen 55th Australian National Championship is Esperance Bay Yacht Club (Inc), in conjunction with Flying Fifteen International Australia (Inc).

Sponsors include Gemmill Homes, Westpac Agribusiness, Cliffs, South Coast Insurance Brokers, Southern Ports Authority, Brahma, Ferngrove and Southeast Petroleum.