Nash Advisory VX One Australian Nationals at Royal Brighton Yacht Club - Day 2
by Nic Douglass 16 Jan 02:36 PST
15-18 January 2024
Nash Advisory VX One Australian Nationals Day 2 © Andrew Snell for @sailorgirlHQ
Day two of the Nash Advisory VX One Nationals was sailed in a seriously tricky and blustery northerly breeze.
The crew of AUS332 Mack One, skippered by Ben Franklin, again showed their dominance early with two wins in races four and five of the series.
AUS355 Beta Blvd took the win in the third and final race of the day after battles with AUS330 Pipeline Drillers and AUS352 The Beast 5 on the final downwind.
"A bit of fun, a lot of good luck, and a good team", said Greg Hall, skipper of Beta Blvd. "Some good gybes, good tacks, good beats. We were tired of sailing on headers, so we decided to sail on lifts, and that actually worked. Also just sailing for better pressure."
Based on his win today, Hall's team had a bit to say also. "I've just been told we've got to be top five each race, and I have to have better starts", so we will see how they progress tomorrow.
Race five started in a building northerly breeze with the course set at 340 degrees. A clean start soon split to each side of the course with some opting to seek the shoreline for the land effect.
Race six was shifted further into Port Phillip to make the most of the building breeze across the bay. With less land effect, the course was more even, and the left paid a lot of dividends.
Race seven saw the right hand side paying the first work, which again mixed it up given the left hand favour of race six.
The top of the table is starting to look set, however positions three through eight are within 12 points, so there is potentially a lot of movement with up to four races remaining in the series.
Today's racing was sponsored by "Sail to Win", Brett Bowden's book which he wrote to help himself, and other mid-fleeters, close the gap on those who seem to consistently win. We look forward to supporting our whole fleet in the racing tomorrow.
Full results can be found here.
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