10 boats turned out for the Phaedrus Estate, Victorian State Title at McCrae on the weekend.
Race 1 was sailed in a dying northerly leaving a lumpy sea and about 10knots of wind. The first start was hotly contested with all boats pushing hard for a clean start which resulted in a general recall. The next start under a black flag got away cleanly for all but Ron and Alex sailing Last Gasp AUS379. The race was tightly contested all the way around with Brent and Leigh sailing Switch AUS375 claiming first just ahead of Bangers and Lachy, Bonus AUS793 and Stuart and Ben, AUS781 in third.
Race 2 with the wind dying further and the tide starting to have an effect,favoured the left hand side of the course. Once again Brent and Leigh had a great start and lead from start to finish with Bangers and Lachie second. Third was the two World Champion crew's sailing together (is this a sign of things to come?) Nick and Gracey in Siren AUS378.
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Saturday night with the temperature still warm enough for shorts and tee shirts, the club put on a BBQ and we all enjoyed a couple of glasses of Phaedrus Estate wines.
Sunday morning the southerly change came through with 20 knots of breeze for the first two races of the day. Bangers and Lachie were back in their eliment with flat water and heaps of breeze they showed their renowned speed and won races 3 and 4. Second in race 3 was Brent and Leigh, showing they could perform well in the breeze as well as the light stuff, third was Stuart and Ben.
Race 5 gave the fleet a real test, starting in 15 - 20 knots of breeze then slowly dying and throwing some big shifts at everyone. Brent and Leigh made the most of the conditions to get home just ahead of (is this a sign of things to come?) Nick and Gracey, with Bangers and Lachie in third.
Although the top the top placings were dominated by a few boats the racing through the fleet was always close and it was great to see Kelvin and Amy finding some form along with Robbie and Dave who made the trip across from Tassie and have stayed on for a week of training at McCrae. Also good to see Freya back on the water along with Scott Munro and Dave Larimer out for the first time in their charted boat AUS369.
Results at:http://www.mccraeyc.com.au/
Once again a big thanks to Ewan from Phaedrus Estate wines for supporting the B14's again (everyone took home a bottle of his fine product). "NOW GO AND BUY SOME"........http://www.phaedrus.com.au/
DO IT NOW!!!!
Also thanks to the McCrae YC for hosting the B14 fleet.
Laino
AUS779
Ed- So the question is.. is Bangers slow in his new boat? are the new kids on the block simply raising the bar? was Lachie just rubbish? just a couple of weeks until the worlds where all will be revealed!