Lead changes at Australian Women's Keelboat Regatta on Day 2

8:58 PM Sun 7 Jun 2009 GMT

'Tanya Stanford, Nouannie - Australian Women’s Keelboat Regatta' RYCV

Light winter winds on Melbourne's Port Phillip limited competition to just one race on day two of the 19th Australian Women's Keelboat Regatta, with the overall lead changing in two of the three handicap divisions.

Erin Peters, helming the Adams 10 Top Gun, from the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, still leads the IRC division but has lost top place in the AMS division to Tanya Stanford, skippering the Scampi 30 Nouannie, also from the RYCV.

In the PHS division, the new overall leader is Meridian Passage, skippered by Alison Binks from the host club, the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron at St Kilda.

This morning's race was completed in a light 5-8 knot breeze, but after delaying the start of race four for two hours, race officials were forced to abandoned it when the breeze faded to under 4 knots with only a few of the faster boats around the first windward mark.

After winning both heats yesterday in the premier IRC division, Top Gun placed only fourth in the IRC division race three, fifth in the AMS division and last of the 21 starters in the PHS division.

Salamander III, another Adams 10 skippered by Janet Dean from the RMYS, was the top performer today with a win under IRC and a second under AMS and an eighth under the arbitrary PHS handicaps.

The sole all-Tasmanian crew sailing the Sydney 38 Scarlet Runner, skippered by Hobart yachtswoman Dianne Barkas, has moved into third place overall in the IRC division, again taking line honours and placing second on handicap.

Barkas and her crew sailed an excellent front-of-the-fleet race in a light breeze to take line honours more than six minutes ahead of her nearest rivals and finish a close second on corrected time to Salamander III.

Winds were light and shifty all morning, with the tacticians who picked the final major windshift lifting their boats a top final result.

Among them was Meridian Passage whose crew make a brilliant spinnaker drop at the bottom mark and then layed the finish line on one tack to windward. This gave them a handsome handicap victory and lifted them to first place overall with a consistent scorecard of 3-6-1.

After three races, Meridian Passage is on 10 points in the PHS division, well clear of Just Quietly (Claire Fazakerley, RYCV) on 19 points and Mood Indigo (Sabina Rosser, RMYS) on 23 points.

In the AMS division, Nouanne's win today lifted Tanya Stanford and her crew into the top place in standings on 7 points with a 5-1-1 score, but only one point clear of Erin Peters and her Top Gun crew (placings 1-2-5) and Executive Decision, skippered by Joanne Norbury with a crew of Victorian and Tasmanian women sailors (placings 2-3-3) both on eight points.

Top Gun still is number one boat in the IRC division on six points, but only one point clear of today's winner Salamander III, with Tasmania's Scarlet Runner on 12 points.

In fourth place on 14 points is Mood Indigo, skippered by Sabina Rosser, with 16-year-old Breanna Collins, the youngest among the 150 women, working the foredeck faultlessly to give the S80 a third place today.

Fresher winds are forecast for tomorrow's final day of racing, with RMYS race officers confident to holding the scheduled final two races, with the possibility of a resail of today's abandoned heat four.

After three heats, and two scheduled for tomorrow, the overall leader in the IRC division is still Erin Peters, skippering the Adams 10 Top Gun with 6 points with two wins yesterday and a fourth today.