Sail Brisbane at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron Overall
by Suellen Hurling 2 Dec 2008 06:54 GMT
27-30 November 2008
The four days of racing for Sail Brisbane 2009 saw an array of conditions for the 143 entrants. Competing on the waters of both Waterloo and Moreton Bays from host club Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron the competitors dealt with torrential rain, freak afternoon storms with winds reaching 35 knots and shifty westerly winds varying from 0 to 6 knots. Sunday afternoon did see some relief with a consistent North/East sea breeze finalising the racing for this year’s regatta.
Most of the competitors will now travel to Sydney and then onto
Melbourne for the additional Sail Down Under Series regattas organised
by Yachting Australia.
The International Laser sailors who arrived in Brisbane just five days
ago said that Sail Brisbane was a fantastic training regatta prior to
the other events.
“Sail Brisbane has provided us excellent training before the next event.
It gives us an advantage over others before Sydney,” said Matias Del
Solar of Chile. Del Solar finished second in the Laser Standard fleet
behind Matt Coutts of New Zealand who won the regatta on 12 points.
Gabrielle King from Northern NSW was the clear champion of the Laser
Radial fleet taking out all the divisions she was eligible for. The
current ISAF World Youth Champion finished five points clear of former
Radial Masters World Champion Greg Adams. Adams did play with the idea
of retiring from the regatta after Day 1 however pushed through the pain
to finish in second position.
It came down to the final race in the 420 fleet with Byron White and Jay
Griffin from the CYCA and Sean Ott and Adam Lahey of Southport Yacht
Club finishing on equal points. After count back it was White and
Griffin who took the gold medal in the competitive fleet.
Andrew Torpelund from Far North Queensland dominated in the Laser 4.7
fleet winning seven of the 10 races. Torpelund finished ten points
clear of Laser 4.7 newcomer Ella Evans.
The SB3 fleet raced their Queensland Championship in conjunction with
Sail Brisbane with Warwick Heath taking his four-up crew to eventual
victory. The challenging conditions saw mixed results throughout their
regatta. Heath’s crew member Gray Pritchard took the microphone during
the presentation saying the regatta was fantastic with the racing close
and intense.
RQYS sailor Louise Evans was the clear winner in the Optimist fleet
finishing on nine points. It was a battle for second with Charlie Wyatt
taking out the silver medal on count back ahead of Katie Deakin-Sharpe.
The strong Sabot fleet saw the lead change after almost every race
during the regatta. Felix Grech and Matt Graham from NSW finished the
regatta on 15 points apiece, but it was Grech who secured the win and
overall regatta success.
“It was a tough regatta but it was heaps of fun,” said Grech who was
proudly wearing his gold medal after the presentation on Sunday
afternoon. Grech, together with the rest of the Sail Brisbane Sabot
fleet will travel to Airlie Beach to race in their Australia
Championships over the Christmas/New Year period.
Kieran Searle from NSW teamed up with Sam Phillips from RQYS to sail to
victory in the 29er fleet ahead of locals Angus Rankin and James Dahl.
The Hobie 16 fleet joined Sail Brisbane on the third day of racing. The
strong fleet completed 10 races over a two-day period in mixed
conditions. Peter and Juliet Bates claimed the regatta with five wins.
The Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron will host Sail Brisbane in 2009 with
dates to be confirmed.
More information on the event website with full results and more photos.