by Di Pearson
David Collins and his Flying Circus crew from Geelong clinched their third successive S80 win at Audi Victoria Week today by the skin of their teeth after finishing the series on equal 13 points with Keith Chatto’s Mood Indigo from Melbourne.
A change to the Sailing Instructions meant the S80 Series, hosted by the Royal Geelong Yacht Club, where Collins is a member and his dad and crew member Don, a Past Commodore, was shortened to five races.
“It was pretty tough and competitive all week and today especially, as it was very fluky in the first race, but we clawed our way back in and won,” said Collins of the windward/leeward Race 4 sailed on Corio Bay.
“In the second race we got a reasonable start and stayed with the leaders, but were unable to pass them, but it was just enough at the end of the day to give us the Series.”
This is the third successive S80 series win at Audi Victoria Week for Collins and his dad. “We won it easily last year, but this year was a lot more difficult. The racing was very close every day,” said Collins who admitted that “local knowledge helped a fraction.”
The S80’s contested two windward/leeward races on Corio Bay’s inner harbour today in shifty sea breezes that continued to clock right throughout the day. In the earlier Race 4, it was a sloppy south-easterly of 4-6 knots that eventually went to the south and increased in strength to 10-12 knots.
The S80 Series was an all-Victorian affair in which Mood Indigo finished second on a countback and yesterday’s leader, Escape, owned by Anthony Beck, finished third overall following fifth and second placings today.
Audi Victoria Week
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