by Vanessa Dudley
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.”
Audi Victoria Week
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