Club championship at Manly Skiff Club is Down to the Wire
by Adam Lucius 27 Mar 00:20 NZDT
3 Contenders © SailMedia
Cancel any appointments you have for April 5 and make sure you're at the Manly Skiff Club - or watching Sail Media's livestream - for the final club championship heats of the season.
This is one not to be missed. Rarely has there been a tighter contest for the crown going into the last day.
Just one-point separates each of the top three boats - Modern Concept Constructions (12 points), Moonen Yachts (13) and Imagine Signage (14) - leaving it all to play for when races seven and eight are staged on Saturday week.
The intriguing last day permutations have been made possible after defending champions Imagine Signage (Nathan Wilmot) held on for a thrilling 32-second win over Moonen (Daniel Turner) in Saturday's sixth heat. The Kurt Hansen-skippered MCC was five seconds behind in third and must now hold off both the boats below them if they are to clinch a maiden club championship title.
Hansen said: "It was an extremely close race on Saturday...the lead must have changed on every leg between us, Imagine and Moonen. "All three boats were sailing very well, and it was just a matter of who would slip up first to give the others the lead since there weren't many passing opportunities.
"Eventually we made an error and Imagine pulled away with the win from there. Moonen has good legs downwind and came from behind to pip us on the finish line. "If that race is anything to go by, we are in for one hell of a final weekend of racing between the three of us. "With only two points separation, we can't afford a drop now after our gear breakage the other week. It's going to come right down to the wire."
Incredibly, Turner will make it five titles in six years if Moonen can edge past MCC and keep Imagine at bay.
"Our goal was to have low scoring results, and I took my eye off the points sheet for a while and didn't realise how consistent we have been," he said. "We've put ourselves in with a real good chance. "I think the other two boats will have a game to play - a strategic agenda if you like - on the last day, but we're just going to go out and sail."
After a bumpy start to the club championship campaign, Imagine has racked up two firsts and a second over the last three heats to roar back into contention in what could be the team's final 16s campaign.
"It's going to be a lot of fun in two weeks' time. Whoever wins the day is most likely winning the champs. For us, we will battle away and try to enjoy it," Wilmot said. "With it looking like there will be no new boats next year, we don't know if we will be sailing 16s again so we will be trying to go out on top."
Red Pumps Red (Zoe Dransfield) look certainties to take out the handicap division, holding a 12-point advantage over second-placed Red Pumps (Tyler Dransfield).
In the 13s, Harken (Heidi Bates/Orlando Sadlik) recorded a fourth win from six heats on Saturday to maintain a vice-like grip on the club championship title. The pair will be officially declared overall winners for the second year running after the final heat is sailed on April 5.