International 14 World Championship at Geelong, Australia

International 14 World Championship at Geelong, Australia - Day 4

by Tracey Johnstone 12 Jan 2015 08:42 GMT 3-17 January 2015

Day 4 of the International 14 Worlds in Geelong © Christophe Favreau / www.christophefavreau.com

Aussies fight hard to unseat Brits

Australian skippers Brad Devine and Lindsay Irwin did their best to upset the dominance of the British today fighting them with vengeance in Race 4 of the International 14 World Championships being hosted by Royal Geelong Yacht Club.

They put the pressure on series leaders Glen Truswell and Sam Pascoe to ensure the British team's win didn't come easily. It's been hard to fault that team's performance. Even after choosing to re-start the race to avoid an OCS, they quickly grabbed the lead by the first mark and then never let go.

In second over the line was Devine and crew Ian Furlong, who was also a nervous starter thinking, like Truswell, they were over early. Once off the line they followed the fast German team of Goerg Borkenstein and Eike Dietrich around the course until one poor tactical decision by the German's gave Devine the opening to power through into second.

Irwin was just so close to taking third place, but the disappointed skipper admitted it was tough racing. "These guys are really, really good. You don't have to do very much wrong to get wrong-footed. We're still pretty happy with our fifth," Irwin said.

Third over the line was instead taken out by Ben McGrane and James Hughes (GBR). Geelong turned on stunning race conditions on Corio Bay for the 67-boat fleet with a sweet 10 to 12 knot south-easterly and gentle chop making for fast legs.

After an hour's delay as the breeze finally built and settled in, the committee boat end of the start line was jam packed with anxious pointscore leading boats.

Luckily Truswell was at the starboard end so he went back around, just in case. "I believed we were over the line. I was trying to positon the boat and doing a really bad job of it and Sam was absolutely convinced we were over and I had nothing to believe we weren't," Truswell said.

Devine said McGrane, who was to leeward of him, was panicking a bit on the start and so was Devine. "We thought we might have been close. We checked with the finish boat at the end of race to make sure we were clear, which we were. That was a huge relief," Devine said.

Truswell got around the committee boat really quickly and then headed right. "We got a clear lane. There were no boats in it and our boat did its magic. We found a huge amount of speed.

"It was a shifty beat, but we got the better of the shifts. We were nigh on amazed when we got to the windward mark first," Truswell said.

Day 4 of the International 14 Worlds in Geelong - photo © Christophe Favreau / www.christophefavreau.com

Close on Truswell's stern at the first mark was Borkenstein. They had a strong start and were very pleased to be in second place early in the race and keeping Truswell on his toes. "We had a good downwind triangle, but we started to lose a few boats due to weed on our rudder. Our boat is an older design while the other teams are smarter and quicker," Borkenstein said.

It was a tactical decision on the second upwind leg that cost them their second place. There was a big shift, where Truswell went left. They tacked away and lost touch with Devine who was behind them in third place.

It wasn't only poor tactical decisions that caused upsets today. There was a significant amount of weed on the course, far more than any other race day. Truswell stopped several times each leg to clear the weed from this rudder.

Defending World Champion Archie Massey must have been saying to himself, if only. He was buried on the start line, fought back from sixth around the first mark to fifth at the bottom mark first time, however was then forced to take a costly penalty. "Brad Devine caused the whole thing," Irwin said.

Day 4 of the International 14 Worlds in Geelong - photo © Christophe Favreau / www.christophefavreau.com

"Brad decided at the leeward to clean his foils so he parked his boat fair and square on the rhumb line and started cleaning the weed off. So we came around behind him. We put our bow down around him. Archie came around behind us and put his bow inside us. As we came around Brad we came up on the wind and windward boat got touched. So we asked him nicely to do a 360 and he obliged us," Irwin said.

Finally, by the finish Massey had clawed his way back up the fleet to finish in fourth place. For Irwin, a stunning display of speed earlier in the afternoon turned sour late in the race. "We were third at the last leeward mark, but then we dropped two places on the last beat. It might have been because of a combination of weeds and tactics," Irwin said after finally finishing in fifth place.

Truswell was complimentary of the Devine's attempt to unseat him from first place. "Brad (Devine) was right up there with us. He kept making inroads on us and then we squeaked them back out again. He was travelling really well today," Truswell said.

