National Sports Boat Championship - Baptism of Fire

8:22 AM Sat 23 Jan 2010 GMT

It was a baptism of fire for the 22-boat sports boat fleet in today's opening race of the Bundaberg Rum National Sports Boat Championship at Audi Victoria Week. Strong winds and a missing mark on Geelong's Corio Bay resulted in retirements, confusion and then an abandonment and restart.

While the remainder of the sports boat series will consist of short races over windward/leeward courses, today's race was on a longer course around Corio Bay. In a southerly breeze gusting above 20 knots, the fleet was tightly bunched and scattered in all directions to avoid colliding with the Melges 24 What Tha, which got stuck head to wind trying to round the first mark.

There were many broaches as the fleet reached down the Main Channel, and the Thompson 7 Mighty Mouse ended up aground when it strayed into shallow water on the northern side of the channel while the crew struggled to drop the spinnaker.

Worse was to come, however, when the fleet leaders were unable to locate the rounding mark towards the far northern shore.

Line honours favourite Conquistador, Pierre Gal's Sports 8xx from Coffs Harbour NSW, was dismasted while searching for the mark. A disappointed Gal said the boat had recorded a top speed of 21kts and the crew had dropped the spinnaker and were sailing under main and jib when the mast broke.

With no-one able to find the mark, the race committee abandoned the race and the sports boats headed back up the Main Channel for a restart near the Royal Geelong Yacht Club marina. Sail and gear damage and breakages, including at least one rudder, reduced the size of the fleet which set off again, this time over a different course.

Local skipper Cameron Rae took the lead at the first mark in the Thompson 8 Laminar Capital, and was never headed to take line honours by just under three minutes from the Sydney Melges 24 Roger That. The finishing order was reversed on corrected time, with Roger That winning by a margin on one minute 35 seconds. Both boats had also been at the front of the fleet in the earlier abandoned race.

Third on both elapsed and corrected time was Paul Heyes' new Thompson 7 Foam Fast from Mornington in Victoria.

Roger That is a new Melges 24 from Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club in Sydney owned by John Bacon and James Mayjor and skippered by Cameron Miles, a former Etchells world champion. Also onboard is Craig Pocklington.

'We've been sailed the boat for three months now,' Miles said. 'It flies downwind for a small boat, and we've tuned it up and are happy with our upwind speed too. We're having a great time and thinking about doing the next Melges 24 Worlds in Estonia.'

Laminar Flow skipper Cameron Rae said, 'We've been sailing the Thompson 8 for five years now she's just about bulletproof. We like the really light weather or really heavy weather and we're looking forward to the windward/leeward racing for the rest of the series.'

Bundaberg Rum National Sports Boats

Race 1 (23/01/2010) PROVISIONAL RESULTS


Place	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Elapsd	AHC	Cor'd T	Fin Tim	Score
1	AUS762	ROGER THAT	Cameron Miles	RPAYC	01:06:24	0.807	53:35	14:41:24	1.0
2	G108	LAMINAR CAPITAL	Cam Rae	RGYC	01:02:28	0.883	55:10	14:37:28	2.0
3	7022	FOAMFAST	Paul Heyes	MYC	01:08:24	0.823	56:18	14:43:24	3.0
4	AUS709	WHAT THA	Heath Townsend	GBYC	01:14:03	0.807	59:46	14:49:03	4.0
5	5000	RESIN DOG	Sam Edmunds	PDYC	01:10:10	0.855	01:00:00	14:45:10	5.0
6	13S	SHAW CONTRACTING	David Shepherd	PDYC	01:13:48	0.827	01:01:02	14:48:48	6.0
7	599	MUSTARD CUTTER	Scott Creedon	MYC	01:10:47	0.868	01:01:26	14:45:47	7.0
8	AUS710	VITESSE	David Farrimond	RGYC	01:17:59	0.807	01:02:56	14:52:59	8.0
9	YC245	GAME OVER	Julian Newton	CYCSA	01:11:36	0.899	01:04:22	14:46:36	9.0
10	R155	DEATH BY SNOO SNOO	Tom Klestadt	RYCV	01:24:50	0.771	01:05:24	14:59:50	10.0
11	R780	ASTROBOY	Anthony Kopp	RYCV	01:23:31	0.806	01:07:19	14:58:31	11.0
12	CK50	NQW	James Heywood	MYC	01:22:05	0.825	01:07:43	14:57:05	12.0
13	7009	PURE BLONDE	Mike Widdowson	PDYC	01:22:31	0.831	01:08:34	14:57:31	13.0
14	6401	FANG TO THE MAX	Fred Barrett	DSS	02:00:57	0.797	01:36:24	15:35:57	14.0
DNC	105	CONQUISTADOR	Pierre Gal	CHYC		0.927			22.0
DNC	7018	JUST QUIETLY	Chris Booton	RYCV		0.828			22.0
DNC	7019	MIGHTY MOUSE	John Arnold	RYCV		0.826			22.0
DNC	7021	RONSTAN/RAY WHITE	Greg ScHerwinski	RBYC		0.829			22.0
DNC	AUS742	NO COMMENT	Shaun Collins	RPAYC		0.807			22.0
DNC	B5747	THE WORKS	Chris Bland	RBYC		0.817			22.0
DNC	SM5652	MASSIVE RUSH	Tim Smith	SM		0.834			22.0