Britain's Glen Truswell holds out Australia's Brad Devine to take another race win on day 4 of the International 14 Worlds in Geelong - photo © Rhenny Cunningham / Sailing Shots

After four races the top three overall places remain in the hands of the British with Truswell/Pascoe in first place on five points, McGrane/Hughes in second place on nine points and Massey/Hillary in third place on 16 points. In fourth place overall is Devine/Furlong with 18 points and in fifth place is Andy and Tom Partington with 27 points.

On the Australian Championship pointscore, Devine retains first place with five points ahead of Irwin in second with nine points.

Three races remain in the seven-race regatta. One drop is allowed after the fifth race which is scheduled to start at 2pm tomorrow.

Results after Day 4: (four races)

Pos	Nat	Sail No	Boat Name	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1	GBR	1543	CRUMPET	Glen Truswell	Sam Pascoe	CCSC	1	2	1	1	5
2	GBR	1517	POPPET	Ben McGrane	James Hughes	NSC	3	1	2	3	9
3	GBR	1519	ZHIK CST	Archie Massey	Harvey Hillary	ISC	2	5	5	4	16
4	AUS	661	DEL BOCA VISTA	Brad Devine	Ian Furlong	WA	6	3	7	2	18
5	GBR	1550	PENGUIN JUICE	Andy Partington	Tom Partington	HISC	4	6	4	13	27
6	AUS	663	RONSTAN/IRWINSAILS	Lindsay Irwin	Andrew Perry	BRYC	14	4	6	5	29
7	GBR	1527	TBC	Richard Bone	Chris Rodway	BBSC	9	8	3	14	34
8	GBR	1520	ROBOROWSKI	Katie Nurton	Nigel Ash	ISC	5	11	13	17	46
9	AUS	659	WEMBLEY PLUMBING	Stuart Sloss	Ben Lawrie	PDSC	22	9	9	7	47
10	GBR	1530	SMASH IT	Andy Fitzgerald	Richard Dobson	ISC	10	7	23	8	48
11	AUS	666	EL DIABLO	David Hayter	Trent Neighbour	RQYS	7	19	8	15	49
12	AUS	656	TOO LATE TO STOP NOW	Mark Krstic	Cameron Mc Donald	BRYC	8	13	18	11	50
13	GER	28	JUST IN TIME	Georg Borkenstein	Eike Dietrich	WSCW	13	23	12	6	54
14	AUS	652	FLAUNT IT 652	Ron Scherwinski	James Lanati	BRYC	17	12	14	12	55
15	AUS	645	DIRTIEST SANCHEZ	Scott Cunningham	Dave Parker	MCCRAE	23	10	10	18	61
16	AUS	670	STEALTH	David Lugg	Dave Bramley	WA	20	20	19	10	69
17	AUS	637	DEVINE INTERVENTION	Graeme Everett	Andrew Wilson	WA	31	22	20	9	82
18	AUS	657	DO YOU GET IT YET	Roger Blasse	Andrew Gilligan	BRYC	33	17	11	21	82
19	AUS	644	RON JEREMY	Chris Vaughan	Matt Balmer	SYC	26	18	16	23	83
20	USA	1187	MORNINGSTAR	Terence Gleeson	Evan Sjostedt	SWYC	11	24	28	25	88
21	CAN	619	ISLAND GIRL	Dan Cunningham	Ian Struthers	RCYC	12	34	27	24	97
22	AUS	647	QUICKSHIFT	Cameron Elliott	Sam Batt	PDSC	25	21	22	30	98
23	AUS	662	CARBON COMET II	Luke Devine	Eike Ehrig	PDSC	21	32	26	26	105
24	AUS	642	READ BTW THE LINES	Adam Syme	Daniel Farthing	SYC	36	16	31	27	110
25	GBR	1548	BEAST II	Julian Pearson	David Edge	WSC	15	15	68F	16	114
26	AUS	649	GIVIN IT SOME GRUNT	Greg Coutts	Jason Close	BRYC	29	36	25	28	118
27	AUS	673	ZERO	Tony Carr	Scott Cole	PDSC	16	14	21	68O	119
28	AUS	674	ARGO XVII	Ben Austin	Peter Nicholson	RGYC	30	45	15	35	125
29	AUS	639	REACTOR	Ian Arber	Drew Farrar	PDSC	38	30	30	31	129
30	AUS	672	GILL CST	Dave Alexander	Dan Wilsdon	ASC	68U	26	17	20	131
31	GBR	1531	EAGLE 2	Andrew Penman	Chris Watson	ISC	24	40	32	41	137
32	GBR	1546	HARTLAND SHIPPING	Charles Duchesne	Tom Bracewell	ISC	41	28	50	19	138
33	AUS	631	VENTURA	Steve Vance	Blake Vance	PDSC	43	35	24	39	141
34	AUS	651	DRONGOLAYO	Cameron Dale	Adam Evans	SYC	27	44	34	36	141
35	AUS	671	CRAZY HORSE	Anthony Anderson	Mike Mcdonald	MCCRAEYC	68U	25	29	22	144
36	USA	1177	LUCKY DOG	Ron Boehm	John Gilmour	SBYC	28	37	37	42	144
37	AUS	638	PHR	Ben Strong	James Patterson	SYC	49	29	39	33	150
38	CAN	616	SABOTAGE	Lauren Laventure	Jason Lemieux	RCYC	18	47	42	44	151
39	USA	1162	ERIS	Chris Rutz	Michael Radziejowski	RYC	19	54	41	38	152
40	GER	218	TOURISTEN EXPRESS	Bjoern Frasch	Oliver Peter	SVW	32	27	68F	29	156
41	AUS	655	PINK BITZ	Nigel Smith	Dane Stead	PDSC	48	33	36	48	165
42	AUS	654	SHARK BAIT	Tim Vance	Greg Vance	WA	44	41	35	45	165
43	AUS	627	DEEP PURPLE	Phil Vance	Andrew Vance	PDSC	35	31	68F	34	168
44	USA	1186	ATOMIC PUNK	Kirk Twardowski	Michael Lazzaro	RYC	39	38	45	51	173
45	GBR	1529	PINK FLESH	Robin Pascal	Martin Pascal	ISC	56	48	38	32	174
46	AUS	668	RUMBALLS	Scott Davis	Daniel Vaughan	BRYC	52	46	33	47	178
47	AUS	660	REPEAT OFFENDER	Stephen Edmunds	Tom Edmunds	SYC	40	53	44	43	180
48	AUS	648	ZULU	Sam Duncan	John Warren	SYC	45	43	40	52	180
49	AUS	667	PTG	Phillip Tomamichel	Geoffrey Tomamichel	BRYC	37	39	68F	37	181
50	AUS	653	MONKEY WRENCH	Brec Mitton	Peter Knispel	ASC	42	42	68F	46	198
51	AUS	628	DONKEY ON THE EDGE	Philip Strong	Jeffre Klemm	SYC	62	50	47	40	199
52	AUS	235	JOANNE	Ian Cunningham	David Cunningham	MCCYC	34	51	68F	55	208
53	GER	13	IDEFIX	Julian Retzlaff	Fabio Pfisterer	WSCW	51	58	46	54	209
54	GBR	1551	NOT YET DEAD	Colin Smith	Imogen Smith	ISC&BBSC	57	52	43	59	211
55	AUS	630	WINDJAMMER	Christian Wangel	Henrik Wangel	ASC	64	56	49	50	219
56	ITA	1488	ELIZABETH	Dominic Van Essen	Simona Saccani	ISC	54	59	48	60	221
57	AUS	669	BACK IN BLACK	Robert Vickery	Arron Vickery	SYC	46	55	68F	53	222
58	AUS	675	BLACK BETTY	David McGeoch	Bridget Mcgeoch	BRYC	50	49	68F	58	225
59	JPN	119	SURIMI	Yasutaka Uto	Satoshi Ishida	ENOSHIMA	60	57	51	57	225
60	AUS	658	BEACHED AZ	Jason Dixon	Pat Agar	ASC	55	68F	68F	49	240
61	AUS	609	DEATHWISH	Marcel Bucek	Scott Curtis	RGYC	58	60	68F	56	242
62	AUS	605	POWERED BY RUM	Brian Long	Frederic Papon	BRYC	53	62	68F	62	245
63	AUS	664	HOBO	Wayne Frankcombe	Marcus Korobacz	SYC	47	68F	68S	68F	251
64	AUS	601	WALKING ON WATER	Richard Thomas	Luke Thomas	PDSC	61	63	68F	61	253
65	AUS	345	TBD	Takashi Furugaki	Kenichi Hagiwara	ENOSHIMA	65	61	68F	63	257
66	AUS	646	FLAUNT IT	John Taylor	Martyn Tribe	BRYC	59	68F	68S	64	259
67	AUS	665	ARGO XVI	David Lorimer	Freya Vickery	SYC	63	68F	68F	68C	267